UKZN Professor Pamela Maseko gives the keynote address at the 25th International Conference of the African Languages Association of Southern Africa at Coastlands Hotel recently.
Durban — The richness of African stories, intellectualism and heritage are still smothered by non-African languages.
Indigenous and traditional voices must be revitalised to overcome historical, long-lived injustices and to prepare Africans for the digital age.
These were among the topics covered at the University of KwaZulu-Natal-hosted 25th International Conference of the African Languages Association of Southern Africa in collaboration with the Pan South African Language Board at Coastlands Hotel recently.
The theme of the conference was reimagining the role of African languages for social justice and transformation in the digital age.
Professor Pamela Maseko, executive dean of the faculty of humanities and professor of sociolinguistics at Nelson Mandela University, addressed the conference on “excavation and appreciation” of African languages archiving as a strategy for rewriting African histories.
She said sluggish transformation was “an outcome of deliberate obliteration of indigenous history, suppression of indigenous languages, and marginalisation of traditional knowledge that form a triad of violent disregard of Africa.
“The disregard for African histories, languages and knowledge not only distorts historical narratives but also hinders the transmission of African ways of knowing. Addressing this triad of subjugation is imperative for reclaiming and revitalising Africa’s rich knowledge and linguistic heritage.”
Maseko said her inspiration for the research and field of study had been influenced by many factors over the years.
“Firstly, it was the invisibility and distortion of black experiences in my education experience, as well as the scarcity of authoritative black voices in the academic canon. In my research I have strived to show, through my own life experience and literary archival materials of early African intellectuals, that African societies have sophisticated intellectual traditions.”
She said that in African education, English equated to knowledge, and that knowledge in and from any other language, especially indigenous African languages, was not “of value in classrooms and lecture halls”.
“The plethora of 19th and early 20th literary writings from isiXhosaspeaking elites and the wealth and depth of subjects on which they wrote helped debunk the myth that Africa has no history, that her languages are only fit for domestic use,” she said.
Maseko said African languages had a deep significance in history.
“In pre-colonial times, African languages were used to mediate acquisition of knowledge from cradle to the grave. With the introduction of missionary education in the 19th century, English was introduced as the medium of instruction.
“Indigenous African languages were only used as the medium of instruction in primary schooling, and later as subjects. There is evidence that the teaching of the languages was poor, and that the culture and other knowledge embedded in the languages never formed part of the curriculum.”
Maseko said African languages were important in communities where they were spoken but were suffocated by the power of English in learning spaces, economic spaces, political spaces and many other spaces of power.
“In education, there is an attempt to keep them alive, yet there is much more that must still be done, including using African languages to transform the institutional culture that is often alienating to speakers of indigenous languages.
She feels African languages can unlock new opportunities in various sectors.
“Research areas in African languages should expand from traditional ones (of linguistics and literature) to include trans-disciplinary research areas as recommended in national, provincial and most university policies. For example, Mandela University has a strong Digital Humanities Research Hub whose interest is in digital tools and related fields such as computational linguistics, natural language processing, and Artificial Intelligence, African language digital archiving,” said Maseko.
The conference also launched four books centred on African languages which was run by Professor Monwabisi Ralarala, the dean of the faculty of arts and humanities at UWC.
Contributions were written in English, isiXhosa, Sesotho, isiZulu and other African languages.
“Although we have roughly 20% of the chapters written in African languages, this developmental initiative is central in the current academic debates which include, but are not limited to, decolonising the curriculum, transformation, quality and inclusive education, reading for meaning.
“This is a much-needed intervention in the 21st century, particularly in higher education. Editors and authors are to be celebrated for this rich achievement,” Ralarala said.
He said the 2022 census showed that African languages constituted a 78.7% majority in terms of population distribution by language spoken in most South African households.
“Although nearly 80% of South Africans speak African languages or have an African language as their mother tongue or home language, these languages remain on the margins, with little or less recognition or use in various public and private domains that require official status.
“English and, to a degree, Afrikaans (constituting close to 19.3% combined) continue to be in the centre in most official domains, and more so in the economic, political and education spheres. Clearly, the reality of this situation is unsustainable.”
Ralarala said in academic institutions globally, language remained an undisputed channel for expressing authority, power, privilege, racial superiority and/or social class.
“In South African institutions, hegemonic languages of teaching and learning such as English and Afrikaans still symbolise white supremacy and privilege. These languages are constantly used to silence, marginalise and suppress learners, denying them the opportunity to experience education through the language they understand – in most cases African languages.”
He said there was a need to intellectualise African languages and teach in a way that connected to the needs of the people on the periphery while allowing a space for students to engage and link language to social justice and critical thinking.
Independent on Saturday
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