There was once a patois called Fanagalo, a bastardisation of Zulu, English and Afrikaans languages. Its purpose was to facilitate communication between whites, mine bosses and their black employees – the baas and the so-called natives.
This device helped the white settler minority to communicate with indigenous people, especially in the work environment on the mines.
In contrast, missionaries learned the African languages and even helped to develop African literacy. Whether or not the missionaries developed these languages for proselytising, is a topic for another day.
Alongside Fanagalo, developed another subculture with its own idiom called Tsotsitaal. It was mostly spoken by urbanised streetwise youngsters – an amalgamation of Zulu, Afrikaans, Sotho and titbits of other languages.
The chief culprits in the decimation of indigenous languages are the so-called self-styled sophisticated elites. Inability to communicate in an African language has become a badge of modernity. Parents are so proud of their children if they can’t speak an African language fluently.
I have yet to hear an Afrikaner or British citizen insult their language by mixing it with African languages. This is because they value their language, which is central to their culture.
It is heart-warming to hear many voices of late expressing concern about an impending decimation of African languages, defending their culture and national symbols.
Language enhances one’s human dignity and identity. Only thoroughly colonised and brain-washed people will supinely suffer the indignity of degrading their own language in preference of the colonial master’s language.
Our Constitution recognises that our cultural diversity is a national asset. Hence the need to promote, develop and respect all languages in our country.
Being multilingual should be a defining characteristic of being a South African. Apartheid did its damnedest to promote particularistic ethnic chauvinism and exploited linguistic differences to sow the seeds of racial domination and the underdevelopment of African culture.
Language is not simply a vehicle to transport oral messages but is a critical part of a people’s culture.
Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o shares his profound insight into the role of language in a historical consciousness and development of nations. It was why he wrote all his creative writings in his mother tongue in order to communicate with his target audience – the proletariat who were at the mercy of a parasitic bourgeoisie and a corrupt, avaricious ruling class.
In his own words: “It is this aspect of language, as a collective memory bank of a given people, which has made some people ascribe mystical independence to language.
“It is the same aspect which has made nations and people take up arms to prevent ‘total annihilation’ or assimilation, because it is tantamount to annihilating that people’s collective memory bank of past achievements and failures, which form the basis of their common identity. It is like uprooting that community from history.”
Heritage month is a reminder of our national identity and a raison d’être for our very existence on this continent.
Last week I called a friend. His 11-year-old boy answered the phone. “Ngicela ukukhuluma no baba, mntanami,” I said in Zulu. “What! What do you say?” screamed the offended brat.
I heard him consulting the “helper”.
The helper explained that the boy did not speak Zulu! (despite the fact that his father’s command of the language would have made Shaka and Mzilikazi proud).
The response of the boy’s father was typical. He bemoaned the failure of the whites-run schools to offer African languages as compulsory part of the curriculum.
How many of us have read a book or novel in Zulu/Tsonga in the last 10 years? If you have not, you have cheated yourselves of the wisdom and insights of famous and gifted writers. By doing so, we are making the Bantu education dream of Verwoerd a reality.
The failure to communicate in our languages is alienating young urban blacks from their relatives in the rural areas.
Many prominent young leaders in the business sector, entertainment and academia, are products of former Model C schools. Many professionals, including teachers, religious leaders and politicians, are sending their children either to private schools or public schools in the suburbs where the language of instruction is English.
The problem is not that children are learning English, Afrikaans or French for that matter. We welcome that as we admire white children who speak Zulu like Zwide ka Langa or Sepedi like Sekhukhune. But we should not rob African children of their language and in the process rob them of their cultural heritage and authentic identity.
• Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa is the former deputy minister of education, a Catholic priest and chairs the Moral Regeneration Movement
