Decolonisation through Digitalisation? African Languages at South African Universities

Abstract

Many South African universities aim to implement one or more African languages into formal and digital structures, in a process known as localisation. Often, however, this objective is not met due to manifold obstacles, not least of which is a conceptual contradiction of bounded languages and translingual practices. Digitalisation promises to diversify teaching and learning experiences as well as knowledge production at universities. At the same time, it threatens to reproduce analogue power structures. How do institutions negotiate these potentials and pitfalls? This paper explores the digitalisation of isiXhosa at three South African universities in the Eastern Cape province: Nelson Mandela University, Rhodes University, and the University of Fort Hare. Qualitative methods such as discourse analysis and immersed observation were applied to describe state-of-the-art developments in the digital implementation of isiXhosa in the realms of outward representation and communication, learning spaces, and knowledge repositories.