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Apartheid - SL English : Language

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Apartheid in South Africa - language

Essential Questions: 

  • What were the nature and characteristics of discrimination in the apartheid system?
  • How did the apartheid system impact the lives of South Africans?
  • How was language used to further separate & divide people during the Apartheid era?

From Afrikaans to Zulu, South Africa's languages have stories to tell

During apartheid, South Africa had two official languages, English and Afrikaans. Indigenous languages, like the people who spoke them, were considered inferior. 

When apartheid ended, the Afrikaner minority that had ruled South Africa was willing to give up some of its power — but not its language. 

In this clip Trevor Noah is quoted as saying "Now in a country where everybody's divided, if you're the person who can speak all of the languages, you immediately possess something that not many people do." 

"Trevor Noah: Roots Across Africa." Hosted by Carlos Watson. Breaking Big, episode 1, PBS, 15 June 2018. Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/video/trevor-noah-roots-across-africa-kedisa/. Accessed 14 Jan. 2019.

South Africa's language distribution

South Africa has eleven official languages: English, Afrikaans, and nine African languages. Native South African languages are roughly divided into four families: Nguni; Sotho; Tsonga, or Shangaan; and Venda. Most black South Africans speak a Nguni language: Zulu and Xhosa are the most prominent languages. Sotho languages (South Sotho, North Sotho, and Setswana) are the next most common and dominate the central part of the country. Also, a few mixed languages have developed to facilitate communication between groups. Typical is a mixture of Zulu and Xhosa or Zulu and Sotho. Black South Africans speak their native African languages at home or within their own groups, and many urban black South Africans speak two or more native languages.

Afrikaans (a Dutch derivation) is widely spoken among people of mixed race and whites of Dutch descent. English is commonly used in business, between some ethnic groups, and as the primary language of instruction in secondary schools. The vocabulary and pronunciation of South African English reflects a unique relationship between English and other languages spoken in South Africa. English is more common in urban areas than rural regions. There have been some initiatives to teach white South Africans a major African language, but these have not been met with success.

"South Africa: Language." CultureGrams Online Edition, ProQuest, 2019, online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?cid=148&cn=South_Africa&sname=Language&snid=4. Accessed 13 January 2019.

The changing meaning of words over time:

The word Bantu was originally used as a label for the large number of ethnicities belonging to the Bantu language group.  In the first part of the 20th century, it was regarded as a neutral term that could be used to describe South Africa's Black populations.  After 1948, it took on an altogether different meaning.  Bantu became the official apartheid term for Africans and it began to carry some very negative connotations.  In the 1950's, African nationalists rejected the term and instead referred to themselves as Blacks or Africans.  Today the word (outside the contexts of history and the study of language and ethnicity) is regarded as pejorative and insulting.