International Mother Language Day
Celebrating Cultural Diversity
South Africa, like many other countries around the world, is expected to join the rest of UNESCO member states in celebrating International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2007. This year marks its 7th anniversary.
The Day comes at a time when Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora embark on various efforts aimed at promoting linguistic diversity in an effort to engender respect for plurality in cultural heritage.
Presently indigenous languages, which education experts and cultural activists describe as a carrier of culture, norms and values, has emerged high on the agenda of civil society organisations and government.
According to Steven le Roux of Project Literacy, the South African constitution and current policies on languages are sufficient to promote the use of indigenous languages in the country. However, the South African government, through the Departments of Arts and Culture and Education, is not sufficiently utilising International Mother Language Day to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
According to Mxolisi Nyezwa of language and culture NGO, Imbizo Arts South Africa, it is shocking that almost 80% of South Africans speak their mother tongues, but are being compelled to communicate in English which remains a foreign language to them.
le Roux concurs, arguing that while English might be useful as a lingua franca in business, it is evident that the various local languages serve as a means of communication in most situations. “These languages are not only for cultural identity but also to facilitate dialogue”, he adds.
Imbizo Arts holds the view that basic literacy has to begin in one’s mother language and criticises the South African education system for failing to give indigenous languages the recognition they deserve.
Similarly Project Literacy views mother tongues as extremely important to the country’s overall development. le Roux argues that “mother tongues are extremely important in terms of solid, sustainable acquisition of literacy skills, including an essential stepping stone towards acquisition of literacy in an additional language”.
However, Nyezwa contends that various omissions and the sidelining of vernacular languages in commerce, education, the popular media and even in government communication results in the continual marginalisation of the vernaculars as languages of secondary importance. Friedel Wolff of Translate.org argues that “generally, there is lack of increased awareness and the corporations are not showing interest in the issue”.
Moreover, “donor and government funding is limited for South African NGOs wishing to embark on projects aimed at promoting the indigenous languages”, says Nyezwa.
Budgetary constraints are also quoted as an obstacle by Wolff. Translate.org tries to ensure that South Africa’s 11 official languages are fully represented in information and communication technologies (ICTs), including making software available in vernacular languages.
According to Wolff, poor funding opportunities limit the organisation’s ability to carry its work forward. “Translation is a huge responsibility that requires enough funds to reward people who are involved in the actual translation”, he says.
Translate.org will commemorate International Mother Language Day by launching a range of open source software that has been translated into South Africa’s 11 official languages. These include GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Thunderbird. The organisation believes its work will go a long way towards encouraging people to start using computers in the language of their choice. It will also be using Software Freedom Day on 15 September 2007 to further promote the issue of language diversity.
– Butjwana Seokoma, Civil Society Information Coordinator, SANGONeT.
Images courtesy of Chris Kirchhof
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