Enock Shishenge
Language is a very important currency in society. It is through language that we attain education and build communities. Language helps us express our feelings and thoughts.
Language reflects economic power. That is the reason a language barrier becomes a painful experience. We have, for a longer period, been suffering a language barrier to learning.
We must not fear to provide education in our own indigenous languages and if need be, we can also learn foreign languages as electives. If we control our languages, we control our economic activities. The school teaches to accept existing orders as a natural way of things – that English and Afrikaans are the only vehicles to success.
We can learn from the people of the Republic of China who put the word decolonisation in practice. There is no western social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp etc in China. They have created the Chinese versions of such social media platforms. The billboards, names of the buildings and many others are written in their Chinese language.
The application systems in their gadgets such as phones and computers are installed in their Chinese language. We can learn so much from the Chinese’s love and respect for their language. China’s development is incredible and it brings us to the fact that there is no nation that develops on the language of others.
We are lagging behind in terms of implementing the policies that allow us to provide education in our mother tongues. There is resistance by those who think English is everything. In South Africa even churches are English. Even in places such as rural Giyani where in a church all the audience are all XiTsonga speaking people, the pastor preaches in English and gets it translated to XiTsonga. And this is a norm all over the country.
The Chinese do not speak in English and get it translated to Chinese Mandarin; instead, they speak in Chinese Mandarin and get it translated to English. When you hear the Chinese speaking their language on public platforms it does not mean that they don’t know English, but they do it with a patriotic and a conscious spirit. In this environment the interests of the collective are promoted.
If we intend to decolonise the language we need to dismantle the colonial apartheid influenced linguistic policies – the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill aims to do just that.
There are deep seated reasons why the racist DA, Solidarity and AfriForum do not want to give a go ahead to the Bela Bill in its current form, clauses 4 and 5 in particular, because they want to promote and impose their languages on our children with the pure aim of satisfying their unreasonable and unjustifiable racist interests. They aim to devalue, exclude and subordinate our languages and force our children to reject their indigenous languages as legitimate currency. Attaining education in English is against the best interest of our children.
It is very unfair that a language policy promotes Afrikaans or English in a school that has more than two thirds or 100% black children. The state must take bold decisions in line with the Constitution. This is a careful set up with the belief that the system will support and maintain the state the DA is envisaging. The state should be the custodian of the affairs of its people.
Clause 4 that speaks about “admissions” has nothing untoward. The SGB powers are not taken away but regulated and they will still be consulted in line with the Constitution so that they always take reasonable policy decisions.
Clause 5 that speaks about “language policies” is very clear that the language policy should be in line with 6(1) of the Constitution of South Africa. The status of our languages must be respected and the use must be advanced. Our children must learn their own languages and learn in their own languages.
This is not happening in Grade 1 – 4 in schools around Midrand in Gauteng. Our children are deprived of their Constitutional right to learn in their indigenous languages.
We must stop making English and Afrikaans more official than our indigenous languages. The Bela Bill aims to disrupt this hegemony with the aim of liberating our black children from inequalities and unfair restrictions through policy.
The reason the racist DA, Solidarity and AfriForum fight against these two clauses is because they want the status quo to remain and continue to force their languages on our children.
The state must take courageous and bold decisions to transform the activities in the classroom.
Our children are using English as their “home language” not because we want them to but by design of the language policies which undermine 6(1) of the Constitution.
Emancipation is the power to control your own life but you can only control your own life in your own language. The Bela Bill brings such emancipation.
Enock Shishenge is an indigenous languages activist, poet, trade unionist and revolutionary watchdog.
The Star