Though Heritage Month ended yesterday, it is still imperative, going forward, to take stock of how our traditions, customs and practices advance or retard our national development agenda.
SA is a multicultural society with 11 languages recognised as official. All 11 language enjoy equal status recognition on the statute books. In practice, however, indigenous African languages are marginalised with English enjoying dominance.
The continued sidelining of African languages is a sad indictment on the democratic government which has done little or nothing to advance their development.
What is most disheartening is that instead of the growth of these languages, the reverse has occurred with the diminishing use of African languages even by the indigenous people. The irony is that during the apartheid era, African languages were studied at a higher level with English and Afrikaans as compulsory subjects.
With the democratic dispensation, African children are opting out of studying their own languages and display a preference for English as a home language. This is mainly due to the attitude by parents towards African languages which are regarded as inferior to English. Such an attitude is linked to the perception of equating the mastery of English with intelligence.
Such an attitude smacks of an inferiority complex which the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo calls “the fallacious notion of the unassailable position of English in our languages”. It defies logic that 26 years after democracy, we still do not have African languages as compulsory subjects for every pupil at public schools. As vehicles of cultural transmission, our languages are important to ensure such transmission across generations. The alternative is that we can end up as a culturally captured nation. Depriving our children of the opportunity to learn and speak their languages with all its imagery, symbols and nuances, is to rob them of their heritage. Posterity will judge such parents harshly.
Another area which needs attention and review is some imageries and proverbs. Certain proverbs in the Sesotho language need to be placed under a magnifying glass. F
or example “monna ke nku ha a lle” encourages boys to suppress their feeling as it translates to “a man is a sheep, he does not cry”. Such a proverb is dangerous and may damage boys. “Ntwa ke ya madulammoho” seeks to normalise violent confrontation in the family structure, as it means “fights and squabbles should be expected in households".
Fighting is not something to be glorified; it should be avoided whenever possible. Proverbs are meant to advise and teach and guide the younger generation towards becoming ideal citizens. A proverb such as “ntjapedi ha e hlolwe ke sebata” contains a truism that when two or more people work together, the work becomes easier as they share the burden. This one should be practised.
It is well-known that singing is the fulcrum of African ritual observations. We sing when we celebrate, worship and even when we mourn. We even have names for the different occasions.
There is a Nguni wedding song, Gabi Gabi, which pours scorn and ridicule on a woman who cannot bear children. It taunts her to come and witness the carnivals of someone’s daughter getting married with her not being able to have children of her own. It's a cruel song; barrenness for a married is no laughing matter.
Ba kae baloi? enquires on the whereabouts of neighbours, who are summarily declared witches just because there's a wedding next door. Such songs should be struck from the wedding songs’ repertoire; they are anti-ubuntu, which we espouse, and that can't be fun.
Our languages, images and songs should become symbols of our national pride that should advance our cause as African people with no aspirations to become African English men or women.
Lee is a Sowetan reader and regular contributor
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