Harmonisation and South African languages: twentieth century debates of homogeneity and heterogeneity

Abstract

This article offers a historiographic analysis of twentieth century debates amongst agents with linguistic, missionary and ideological interest in the standardisation or harmonisation of two widely used clusters of languages in South Africa, Nguni and Sotho. The discussion illustrates how faith-based and political ideologies interact with and bring influence to bear on the interpretation of linguistic endeavour. It also explores how theoretical considerations of linguistic diversity become entangled with political interest in the process of (re)articulating language policy. Whereas several authors (e.g. Harries in Afr Aff 87(346): 25-52, 1988; Errington in Annu Rev Anthropol 30:19-39, 2001) have discussed nineteenth century missionary and linguistic endeavour or offered ideologically conceived proposals for the harmonisation of Nguni and Sotho languages (Nhlapo in Bantu focus here is to demonstrate both continuity and disjuncture of debates amongst agents with different interests during the last century.

Multilingualism as racialization

“…The government in waiting, the African National Congress (ANC), embraced non-racialism as a founding principle of the new democracy. In exile, this had translated ideologically into the wide use of English as the language of the liberation movement, and as a perceived neutral language, and a medium for equality, aspiration and national development (Heugh, 2016). Albert Luthuli, one of the founding leaders of the party had always been explicitly in favour of English as a language of unification, and had earlier vehemently rejected education in African languages (so-called Bantu education) as a strategic ruse on behalf of the apartheid state to divide and dispossess Africans.…”

“…The NELP put forward the idea of English as the link language together with a small number of secondary languages as regional languages. Alexander subsequently also suggested harmonization to two language clusters in order to "unify the nation (Heugh 2016).3…”

Multilinguismo na África do Sul

“…A ênfase do apartheid no "trabalho fronteiriço" -e sua adoção da ideia do século XVIII de que línguas únicas eram constitutivas do Estado-nação -"justificaram" a criação artificial de territórios para grupos etnolinguisticamente definidos e um "estado balcani-zado" (as chamadas pátrias ou bantustões) [9, p. 236]. Todas as tentativas anteriores de harmonizar as línguas africanas [9,10,11] em alguns "agrupamentos" ortograficamente unificados, como forma de neutralizar a divisão linguística arquitetada no período colonial, foram anuladas pelo apartheid com a formação de comitês de idiomas separados em 1957.…”

“…O Congresso Nacional Africano (ANC) adotou o não-racialismo como um princípio fundador da nova democracia. No exílio, isso se traduziu ideologicamente no amplo uso do inglês como língua do movimento de libertação, uma língua percebida como neutra e como meio para igualdade, aspirações e desenvolvimento nacional [9]. Albert Lhutuli, um dos líderes fundadores do partido, sempre fora explicitamente a favor do inglês como língua de unificação e havia anteriormente rejeitado veementemente a educação em idiomas africanos (a chamada educação bantu) como artifício estratégico em nome do estado de apartheid para dividir e excluir os africanos.…”

Language rights in education in South Africa

“…It is this ideology that the National Party, which was dominant politically in the apartheid era, adopted when it came to power in 1948, linking language to national/ethnic identity (the obvious example being Afrikaans) (Heugh 2016). Similarly, individual African languages became synonymous with the corresponding ethnic identities This segregationist ideology was consistent with the separate development policy of the apartheid-era National Party; it met with resistance from the liberation movements, which viewed English as the language for liberation (Alexander 1989), and thus unwittingly privileged English at the expense of African languages (Balfour 2003).…”