Linguistic Diversity and Development: The Language Question and Social Justice in Southern Africa

Abstract

Language is without doubt the most important factor in the learning process for the transfer of knowledge and skills is mediated through the spoken or written word. Ayo Bamgbose, 1992. Introduction The discussion is confined to South Africa. This is motivated partly by the fact that South Africa is the powerhouse of the African continent, economically and it is the country in which I live. It is worthwhile to mention that in the entire Southern Africa, while terms such as Lusophone and Anglophone are used to refer to Portuguese and English, respectively, these terms are themselves misnomers, because the vast majority of the inhabitants of the region speak neither Portuguese nor English, but indigenous African languages. In spite of this almost all governments in Southern Africa have declared English as the official language in their post-colonial era, while Mozambique has opted for Portuguese as the de facto official language, although she is moving towards English since it is the working language for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), where Mozambique is the only Portuguese-speaking country. Wherever necessary, comparisons in this discussion with other African countries and the Southern African linguistic region are generally made. The discussion consists of six sections. The first section describes the linguistics ecology and language policies of South Africa. The second section gives the theoretical tenets, which attempt to explain why there is the current linguistic domination of ex-colonial languages. The third section examines the effect of unfavourable language policies and the people's attitudes towards their mother tongues. In the fourth section the relationship between ex-colonial languages and indigenous African languages is made and considered and then the impact of the adopted language policies of the country on development is discussed in the fifth section. A summary and suggestions as well as recommendations as to what ought to be done are made and the conclusion follows in the final section. The language ecology and language policies of Southern African countries It is a well-known fact that Southern African, which includes South Africa, is multilingual, where indigenous African languages are spoken as mother tongues, unlike the United States of America and UK where each of these countries has only one official language, English. However, the picture of linguistic diversity in this region is blurred by the powerful dominance of English and not the numerical strength of speakers of English as a first, second or even third language. The mother tongue defined A mother tongue means the first language that a child acquires and uses at home before attending school. UNESCO (1953) cautions that a mother tongue need not necessarily be the language, which a child's parents use. In mother tongue education (MT), it is a language that a person has acquired in early years and which normally has become his or her natural instrument of thought and communication (Kobia, 2007). While, we accept linguistic globalisation, which has adopted the use of English, mother tongues equally need to be used and also developed. In education contexts mother tongues have psychological and educational advantages. Therefore, pedagogical needs for the child and national development need to be sacrificed first, rather than economic and political interests for the few elite. Thus while it could be economically and politically expedient to use exoglossic languages for the few elite and national development in the short run, in the long run, however, such policies remain hollow and have adverse effect to the masses, as children will make no contribution to knowledge and development of their respective countries (Moyo, 2007). Equal access, therefore, has to be given to education, economic resources for the citizenry as well as political and social participation for all. …

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