How Afrikaners, coloureds and blacks are abandoning their native tongues for English

The last 15 years have introduced two fundamental changes that have, inevitably, radically shaken South African society, language and culture.

This is a not a new phenomenon where, perhaps for the first time in the 21st Century and its African modernity, parents are raising children who do not speak or understand their native tongue.

In the Afrikaner, coloured and African community, there is a visible development to replace native languages with English and to encourage children to be … er, cosmopolitan, if you like.

As a result, the whole Africanisation of identity, culture and mainstream is, for instance, seen as empty political talk that cannot be substantiated. In fact, there are some people who strongly believe that former President Thabo Mbeki’s dream of an African Renaissance was just full of talk and fury that signified nothing. At a basic level of inspiring self-love and pride for indigenous African languages, he failed.

But things are not that simple, you know. It is not just indigenous Africans who hanker after a fast fading past of a world characterised by indigenous African languages, culture and identity.

The entire South African society in the last 25 years or so, moved closer to become part of the global village. Here at home, you find that all other tribal and ethnic groups, from the so-called Indians, coloureds and Afrikaners, among others, have all moved towards speaking or adopting English as the medium of communication.

Ever since the 1976 student upheavals against Afrikaans as “a language of the oppressor,” there are many Afrikaners and coloureds, for instance, who have been keen to disassociate themselves from their mother tongue. This expresses a desire to make a claim to be citizens of the world and to be part of the most spoken human language which happens to be English.

Not too long ago, there was uproar among some African parents that their children do not like indigenous languages. In fact, they have even charged that high priced private schools offer second-rate courses taught by non-African teachers.
There will always be some people who are keen to protect and preserve what they consider their mother tongue as an inherent part of their history, heritage and identity.
But we must admit that the whole world has changed and this has had a powerful impact on the survival of some languages.

What is easy to notice is that English-speaking children in the South African community, for instance, enjoy a peculiar benefit of being treated not like a curiosity but a family treasure. You will find that some parents, rightly or wrongly, parade them with pride while informing everyone who cares to listen that “my child does not understand that language. They speak English.” It is not that they do not know that all languages are, in any case, protected by the constitution.
No doubt, there is a major psychological shift in people attitudes to indigenous African languages. It is now clear in the era of freedom and democracy that some African elite, among others, are not concerned with promoting or preserving the use of indigenous languages.

Instead, what they desire is for their children to be exotic in the name of cosmopolitanism because for them English opens up doors to opportunity and respectability in the world.
This is a self-defeating sense, for example, that indigenous African languages have neither recognition nor a role in the economic mainstream.

Of course, a diverse society like ours should be seen to be transforming itself where language becomes an effective tool to glue us together. But there is no need for African languages, including Afrikaans, to die a premature death.

If all people of this country can be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, there is great hope that all the languages will receive equal recognition. Much as a person who expresses themselves in English stands a better chance to make it in the world, someone who speaks an indigenous language stands a better chance of honing their native intelligence.

Language, like all social behaviour, is something that is learnt. We should all learn to speak indigenous languages as it is one way of connecting us with our history, heritage, identity and, above, fellow Africans.

It is always soul nourishing to walk in the streets and hear different languages being spoken by immigrants from Europe and other parts of Africa. The problem is local people seem to be the only ones who do not have a language of their own.