I choose start off with this quotation just to make sure
that we are on the same page with regards to the events of June 16. It would too
naive for me to round off all events leading to this day only to the protest
because in reality there’s a much bigger picture and this day is only a piece
in the puzzle of the movement towards liberation. The phrase I quoted embodies the one of the
aspect that I would really like to focus on, which is the language aspect.
There is a lot of literature out there that covers reason why
the youth took to the streets on the morning of 16 June 1976. These reasons would include reasons such as
the language clause that proved to be unworkable due to a shortage of teachers,
a lack of Afrikaans textbooks and a grudging acceptance that pupils would have
immense difficulty in coping with three languages as mediums of instruction; it
was quietly forgotten by the whites who ran African education. Our brothers and sisters then took a
stand when they felt they have had enough. Their stance was that they will
march but it was during this march that they were confronted by bullets at the
hands of the Police who did not ask questions.Events on June 16 During this time the mission of
the students was clear and could not be interrupted by the police son fought as
well as they could, with the arms that they possessed then.
However for today this will not be my focus but I would like
to concentrate on our current disposition. In explaining the missions of generations
no one puts it out better than Frantz Fanon, when he says "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its
mission, fulfil it, or betray it."The wretched of the Earth
The decisions taken by the South African youth of that 1970’s
has a direct link to how the youth think and feel about languages today. These are the same reasons why some youth
today see Afrikaans as an oppressive language, English as a language for the
liberation sometimes English can lead to some debate on whether it is also
oppressive or a tool for liberation taken its colonial roots. It is quite
common for teachers to attribute the poor high school performance to a language
barrier of the medium of instruction.
The hypocrisy today is that we find black elites especially
those "vuvuzeling" about the value of indigenous languages in poor public schools
while they are sending their children to private school and model c schools.
The situation is even worse when teachers send their children to model C
schools. This situation makes me wonder
if the teachers trust in the way they themselves teach. These are the teachers
who will teach the young Thabo English in Sesotho/physics in Setswana while the
end year paper will be in English. These are the same teachers that would
strike in public schools a month or two before learners write their common
paper.
Earlier this week I heard about a Setswana novelist who
spoke about the conservation of the Setswana language. What he said sounded
very sweet taken that he had written books in Setswana. However I was
disappointed when he began to talk about the translation of his books to
English. I then thought to myself there’s hypocrisy at play here. Because by
translating books to another language it does not ensure the growth of the
latter and it may even lead to the fade of the original language. For him as a writer this means that he might
get more gains as his story would be told to many more people even the
non-tswana speakers. It is also
important to note that the fact that there’s and English copy available may
even drive the Setswana speakers to even buy the English Copy.
What then should be the mission of young South African today?
During the
apartheid era it needed more than one native scholar to say "We've had
enough"; more than one demonstration put down before we could today hold our
'own. Ours on this day is to oppose all forms of
hypocrisy and rise up to the true advancement of indigenous languages in ways
that does not divide the African people. For the better part of our lives we
have been taught that the only lingua
franca that can unite people is English but what about our own indigenous lingua francas such as tsotsi taal?
Sfanakaloku? Shouldn’t we explore these? Our mission is to advance our all indigenous languages without any superseding
the importance of any other. We should not lose meaning and importance of the
stories we tell through translation especially if it’s not going to benefit a
language but even threatens it greatly.
In the opposition of hypocrisy we should be aware of the
value of English and therefore seek to transform its nature. We should strive
to change institutions and policies so that they make it easier for the African
child to learn through it. While the perfect positioned people for this would
be English teachers it’s the responsibility of all South Africans to support
this struggle of this day and age!!! We should build a citizenry competent in English;
people should be able to speak back on the terms of the language itself.
Schools systems should introduce English early in ones schooling career with
competent and motivated teachers. The school curriculum should put measures in
place to ensure that the language is spoken as often as possible but it should
never supersede.
In a rainbow nation like ours we should pride ourselves
multilingualism, multi-culture and our ability to still compete with the world
in English. I believe this is what our fallen comrades, brothers and sister
were fighting for.
Controversy opens platforms for
engagement……
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