History and mother-tongue education in South Africa.

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NEW CON TREE

HISTORY AND MOTHER· TONGUE EDUCATION

IN SOUTH AFRICA

Jabu S. Hulumende Maphalala

(Department of History, University of Zululand)

INGOIKITHI

Tningizimu Afrika iyilizwe lezinhlanga eziningi ezahlukene. Ukuze lkungabibikho indlela eyodwa ebuka izinto ngombono wase Ntshonalanga kwezomlando, umlando wezwe laseNingizimu Afrika kudingeka uveze izimvo zonke zezinhlangano zezwe kwezomlando. Kwabomdabu balelizwe umlando kudingeka ubuke izinto ngeso noma ngokubona nokuhumusha kwabomdabu.

Lokhu kusho ukuthi isizinda sokudabuka saseNingizimu noma ichwebakazi laseNyaza (Victoria), kufanele kusukelwe kuso ukuhumusha umlando. Uma abamnyama bezobamba iqhaza elibalulekile kun yaka wamashumi amabili nanye ekhulwini, osuqoshwe njengonyaka wabomdabu baseAfrika, imfundo exhumeke olimini Iwabomdabu kuphoqelekile ukuba isetshenziswe kuwo wonke amazinga emfundo egcina ebangeni lesihlanu ngaphandle kwalokho abomdabu ngeke baze bathuthuke kwezomnotho.

Into ebaluleke kakhulu ukwenza lokhu njengoba umbhali owaziwayo uChinweizu esikhumbuza, ukuqikelela ukuthi indawo evundile yokubhaliweyo kunoma yiluphi ulimi ingenziwa kuphela ngenqubo kaHulumeni emfundweni ebophezela abantu ukuba bafunde ulimi,

kanye nasezinqubeni zikaHulumeni ezisemthethweni

kwezokuxhumana, ezikhuthaza abantu ukusebenzisa lololimi. Okusemqoka ngezilimi zabomdabu baseNingizimu Afrika ngukuthi zonke zidabuka emsukeni owodwa. Ngakhoke umzamo omkhulu kudingeka kube ukukuthaza lezozilimi ezindaweni lapho zingakhulunywa khona, zifundiswe kulezozidawo.

Isibonelo: Ukufundwa kwesiVenda ezikoleni zakwaZulu, isiXhosa kwezaBetswana nesiZulu kwezaBesuthu njalonjalo. Enye indlela mhlawumbe engenza kube nolimi olulodwa Iwabomdabu olusemthethweni kungaba ukuthuthukisa izinga lesifanakalo ukuze kungathathwa ngokuthi kukhona ulimi olwenziwa ungqoshishilizi phezu kwazo zonke lezizilimi eziyisishiyagalolunye ezikhulunywa ngabomdabu.

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104 NEW CON TREE

that South African history never did belong to the British, it did not, he further notes belong to the Afrikaners, nor should it in a future South Africa belong to the native African majority. According to him South African history belongs to all who call South Africa home.3

AN AFROCENTRIC DEFINITION OF HISTORY

How can we make South African history belong to all who regard South Africa as their home? How can we eliminate what Prof. C. Tsehloane Keto calls "hegemonic Eurocentric history". The appro-priate definition of history has been given by Keto, one of the out-standing Temple University group of Afrocentric historians. He writes:

Information about events and actions that affected people in the past and the subsequent consequences of those events and actions, is what later generations call history. This information is first and foremost centred on what people actually did and what happened to them directly or indirectly. This "people centred" information is transmitted by one generation to another generation through the matrix of communication and across the sea of time in two ways. First, it is transmitted through oratory by elders within families and by senior mem-bers of a community. Second, the information is "taught" in a formal setting by professionally trained instructors such as teachers and professors operating in tempo-rary and permanent social institutions created by a com-munity for specific purpose of advancing the learning of the youth. We call these institutions rites of pas-sage, schools, colleges, institutes, academies, technikons and universities. 4

The history of South Africa has therefore to be rewritten to be ac-ceptable to all its multi-cultural peoples; it must be multicentric. We need Afrocentric, Asiacentric and Eurocentric perspectives. Keto regards this as one of the greatest academic challenges and strongly suggests that a history of New South Africa must be writ-ten to express both the story of human oppression and story of human liberation Simultaneously. Keto reiterates that only a multi-centric perspective allows an honest dialogue and debate between

Ibid.

c. Tsehloane Keto, Vision, identity and time: The Afrocentric paradigm and the study

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106 NEW CON TREE

Although there has been, as yet, no sign of heeding Diop's warn-ing in writwarn-ing South African history, many African-American histori-ans and a few on the African continent have already produced many Afrocentric books.a

The population of the Nile Valley was black, homogenous, physi-cally and culturally developed as much as any large group can ever be. These native Africans, according to John Henrike Clarke, Professor Emeritus of African and World History at Hunter Col-lege, shared a common material culture in pre-dynastic times. Clarke argues that the country known today as Egypt was called by native Africans Kernet, TaMerryor Sais. The ancient Hebrews called it Mizrain. Both the Greeks and Romans referred to the country as the "Pearl of the Nile." The Greeks gave it the simple name Aegyptcus.9

Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan, Black man of the Nile and his family. (1989); C. Williams:

The destruction of Black civilization, (1991); I. van Sertima (ed.) : Egypt, revisited: Journal of African civilization, (1982); T. Obenga: Ancient Egypt and Black Africa: A student's handbook for the study of Ancient Egypt in philosophy, linguistics and gen-der relation; and many others.

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108 NEWCONTREE

after the twelfth dynastic period, about 1675 Before the Current Era (B C E), settled in other parts of Africa. Hilliard further notes that there were also many other Nilotic and equatorial native Afri-cans throughout the millennia. Therefore Kemet was a major influ-ence on world civilisation and is the main parent of "Western" civilisation. Furthermore, ancien Kemet is culturally unified to the rest of the African continent.10

AFROCENTRIC HISTORY AND TEXTBOOKS

From the foregoing it becomes clear that the challenge facing South African historians and history school textbook writers, in particular, is to link South African history of the native Africans to that of Kemet and the Nile Valley civilisation. There are, however, disturbing sig-nals that hegemonic Eurocentric perspective in school history text-books is here to stay. Even the Mail & Guardian of 14 July 1995

poured some cold water on the high expectations among native Africans that Afrocentric perspective would feature in history school textbooks. This newspaper reported that by the time the amended history syllabus had been rubber-stamped by various committees and approved by Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu, hardly any of the proposed changes to rid the South African history of its White supremacist bias, had been made. The newspaper blamed the faceless "Old Guard" for retaining the hegemonic Eurocentric ap-proach in history syllabus. 11

It is often suggested the there is no evidence of African contribu-tion in history. There is, not through institucontribu-tionalized history chan-nels, but through izithakazelo (patronymic legends), izaga (prov-erbs), amahub (national and war songs) and izinganekwane (fairy tales). But most importantly, as Hilliard has observed, sources of evidence for Kemetic education are sacred texts written in mdw

ntru (renamed hieroglyphics by the Greeks): pyramid texts, papyri,

coffin texts, etc. There are monuments: Pyramids, tekenu (renamed obelisks by the Greeks), stelae, carvings, paintings, pottery and European "classical writers;' some of whom were eyewitnesses (Greek and Roman). Furthermore, the ancient and contemporary

A. G. Hilliard III, The Maroon within us: Selected essays on African American commu·

nity socialization, (1995), p. 210.

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109 cultural practices of inner-Africa (religion, family practices, sym-bolic structures, educations, etc.) when compared to those of an-cien Kemet are very similar. 12 Thus, the often repeated argument

that there are no sources for the contribution of the native Africans to human civilisation is baseless.

A LACK OF BLACK PERSPECTIVE IN EDUCATION

The continuation with the teaching of hegemonic Eurocentric his-tory does not augur well for the prosperity of the country's schools and universities. We should learn from the experiences of the United States universities in the 1960's. Dr Maulana Karenga, an out-standing Afrocentric historian, tells us that most respectable uni-versities in the United States today have African-American stud-ies. As to how this was achieved, Karenga writes:

For a long time until the Sixties in the United States, there was no Black studies. There were no serious studies of African people. This, of course, was an insti-tutional arrangement to justify, verify and perpetuate the contention that Blacks had done nothing in history. The reasoning was that if you haven't done anything, you can't have a course on it. So, what the institution was set up to do was to prove that there was no Black history to teach. This was accomplished by leaving it out. Our response, then, was to take over the univer-sity and stop the teaching, and inform the administra-tion that until. we have some Black, Brown, Red and Yellow studies, there will be no more White studies. For what we were really learning was White studies. 13

The delay in introducing multicentred South African history in our schools and universities will, therefore, inevitably lead to explo-sions and revolutions. Indeed, Prof Eskia Mphahlele has already warned about this danger. Giving his Graduation address in May 1995 at the University of the Witwatersrand, Mphahlele argued that ever since the beginnings of the Black Consciousness Movement in the early seventies, which also renewed African awareness of the Pan-African ideal, native Africans have been questioning the assumptions of the culture that brought the white man to his status

A. G. Hilliard, Kemetic concepts in education, in I. van Sertima (ed.), Egypt, child of

Africa, (1994), pp. 379-380.

M. Karenga, "The meaning and challenge of African history" in A. Addai-Sebo and A. Wong (eds.), Our story; A handbook of African history and contemporary issues, (1988), p.18.

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110 NEW CON TREE

of supremacy.14 With regard to the previously white university 1995 campus unrest, Mphalele reiterates that these campuses simply have to rewrite the rules, review old procedures, protocols, exer-cise traditional reflexes which go centuries deep, stretch beyond the frontiers of the intellect and its problem-solving capacity.15

NO MOTHER-TONGUE EDUCATION IS CULTURAL ABORTION

The second part of this paper deals with mother-tongue education in South Africa. Mother-tongue education is as important as the pro-colonial history of the country. In addressing this issue we should heed Hilliard's observation that we cannot change the sta-tus quo of anything having not first begun analysing history of the status quo, second, context (empirical data) and lastly, theory.

His-tory, according to Hilliard, must inform theory.16 In our case we should commence analysing mother-tongue education from the pre-colonial time, pre-colonial period, Apartheid era and the present situa-tion. South African native African languages predate all colonial languages. They should therefore be the basis of unity in the country. Regarding the issue of linguistic unity, Cheik Anta Diop has cor-rectly observed in the Black Africa that linguistic unity based on a

foreign language, however one may look at it, is cultural abortion. Diop has strongly warned Africa as follows:

It would irremediably eventuate in the death of the au-thentic national culture, the end of our deeper intellec-tual and spiriintellec-tual life and reduce us to perpeintellec-tual copy-cats, having missed out on our historical mission in this world. Anglo-Saxon cultural, economic, social and even political hegemony would thereby be permanently guar-anteed throughout Black Africa. We must remain radi-cally opposed to any attempts at cultural assimilation coming from the outside: none is possible without open-ing the way to others. 17

It has been established worldwide that teaching primary school children in their mother-tongue rather than in any other language lead to greater result in permanent literacy and numeracy and

E. Mphalele, "The burden of history and the university's role in the re-creating of its community, its environment." Graduation address, University of the Witwatersrand, 18 May 1995, p. 18.

Mphalele, "Burden of history", p.4. Hilliard, The Maroon within us, pp. 156-157.

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-112 NEW CON TREE

beginning of science and of civilisation in the Nile Valley. The Kemites and Kushites who invented astronomy, geometry, arith-metic, algebra, agronomy, medicine, metallurgy; whose achieve-ments are embodied in the Nile Valley pyramids, temples and monu-ments - those ancient native African scientists did not speak or write Afrikaans, English, French or Greek.22

"TO SPEAK IS TO ASSUME A CULTURE"

To speak, according to Frantz Fanon, means above all to assume a culture.23 Culture has been defined by Maulana Karenga as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, maintains and develops itself and introduces itself to history and humanity.24 With the demise of Apartheid in South Af-rica, the Government of National Unity has guaranteed the equal-ity of all eleven languages of the country before the law. These languages are spoken as mother-tongue by various peoples. They are Zulu 21 ,96%, Xhosa 17,03%, Afrikaans 15,03%, Northern Sotho 9,64%, English 9,01 %, Tswana 8,59%, 'Southern Sotho 6,73%, Tsonga 4,35% Swati 2,57%, Venda 2,22% and Ndebele 1,55%.25 South Africa is by far the most advanced on the African continent in modernising indigenous African languages. The nine indigenous African Languages in South Africa can already convey the exact sciences (mathematics and physics), philosophy etc. They have modern dictionaries. They have also been the languages of home-land governments used in public, political documents and acts, such as parliamentary debate, drawing up of constitution and legal code. Furthermore, experienced radio announcers have also played a prominent roll in modernising these nine languages. Ironically, all this tremendous work of modernising the indigenous languages was launched and speeded up after the introduction of Bantu Edu-cation in the 1950's. Indeed, the author was one of those pupils who received their primary education through the medium of mother-tongue.

22 Ibid., p.99.

23 Frantz Fanon, Black skin, white mask, (1967), p. 17.

24 M. Karenga, "Struggle and culture: Toward a National Black value system", in

Addai-Sebo and Wong (eds.), Our story, p. 211.

Department of Education and Training brochure, "The facts: South Africa's new lan-guage policy", p. 5.

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NEW CON TREE 113

The achievement of modernising the nine African indigenous lan-guages in South Africa, was however, based on the evil intention of the Apartheid government aimed at oppression and rigidly di-viding native Africans. The main aim was the promotion of white supremacy and creating misunderstanding among the native Afri-can majority. This aim of the Nationalist government was doomed to failure from the beginning.

THE CHALLENGE: ONE NATIVE AFRICAN LANGUAGE

The fundamental challenge facing the majority of native Africans is therefore, understandable. The question of mother-tongue educa-tion raises mixed feelings and cynicism in their minds. But the question remains: where do we go from here? What is the way forward? In a situation where the facts are confused with reality, Marcus Garvey, one of the renowned African Jamaican leaders and father of Modern Africa nationalism, writes as follows:

Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths. Let no influence but your own rouse you in time of peace and time of war; hear all, but attend only to that which concerns yoU.26 _{(My underlining).}

The solution in our multicultural society is a daunting task. The challenge is to improve the nine indigenous African languages and use them as mother-tongue in education. The main aim should be to use them as uniting factor for all native African people. South Africa, in terms of .the constitution, is theoretically a multilingual country. To use these languages as a uniting factor, we may by start using them interchangeably throughout the country to break the walls created by Apartheid government. For example in KwaZulu-Natal, Venda may be used in schools with Zulu. In the Northwest Province, Xhosa may also be used. In the Eastern Cape, Tswana may be used, while in the Northern Province we may in-troduce Zulu, etc. etc.

These may be the additional languages on top of the existing home languages of those provinces. This may culturally enrich the lives of the native Africans since all these languages, like the Indo-Eu-ropean ones, originate from one common cradle. For example

kgosiin Tswana is inkosiin Zulu. Similarly, the Tswana proverb: la

26 T. Martin (ed.), African Fundamentalism: A literary and cultural anthology of Garveys

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nt'swana ledujwa Ie sele metsi, means Iibujwa Iiseva in Zulu. These officials are the kgosilinkosi's right hand men in their izigodi(wards,

villages). Thus, the whole exercise of using native African lan-guages interchangeably may result in having one native African language as the official language in South Africa.

THE MINORITY RULE OF COLONIAL LANGUAGES

Until now native African South Africans have made knowledge of English and Afrikaans a prerequisite for holding any public office. Despite the guarantee given by the present constitution for equal-ity of all the eleven languages before the law, using them as mother-tongue in education is still far from being a reality. Most of our native African members of national and provincial parliaments, adhere to the use of English as the medium of debate in parlia-ments. Clearly these members are not addressing the native Afri-can majority (as I have already shown by percentages the number of those who speak the nine languages as their home languages).

The English language is spoken as home language by only 9.01 % of the South African population. But despite this fact most of our native African politicians still address their political rallies in a for-eign language not understood by illiterate and semi-literate adher-ents. Using foreign languages not understood by the majority of the people, does not augur well for the use of mother-tongue edu-cation in South Africa. Cheik Anta Diop has strongly criticised na-tive Africans who su.ffer from this habit as follows: "Using colonizer's language is a convenient way to avoid facing complaints of the population, who may be illiterate but are not without good senseY The persistence by native African intelligentsia and politicians in ignoring and looking down upon indigenous languages of the ma-jority, is the biggest stumbling block in introducing mother-tongue education. The consoling idea is that not all intelligentsia are needed in bringing about a change in any given situation. Maulana Karenga tells us that there must be "the national vanguard", 28 of those who are conscious and committed. This group is desperately needed. The main thing in a multicultural nation is to have a cultural base. Leaving such a base is tantamount to committing national suicide

27 Diop, Black Africa, p. 10.

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guage. But this saw a decline in the interest to develop and study indigenous languages. The English language held greater pres-tige and became a sought after commodity. To balance the attitude of Ghanaians to their own languages, the government established the education committee in 1973. This committee recommended that the mother-tongue be included amongst the examination sub-jects at the end of the primary course. This gave recognition to the mother-tongue as a significant education tool. The additional pro-vision made for training in the indigenous languages in Ghanaian teacher training colleges was another effort to neutralise the pres-tige value of English and promote the development of indigenous African languages:329

The third African country to promote mother-tongue education was Nigeria. Professor Babs Fafunwa, the then Federal Minister of Education moved in 1990 to implement the language component of the National Policy on education. A poll to gauge the feeling of the population was conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria. The result of the poll was 53% for the policy and 54,3% against it. The supporters of the mother-tongue education correctly argued that it would enable pupils to understand lessons easily, help promote cultural identity and a sense of belonging. But most importantly, they further noted that mother-tongue education pointed out that school subjects are best taught in English, that the introduction of language policy would waste national resources, slow down the pupils' learning pro.cess, and endanger the provision of a founda-tion for western educafounda-tion in future.33

We can note from the foregoing that the division in this most popu-lous African nation between those who were for and against the language policy, was almost equal. This almost equal division of opinion has prompted Chinwizu to suggest that a public reconsid-eration of the language of instruction in schools in Nigeria is advis-able. Chiwizu's main reason is that the larger issues raised by both sides of the mother-tongue controversy, should be analysed by Nigeria's language needs and how to satisfy them. That would be appropriate context, he maintains for selecting the languages of instruction in Nigerian schools.34

32 Namibia Today, 11 October 1989, p.7.

33 Chinweizu, "Black world language policy", p. 91

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118 NEW CON TREE

ing all this, as Chinweizu has reminded us, is to recognise that the infrastructure for a literature, in any given language, can only be created through public policies in education which oblige people to learn the language, and through public policies on official commu-nication which encourage people to use that language.36