Focus of African Languages

Ms Connie Makgabo is one of the new African Language lecturers in the Department of Humanities Education. “Teaching an African language is not just teaching a language but teaching a culture, an identity, guiding students to take pride in who they are,” she said Ms Makgabo taught Methodology in African languages to pre-service and in-service teachers. As a lecturer, she considered learning African languages as the first step to self-discovery.

The university offers four languages. She is involved in teaching Sepedi and Setswana. The aim is to equip the student teachers with knowledge and 21st-century skills but also to instill a passion and pride as African language teachers. Part of the main reason why the university offers the course in African languages is to restore the neglect that African languages had to suffer because of apartheid. During this period, African languages went through a phase of non-recognition and were reduced to minority languages.

As a result, teachers are not adequately trained to teach African languages due to the gap that was created. Consequently, some of the teachers in schools who teach African languages do so without proper training. “My aim, therefore, is to ensure that as young teachers, they are taught not only to embrace and love their African languages but to equip themselves to be outstanding African language teachers who can speak with a lot of confidence, are well trained and teach with skill. It is important for them to know and understand that losing one’s language is equal to losing one’s identity. Ramagoshi emphasised this point when she said that the strength of a language is based on the fact that there is a strong inter-relationship between language and culture. As Kwame Nkrumah said ‘I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me’,” she said.

Culture has two aspects, the visible and invisible, or the tangible and the intangible aspects. The visible aspect of culture includes things like food, shelter, clothing, and interactions, just to name a few. The invisible, on the other hand, include hopes, values, aspirations, confidence, and so on. Since South Africa is a multicultural country, it is, therefore, important for the students to learn to avoid misunderstandings by striving to reach out to other people’s cultures and embrace them. African language teachers have a golden opportunity today, at this very moment to restore the dignity and rightful place of African languages in our society. They will be leading the nation to a better tomorrow by instilling an awareness of the importance of an African language. There is no better tomorrow if a person suffers from an identity crisis and if they do not know where they come from. My calling as an Africa language teacher is to send out a cohort of young leaders, not only to teach but also to celebrate their heritage as a reminder of who they are.A