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| LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf. |
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Southern African languages, Globalisation and the Internet
Russell H Kaschula*
INTRODUCTION
The death of apartheid paved the way for change regarding the status and use of indigenous languages. Theoretically, the new constitution provides status and officialdom for eleven South African languages. However, in reality, it would seem that English remains the language of power. Although Afrikaans was released from the officialdom of apartheid, it, along with the nine indigenous languages have been essentially “robbed” of their status. English, being one of the major languages in which the world trades at present, has become the de facto language in which government addresses the South African nation.
It would seem then that the indigenous languages of South Africa, including Afrikaans, now find themselves in the same arena in a post-colonial or neo-colonial Africa. Afrikaans has indeed been re-instated as a “minority” language, although it is spoken by more than 15,66%, the majority being black, of the South African population as opposed to about 8,68% of English speakers. What is interesting, is to note how Afrikaners are dealing with this situation, through lobby groups, sometimes in conjunction with speakers of the other indigenous languages which are in fact majority languages, for example, Zulu, spoken by 21,61% of the population.
However, it is the Internet which has allowed indigenous languages to mushroom themselves back into contention. This is in line with occurrences elsewhere in the world. While English is the majority language on the Internet, it only holds 57,4% of the content. An estimated 96 million people make use of the net to promote their own languages. The Japanese make up 20% of these people, 14,6% are German and 9,8% are French. Dutch holds 4,5% of users and Italian 5,9%. The question then for South Africa is: How are our indigenous, marginalised languages responding to the challenge posed by the Internet and globalisation?
LitNet, an Internet journal, has been used to launch a vociferous attack on the hegemony of the English establishment that threatens to choke the other languages in South Africa. A heated debate has ensued. It has even spilled over into, for example, the major Afrikaans daily newspapers, all of which are on-line. At the same time, the voices of the remaining indigenous languages are beginning to emerge, especially Zulu, Xhosa, and to some extent Sotho. What has happened to all the other languages? Is it perhaps as a result of what one could term the “forked tongue of multilingualism” which is being used by government and those in authority. One part of the tongue makes the right noises, whilst the other part remains mute, resulting in little practical implementation of policy, limited status planning, and little use of indigenous languages when it comes to technology, except in the arena of radio, and to some extent television.
One can only postulate as to the reasons why language policy implementation is taking so long to happen. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the use of indigenous languages on the Internet, as well as their potential to enter into the global village in order to economically empower the man on the street.
In terms of Section 6 of the South African Constitution, individual language rights are entrenched. Even so, there is a serious need for on-going status planning on the part of the indigenous languages. South Africans suffer from a form of linguistic paralysis, especially adult L1 speakers of English and Afrikaans, which seriously impacts on people’s lives. This is especially true, for example in the medical and legal arenas. Crawford (1999:42) concludes by pointing out that “... if health care is to become accessible and effective, the political will to address the ‘language barrier’ at all levels will have to be found.” Of course it is probably true of most professions in South Africa, but it is only in these two where some research has been done. (See, Kaschula 1995, Moeketsi 1998, Crawford, 1999 and Saohatse 2000). In courts of law, for example, the language of record is English. Once the indigenous languages are translated via an interpreter they remain forever lost to the courtroom and the justice system. It is almost ironic that English is regarded as one of the international languages of trade, yet, in South Africa, it is spoken by a small minority, though it is often perceived as a majority language. The use of English excludes a large proportion of the population from participating in the mainstream economy. According to Kaschula (1999:64) “... approximately 70% of all South Africans have an indigenous African language as their mother tongue (MT), whereas 25% have English or Afrikaans as their MT.” It is the purpose of this paper to explore some of the issues surrounding language planning in South Africa, and the implications of the use of language on the information highway. Furthermore, the relationship between Afrikaans, a previously ‘empowered’ language in South Africa and the other African languages will be explored. Increasingly it would seem that Afrikaans speakers view their language as an indigenous African language. There is no doubt that indigenous languages, together with Afrikaans, face similar challenges regarding their fight for status in the post 1994 era in South Africa.
As far as the use of languages in present-day South Africa are concerned, Kamwangamalu (2000:50) refers to this system in reality as a “three-tier, triglossic, system, one in which English is at the top, Afrikaans is in the middle, and the African languages are at the bottom.” Furthermore, he argues that there should be a serious re-think of the language policy “... with the view to adopting a more pragmatic, decentralised, market-orientated approach to status planning if the country is to succeed in its efforts to promote the African languages.” Though such a capitalistic approach to language planning may seem unfortunate to many, it may be a timely and innovative idea to explore a carrot and stick method to status planning. For example, if a senior council lawyer were at least trilingual, then there should be a greater chance of their promotion to the position of judge and so on. In an article Kaschula (1999:71-72) argues that:
What is required in any contemporary language debate is an attempt to define an ‘econo-language’. Such a debate would, for example, need the input of language planners including the PANSALB, corporate as well as small business in South Africa, international and local economists, the World Bank, and other international aid agencies. It can only be informed debate that could convince political players in South Africa to influence the World Bank and other powerful aid agencies to change their stance and thus allow the development of our own language planning policies in order to boost the operational needs of our national economy.
Is it not ironic, that the Internet, developed essentially through the medium of English by those who control the World Bank, is now presenting languages other than English with an opportunity to flourish and to even become global players within national and global economies? This is borne out by CNN’s new sites such as: CNN.com.jp which caters for Japanese speakers as well as the sites which cater for German, Italian and so on. IBM is already working on a programme which will enable inter-language translation at the push of a button. There is also a new two and a half million rand package on the cards for the simultaneous translation of South Africa’s eleven official languages. It is a text to speech programme which can be accessed at www.nuance.com. Dare one presume that modern technology will encourage the use of, rather than orchestrate the demise of so-called ‘minority’ languages due to the prominence of English?
LANGUAGE-USE AND THE INTERNET
Political and economic development in the 20th century has largely been conducted through the medium of English. Likewise, modern technologies such as the Internet owe their development to the English language, having basically been developed in America. Its use has also spread most rapidly among countries of the English-speaking world. According to a recent article published in the British news journal The Editor (April 14, 2000), “[i]n 1898, when Otto von Bismarck was an old man, a journalist asked him what he took to be the decisive factor in modern history. He answered: ‘The fact that the North Americans speak English’.” Even though English is the dominant language used on the Internet, perhaps generating up to 80% of the Internet traffic, it would seem that this directly correlates to people’s access to the Internet. Access to the Internet is continually broadening to encapsulate speakers of languages other than English, hence empowering these languages as well. Although Internet hosts have increased by about 450% in the English-speaking world over the past two years, Japanese users have increased by approximately 430%, French by 375%, and German by 250%. This may still imply that English remains well placed to take over the world. Indeed one linguist has suggested that English be renamed “Globalese” so as to imply that it no longer belongs to a single speech community. Even so, it is noted that there are now approximately 166 different types of English, some of which are no longer mutually intelligible. The director of a Russian Internet provider has recently referred to the web as the “ultimate act of intellectual colonialism”, thereby creating a certain amount of anxiety amongst speakers of other languages. Given this scenario, do African languages stand a chance, and do they have any role in the future economic empowerment of Africa through what could be termed the technologised word? This will be discussed later in this paper.
One thing is certain: it is not just English-speakers who are making use of the web. There are many sites in non-English speaking countries that do make use of English on the web. This is especially true of countries such as Egypt, Latvia, Turkey and even South Africa where English remains the status language. There is also the presumption that if you say something in English it can reach the international community. But it would be wrong to think that the use of English on the Internet will have to come at the expense of other languages. This is especially true when one analyses the socio-economic potential which the Internet stands to unleash world-wide. The African continent may now be poised on the brink of what has been termed the African renaissance, thereby catapulting it onto the information highway, at the same time by-passing the many stop and yield signs which other countries have experienced on the road to globalisation. The essential question may be the following: What has Africa got to gain by connecting to the Internet? In a nutshell, according to Aden (2000:25) it would make available a basic supply of information to people, it would facilitate the business world’s access to products and services in Africa, and it would enable more reliable and resource-sparing planning, taken on the basis of sound planning. In my view, perhaps more important would be the fact that the communication via the Internet compares to some extent favourably to a form of direct contact. It is more direct than writing letters or memos etc. Therefore it would meet the social needs and suit political conditions in Africa. However, the use of indigenous languages here would play a pivotal role, lest the entire exercise remain meaningless for the majority of people who do not have access to English and basic literacy. This will be explored under the section dealing with orality-literacy and the Internet. In order for this form of communication to succeed it would be necessary for this technology to become an elementary cultural technique such as reading and writing. This, of course, would be contingent on literacy. Given the extent to which southern African people have come to grips with cell-phone technology, be it in limited form, one could assume that visual literacy skills may also be suitable to encouraging Internet usage, rather than conventional literacy skills which remain limited in southern Africa. This would be even more beneficial if these skills were provided in the mother tongue, the tongue through which one conceptualises thought and cognition. The Internet is already encouraging new forms of self-study and distance learning by computer, thereby competing with traditional ways of teaching. Our university department already accepts Internet submissions of work in various African languages, including Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho and Swahili. There are South African universities such as the University of South Africa where distance education has been made a fine art, and where technology such as the Internet plays a major role.
SOCIO-ECONOMICS AND THE INTERNET
While some advantages to Internet usage have been outlined above, it may be necessary to also probe any possible disadvantages in order to provide a balanced perspective. One may well ask the following questions: Can Africa afford the Internet? Is it not just an elitist western luxury which should be avoided? Can it really play any role in enhancing multilingualism and providing marginalised people with access to the main stream economy.
It could be argued that the amount of resources spent on this technology could be better spent by addressing other priorities such as providing infrastructure: roads, electricity, running water and so on. If it is only the elite who have access to this technology then it could be further argued that it will widen the gap between the elite and the masses. Although this may be a relevant point to raise, in my opinion, the gap between the haves and the have-nots (the so-called two new tribes of Africa) is so vast that the Internet may just be the catalyst needed to achieve the exact opposite result. In other words, I do not think that the have-nots can be any further affected in a negative way by the introduction of this technology. In South Africa at least, computers are already reaching the remotest classrooms, even where net-work electricity is not available, this through generous donations of computers and generators from private companies such as Siemens. This will hopefully result in an increase in the number of children who have access to the Internet. It remains to be seen though, how the Internet will benefit rural economies. This issue is again taken up at the end of this paper.
The Internet, for example, liberates languages from finite communicative resources and provides an economically competitive platform for the dissemination of material at a time when formal publishers are reticent to take any chances with publishing books in “minority” languages as they may not be in a position to make money from a small print-run of books published in, say for example, Venda or Pedi. This could have a major impact for learners in rural and remote areas. According to The Editor (April 14, 2000:12), “[t]he economics of distribution make multilingual publication on the web much more feasible than it is in print, which is why a large number of commercial and government sites in Europe and Asia (and even, increasingly, in the United States) are making their content available in two or more languages.” Arguably there are strong forces advocating for the use of local languages on the Internet. Already, in South Africa, a company called Contentlot is producing materials for schools, primarily on CD-Rom, in all South African languages, though book copies can also be purchased and made available.
But it is in the realm of news that there has been a recent flourishing of the use of languages other than English. It is also true though that it is organisations such as CNN, the American news network who have truly achieved genuine worldwide news distribution, and this through the medium of English. However, the web has changed this. For example, French speakers who now live in non-Francophone countries have online access to between 20 and 30 French-language newspapers, and to as many direct radio transmissions. This is true also of Afrikaans speakers in South Africa who have on-line access to Afrikaans newspapers from anywhere in the world. There are also electronic versions of local newspapers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Colombia, Turkey, Qatar and about 80 other nations.
The use of the Internet may also mean that speech communities will get remote access to government information, educational material and so on. It will also be easier to distribute cultural products from other nations. “No less important, the net creates new forums for informal exchanges among the members of geographically dispersed communities. At present, there are discussion groups in more than 100 languages.” (The Editor, April 14, 2000:13). This could lead to a closer sense of connection within these language communities, no matter where the speakers live. This presupposes however that everyone will have equal access to the Internet. This may be a long time coming in many parts of the world, including Africa. There are, for example only 10 telephones per 100 people in Latin America, whilst there are only 2 per 100 in India. However, in South Africa, there is wide use of mobile cell-phone technology, as well as Telkom, even in the most remote areas. Motorola has this year released cell-phones in South Africa which have menus in both Zulu and Sotho as well as English. If the Internet becomes available through the use of cell-phone technology, even in a limited way, this would drastically alter Internet access in southern Africa. The net can also have profound influences, for example, where people have not been served by the traditional media perhaps due to geographic or political reasons. The Chinese are today effectively making use of the net as a forum for political discussions.
It is probable that major organisations such as CNN will not always be able to hold onto English and promote it unconditionally. Who could ever have convinced the Romans at the height of their empire, that Latin would become a dead language, replaced by English in the long term. Kamwangamalu (2000:50) quotes the example of a CNN travel quiz which was broadcast on 18 April 1998, four years after South Africa gained its liberation. “What is the official language of South Africa? Both English and Afrikaans are the official languages.” On the one hand, this smacks of the “intellectual colonialism” spoken of earlier, combined with a blinkered view of the world. On the other hand it also reflects the dominance of the exoglossic languages in South Africa. However, one would like to think that things can change. The SABC recently set up a site: www.SABCnews.co.za. This site now provides news in English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho. Arguably though, languages such as Pedi and Venda are further marginalised in this process.
SOME STATISTICS
English captures the biggest segment of the Internet community’s activities, but the use of other languages world-wide have soared in cyber space. English is still used in 57,4% of all Internet activities, but the European languages already capture 26,4% of the market, and the Asian languages 16,2%. In South Africa, 7,1% of the market are now Nguni language speakers. LitNet, a language Internet site operating from South Africa is a site which is committed to the empowerment of South Africa’s languages on the net.[1]
AFRIKAANS: A CASE STUDY
One of the few language issues which has been hotly debated over the last two years in South Africa has been the perceived marginalisation of Afrikaans. A group of Afrikaners then decided to fight what they perceived to be the demotion of Afrikaans in the public sector and the growth of English. They chose the Internet to initiate this debate. As a result, LitNet’s letter pages were flooded with letters and petitions. The debate has since been taken up in the media. However, the initial impetus came from Dan Roodt who posted the following petition on the LitNet site on 20 December 1999. A translated version follows:
20 December 1999
A PETITION FOR THE GREAT AFRIKAANS RESISTANCE
Dan Roodt
litnet/senet.asp?id.205
Language Petition
We, the undersigned South Africans, hereby take issue with the unfair handling of Afrikaans by the present government, more especially against the unequal status that Afrikaans holds vis a vis English. Not only does this favouring of English over and above Afrikaans (and the other languages) go against the constitution, but it also speaks of a chauvinism and previous British colonialism which has no place in an independent country like South Africa. We demand immediate equalisation of Afrikaans vis a vis English by all authorities ...
We re-iterate that Afrikaans belongs to the entire South Africa, that it is unique to this land and that it possesses a specifically Afrikaans character, and therefore it deserves official recognition. We will not be colonised!
Extracts from a sample of the responses to this petition are included here. These sample responses represent the main crux of the debate:
15 February 2000 (Hein Willemse)
FIGHT, NO — DEBATE, YES ...
English is perhaps the language of the Anglo-American colonists, but Afrikaans has just as much blood on its hands. English happens to be the language that South Africans can use to start bridging the gap between races. Afrikaans, because of the history of the past, simply has too much baggage. To make a political issue of the language shows that you are insensitive to the history of the country and the people who died in 1976 ...
In another open letter (5 February 2000) an Afrikaans writer concludes that:
To develop Afrikaans contributes to multilingualism. There is no contradiction between language development and multilingualism, except when it revolves around the development of one language, English, as presently is the case.
In yet another letter (3 February 2000) a writer makes reference to the thirty something generation which seems not to care about their language. The writer concludes that:
Everyone will just have to accept this: Language is a political issue in South Africa, especially Afrikaans and English — and wait until, for example, Xhosa, Sotho and Zulu patriots get going. And the signs are there that that is happening: the matric results of students who have to battle to learn and write exams in English speak for themselves.
In any event the reaction to this petition was fierce, mainly debating the pros and cons of colonialism. By the 30th of April 2000, no less than 12% of all the letters on LitNet lobbied in favour of a pro-active struggle for Afrikaans. Of note were the 14% of letters that argued vehemently against a new “struggle” for a language that has already been tainted by its past. Those opposed to a new “struggle” were in the overwhelming majority of cases quite concerned for and about Afrikaans, but could not bring themselves to face a “language war” in a country where the need for peace and stability is paramount.
But what is the importance of this mini “war of letters”, and of the site itself?
Not only does the Internet provide a cheap way to allow people to air their views, as the case study regarding Afrikaans has indicated, it also allows young authors the opportunity to see their works published in the company of the well-known writers. Die Rooi Roman (1999), an Afrikaans novel now in print, was initially written on-line by a number of authors, some of them well-known, and others not so well-known. This is the type of interesting experiment which African languages could engage with on the Internet. One aspect that seems to emerge from the above case study of Afrikaans is that whatever happens to indigenous languages, they should not be forced upon people, but rather nurtured and promoted pro-actively in a manner which increases their visibility and status in every sector of South African society, including technology.
ORALITY-LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGY
Let us pursue this point using oral literature as an example. In a recent article (1999), Kaschula noted, inter alia, that it is the three-way-dialectic between the oral word, the written word and the technologised word that needs further exploration insofar as the Internet is concerned. Today, it is the use of the Internet which has the potential to revolutionise the composition, transmission and reception not only of written literature as we have seen with the LitNet site, but also oral literature, for example, poetry. It could be orally performed and simultaneously translated to a global audience through the oral word. Thereafter it could be down-loaded and published in book form. The recent purchasing of Bongani Sitole’s oral poetry by Microsoft marks the beginning of the process and the return to what could be termed technologised orality.[2] Furthermore, Zolani Mkiva’s website is an example of how an oral poet can sell himself on-line. He has already been recognised as the President’s poet in South Africa, performing for both Mandela and Mbeki, primarily through the Xhosa language. Dare one assume that we could have an oral poet elevated to the status of ‘poet of the globe’, imbongi yelizwe jikelele, instead of imbongi yesizwe jikelele, ‘poet of the whole nation’, the title given to SEK Mqhayi, to date South Africa’s most noted oral poet? Mkiva, for example, performed his poem in seven languages in honour of Mandela at his inauguration as President, thereby gaining international recognition.[3] He has since published his poetry as well as having placed it on-line. Finnegan (1992:169) concludes that “... it has increasingly become necessary to treat ‘transmission’, ‘distribution’, and ‘publication’ together.” This is true too of Sitole’s work. His spontaneous oral performances were initially video-taped and then reduced to writing, translated, and published in a book entitled Qhiwu-u-u-la!! Return to the Fold!! (Kaschula & Matyumza 1996). Some of his poetry captured on cassette can now be heard on the Internet — hence a return back to orality via the technologised word. A further example of this type of interaction can be found in Goldstuck’s Ink in the Porridge (1994) which is a collection of urban legends (initially orally told) taken from the Internet and published in written form. These legends were told during South Africa’s transition to democracy. A common example is the legend which suggested that if you accepted food prepared and given out by the National Party at their rallies, that you would not be able to vote as the food was laced with ink that would show up under the ultraviolet rays used to see whether you had already voted, meaning that you had in fact already voted, even if you had not done so. Wynchank (1994:13) takes this point further by exploring the role of the West African griot in relation to contemporary cinema in Senegal, arguing that the cineaste represents a type of modern griot in West Africa which is neither ‘primary’ nor ‘secondary’. Wynchank argues that “there exist two other types of orality: a secondary orality which is recomposed from writing in a milieu where writing predominates over the voice, and an orality which is mechanically transmitted, deferred in time and space.” Although the latter may be true of cinema, this mechanical transmission is becoming less deferred and more immediate as far as the Internet is concerned. It is also true that many of the extra-linguistic factors associated with performance poetry such as gesture, emphasis and speed, timing, context, intonation and voice quality, dramatisation and so on, are lost when the poem is written down, but this does not necessarily apply to technologised orality where the oral could again be accompanied by the visual as well as the written. It is now timely to place the orality-literacy debate within the context of a fast-changing world-wide technological boom in order to understand the oral-literate continuum more holistically. The advent of globalisation requires flexibility and further comparative research across continents, cultures and languages, especially if one believes, as I do, in the concept of ‘globalise and localise’. The challenge for southern Africa is to globalise, but not to forget the locality from which one operates, thereby supporting the promotion of indigenous languages alongside ‘globalese’ or English. Comparative research therefore between the imbongi, griot, Yugoslav guslar, old Anglo-Saxon scop, Greek Pindar, native American Indian poets, should be encouraged. It is against the backdrop of this type of research that the advent of what is being termed global culture, facilitated by modern technology, can be gauged. It may simply mean the recognition of the dynamism of culture which allows for common ways of expressing human reality, whilst acknowledging that this reality is not experienced simultaneously by humankind, but rather at different times on what could be termed a human continuum, hence resulting in what is perceived as political and cultural diversity. In any event the South African Constitution has laid the ground work for such a policy of globalise and localise, with the emphasise on equality between English (an exoglossic language), and the indigenous languages.
Within the realm of literacy we already have CD-Rom programmes in Xhosa and Zulu, produced by a company called African Voices. These are language learning multi-media programmes. This is in line with the national policy of promoting all our languages. Although these programmes are aimed at second language speakers, there is also a challenge to create literacy amongst all our people, including technological literacy through indigenous languages as well as through English.
CONCLUSION
In his recent article, Kamwangamalu (2000:59-60) concludes that status planning for the nine official African languages seems to be at odds with language practices in the country’s institutions such as television, education, government and administration, courts of law as well as the Defence Force. It is in reality English and Afrikaans which flourish in these institutions. He concludes that “... status planning for African languages, whether in South Africa or elsewhere in the continent, will succeed if and only if it results in tangible material gains for the language consumer. For this to happen, status planning for African languages should be treated as a marketing problem, one which could be solved if the products to be marketed were price-tagged and backed by the right promotion.”
It is only through vibrant and constructive debate that language issues can be addressed in South Africa, indeed throughout the continent. The case of Afrikaans has highlighted this issue. Whether the other languages will follow in the same footsteps remains to be seen. Already though, sites on LitNet such as Isikhundla Sababhali, a Xhosa site, as well as Phezulu, a Zulu site, are becoming increasingly well established. Many would argue that it is the publication forum of the future and that books will ultimately become obsolete as more readers simply down-load material from the Internet. This is, of course largely dependent on the availability of access to the Internet. If access does become widely available throughout Africa, this could mean that African languages could work their way upwards on the information highway. This makes logical sense, for example in a country such as South Africa, where the speakers of our languages are listed in the following order in terms of numbers of speakers during the last census: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Tswana, North Sotho, English, South Sotho, Tsonga, Swati, Ndebele, Venda and other. It is interesting to note that English lies in 6th place. Even so, although it may not be widely spoken, it remains the most prominent and it is associated with those who are economically privileged, and for this reason still commandeers most of the Internet usage. There are, however, already moves afoot by the South African Foundation for example, to have every school wired in Gauteng. Now if we truly do have a multilingual education policy as government espouses, then it will be incumbent also to encourage multilingual language-use on the Internet, thereby changing the nature of the ‘forked tongue’ mentioned earlier. One may well ask: how can this happen practically? Let us assume that virtual villages in the remotest parts of our continent could become a reality. For example, they would be able to trade with anyone in the world at the push of a button.
Let me then end off by providing a practical scenario by way of describing to you the Bio-reactor, which has been invented by a South African engineer, Brian Evans, who previously worked as a rocket scientist. This reactor produces energy which can be used by a community, and this energy can also be sold in various forms. This bio-reactor is now for sale in southern Africa. Seven of these machines have been purchased by the government of Mozambique and there is one up and running near Johannesburg. Indulge me for the moment and imagine yourself as the key role-player in the following scenario. Your name is Thabo Tutu. You live in Lubisi, a rural village in the heartland of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. There is no running water, no electricity and a virtually non-existent schooling system. The local administration led by a visionary Chief in collaboration with the provincial and national government decides to invest a million rands in a bio-reactor. This reactor is the size of a room and it makes use of biodegradable substances, animal waste, invader bushes and so on which the community feeds into the machine once a day. An exothermic reaction in an oxygen free environment occurs once the heat has reached a certain level. This bio-reactor then produces energy in the form of briquets, oil, gas, as well as water which can be sold by the community, raising approximately 120 000 rands per month. Furthermore, the bio-reactor produces electricity which will electrify 200 huts or abodes. It is a cheap, environmentally friendly way of creating energy. Once your house is connected you have access to tele-medicine and tele-educational facilities as well as the Internet. You are now part of a virtual village where your local crafts, your culture, your language, can become visible on a global scale. The simultaneous translation programme that has been installed also allows you to access English material in your local language, Xhosa. Your daughter, Nomfundo, is chosen as one of three local children to study engineering in order to assist the community in the running of the bio-reactor. In fact, most of her studies are undertaken from home through distance education facilitated by the Internet. Life will never again be the same for anyone in the village. The bio-reactor as well as other innovative initiatives could therefore facilitate the usage of global technology.[4]
By the way, your daughter develops Microsoft software in southern African indigenous languages and becomes so wealthy that she purchases half of Microsoft, and Bill Gates decides to move to an Eastern Cape village.
Finally, southern African languages, their use on the Internet and their role in globalisation are therefore dependent on access to technology. There can be no real talk of globalisation when there is unequal access to resources, including technology and education. Innovative ideas should be put in place and encouraged by African governments, free enterprise and local administrations in order to allow for access to globalisation and computer technology. It will need to be a collaborative effort involving government, companies and individuals. According to Aden (2000), “Leyland, a five-year, US$ 15 million project financed by the US government, is to link 20 African countries to the Internet.” In this lies the key to the global leap, a leap which will change the face of Africa much in the same way that the urban leap has done. The possibility of making this leap by making use of indigenous languages lies in the balance. On the one hand, the implementation of policy decisions in southern Africa regarding the increase of the status of these languages comes into play. The ‘forked tongue’ of multilingualism spoken of earlier and so often used by Kader Asmal, the Minister of Education, will have to be united into one, assertive, status-building voice. On the other hand, the access to technology, as well as an increase in literacy levels will play a major role.
Thus we rush to the future
unless the wheel of time
gets a puncture.
(From a poem by Lesego Rampolokeng, In Transition, published in The lava of this Land: Triquartely Books).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aden, A 2000. No connection under this number. African and the Internet. Development and Cooperation. No 5 (September/October). Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung. pp. 24-26.
Crawford, A 1999. “We can?t understand the whites’ language”: an analysis of monolingual health services in a multilingual society. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 136. pp. 27-45.
Finnegan, R 1992. Oral poetry. Its nature, significance and social context. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Goldstuck, A 1994. Ink in the porridge. Johannesburg: Penguin.
Kamwangamalu, NM 2000. A new language policy, old language practices: status planning for African languages in a multilingual South Africa. South African Journal of African Languages. Vol 20 No 1 pp 50-60.
Kaschula, RH & Anthonissen, C. 1995. Communicating across cultures in South Africa. Toward a critical language awareness. Johannesburg: Hodder & Stoughton/Wits Press.
Kaschula, RH & Matyumza, M 1996. Qhiwu-u-u-la!! Return to the Fold!! A collection of Bongani Sitole’s oral poetry in translation. Pretoria: Via Afrika.
Kaschula, RH 1999. South Africa’s language policy in relation to the OAU’s language plan of action for Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 136 pp 63-75.
Kaschula, RH 1999. Imbongi and griot: toward a comparative analysis of oral poetics in Southern and West Africa. Journal of African Cultural Studies. Vol 12 No 1 pp 55-76.
Moeketsi, R 1999. Discourse in a multilingual and a multicultural courtroom: A court interpreter’s guide. Pretoria: JL van Schaik.
Nunberg, G 2000. The word wise web. The American Prospect. March 27-April 10. (Website: www.prospect.org). Also, The Editor. April 14.
Saohatse, MC 2000. Solving communication problems in medical institutions. South African Journal of African Languages. Vol 20 No 1 pp 95-102.
Wynchank, A 1994. The cineaste as a modern griot in West Africa. In Sienaert, E et al Oral tradition and its transmission: the many forms of the message. Durban: The Campbell Collections and Centre for Oral Studies, University of Natal.
NOTES
[1] These statistics are supplied by Global Reach, Amps 1998.
[2] Bongani Sitole is an imbongi (oral poet) from the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. He became well known for his praises of Nelson Mandela after Mandela’s release from prison.
[3] This poem is fully analysed in Kaschula’s article in Research in African literatures, Spring, Volume 28, Number 1, 1997.
[4] Further details on the bio-reactor can be obtained from the following site: www.safm.co.za The programme is ‘Patricia’s People’, hosted by Patricia Glyn.
This paper was a keynote address at the international symposium “Text in Context: African languages between orality and scripturality”, University of Zurich, Switzerland, October 2001 and is under consideration for publication in the conference proceedings
* Department of Southern African Languages
University of Cape Town
Private Bag
Rondebosch, 7701
South Africa
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