The following article from the Cape Argus was seen via a Google alert (last June). It is one of a number of articles in various South African papers discussing languages in the country around the 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising. DZO
Renaissance awaits nine African languages after decades of neglect June 22, 2006 Edition 1 http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=137&fArticleId=3304783 Sandile Memela Minister Pallo Jordan's visionary plans for equity for our African languages will doubly show the student uprising of June 16, 1976 was not in vain, writes Sandile Memela At no time in the history of African languages has the government done so much in so short a time to promote their use in the mainstream. It cannot be true that the government communication strategies continue to "wink in the dark", so to speak, because the pronouncements of the Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Pallo Jordan, about his department's plans to promote African languages is a revolution that was televised live, albeit only on the parliamentary channel. The Department of Arts and Culture is fully aware of the centrality of the language issue in the revolutionary explosions of June 16, 1976. In fact, this awareness is what has resulted in the minister putting R1 billion where his mouth is. In February, following the president's State of the Nation Address, the minister announced plans to invest this huge sum in libraries throughout the country. The thrust of this project is to cultivate a culture of reading and writing among all South Africans. Of course, this programme entails not only writing, publishing and translation in African languages, but will also build new infrastructure and thus contribute to fighting poverty, creating jobs, transforming the language sector and creating economic opportunities through the promotion of African languages. This is a result of acknow-ledgement of a poor reading culture and the unavailability of literature written in indigenous languages that has inspired the department to put in place a plan for language equity, especially the African languages. Dr Mongezi Guma (Cape Argus, June 15) seems to insinuate that not enough is being done to promote African languages. There is an obvious need to place on record what the government has been doing. The Department of Arts and Culture has had Dr Jordan as a full minister only for the past two years, but he has taken the promotion and preservation of African language as a personal mission virtually from day one. For the most part, it is not that the government continues to "wink in the dark" where only its officials know and understand what the programme of action is until 2014. Plans for the next three years were announced by Jordan last February. They underscore a bigger and more meaningful role in the mainstream for African languages. The programme of action entails the following pivotal projects: * The establishment of nine language research and development centres for African languages. The purpose is to decentralise language development and locate it close to communities that speak those languages; * The South African Language Practitioners Bill to regulate and professionalise language work; * The National Language Policy Framework of 2003 to regulate the use of all official languages in government institutions and to promote multilingualism; * The establishment of the National Language Forum across all three tiers of government to bring together language workers within the government; * The Department of Arts and Culture's national language services which continue to offer translation and editing services to all national government departments; * The establishment of the Human Language Technologies Unit within the department to facilitate communications between citizens and information systems in people's own languages. This will entail the co-ordination, development and production of technical vocabularies (terminologies) by the department to promote the use of all official languages in the all the fields and domains of study, including mathematics, science and technology. During 2005 the DAC launched nine of these at a ceremony in Boksburg; * For this 2006/7 financial year the department has allocated R70 million to language programmes and activities to promote linguistic diversity. R39 million will go to the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB); * R30 million will be spent on the Telephone Interpreting Services (Tissa) which will create employment in interpretation and call centre management. Essentially, Tissa aims to make it easier for all citizens to be served in their own languages; and * The ministry has invested some money to affirm and encourage the publishing house Realities, to address the dearth of literature in African languages. That Cape Town-based company has already published two titles in Xhosa, including Sindiwe Magona's Kuba-ntwana baba Ntwana bam. Three more titles are in the pipeline for production this year. It is becoming clear that 30 years after the June 16, 1976 student upheavals changed the course of history, indigenous African languages are once more coming into their own in an unprecedented African renaissance. The youngest department in President Thabo Mbeki's government has put into place levers of power not only to transform the language sector but to make sure that, for the first time, African languages will be equal in the true sense of the word. It is now up to African mother-tongue speakers themselves to be agents of what they wish to happen to their languages, namely, that they take their rightful place in mainstream society. It is important to note that even after more than 27 years in exile, Jordan is intensely aware of the importance and relevance of African languages and speaks Xhosa as fluently as English. What we do over the next 30 years will tell us if June 16 was worth the sacrifice. - Sandile Memela is the spokesman for the Ministry of Arts and Culture. **************************** Disclaimer ****************************** Copyright: In accordance with Title 17, United States Code Section 107, this material is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material posted to this list for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Content: The sender does not vouch for the veracity nor the accuracy of the contents of this message, which are the sole responsibility of the copyright owner. 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