A review of challenges in developing and empowering South African indigenous languages : the case of isiXhosa

Abstract

The study endeavoured to establish what had been done after 1994, by looking at the literature that reported the activities and documents that were produced. This was done against the background of what language policy and planning stand for. How these are conducted and how they influence the language ecology, was also central to our discussions. The analysis of what took place on the ground revealed that all the promising activities that were engaged in immediately post-apartheid were not sustained and did not produce the much anticipated outcomes. Much evidence for the dismal failure can be attributed to lack of accountability on the part of the powers that be. Recommendations are offered, emphasising, among others, an understanding of the importance of languages to their speakers. It is also important to understand the effects of colonisation and apartheid on the dehumanisation of the South African indigenous languages and how this has also influenced the current generation. We also need to demystify the myth that a language that is foreign to the majority of the population can serve as a unifying element and the idea that foreign and colonial languages can help us access education, employment, economy and law. These are some of the things we are advised to heed in our attempt to improve the situation of these languages. An ideal situation has been alluded to for the stakeholders to follow in the steps of those engaged in the Modernity/Coloniality-Decoloniality Collective Project. It follows two closely related directions: one analytic and the other programmatic. The analytic seeks “to excavate the dark side of domination, where racialization on inter-subjective social relations, and the control of knowledge, labor, land, and nature are revealed as operations of power” over the oppressed people (Veronelli, 2015). This goes hand in hand with the programme which is articulated around the notion of decoloniality, intended “to decolonize all areas of the colonial matrix of power to release the fullness of human relations” (Mignolo 2013, quoted in Veronelli, 2015).