U.S. English Foundation Research
SOUTH AFRICA
Language Research
2. Background: Background notes
The idea of ethnicity became highly explosive during Apartheid. Then in 1993 and 1994, as the country emerged from the Apartheid era, many South Africans appeared to reclaim their ethnic heritage and to acknowledge pride in their ancestry. The new political leaders recognized the practical advantage of encouraging people to identify both with the nation and with a community that had a past older than the nation. So the interim Constitution of 1993 reaffirmed the importance of ethnicity by elevating nine African languages to share the status of official language of the nation, along with English and Afrikaans.
Both the Dutch and the English regimes promoted monolingualism in South Africa. Neither really succeeded in doing so. Since 1994, South Africa has developed into a multilingual democracy, becoming even more multilingual than ever before. According to the supporters of multilingualism, national unity does not require official use of only one language. The official language of a country need not necessarily be an international language and children can be taught more languages and still master them.
Africa, as a continent is multilingual. The only monolingual countries in Africa are Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Somalia and Swaziland. On the other hand, Nigeria uses 410 languages, Zaire 206 languages and Ethiopia 97 languages.
Multilingualism is described as the dynamic process, which empowers the speakers of different languages to convey messages in a language or languages of their own choice, as well as displaying sensitivity for the need of different communities to express themselves in their own vernacular. The Department |
