While Charlize Theron is joking about only 44 people speaking Afrikaans, neglecting the more than 8-million people who use it around the world, the focus should be less on whether the language itself is dying and rather on what is being done to preserve all African languages in ICU.
The SA-born Hollywood star sparked a language debate this week when she touched on Afrikaans in an interview with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett on their SmartLess podcast. In it, Theron joked “there are about 44 people still speaking” Afrikaans and called it “a dying language”.
“It’s not a very helpful language,” she added.
She explained how she didn't speak English until she was about 19 years old and only focused on learning the language when she left for America.
Theron has been a staunch advocate for SA over the years, bringing global awareness to issues affecting the country from unrest to devastating floods and pandemics, but her latest comments came across as ignorant, naive and populist.
A star we had always prided ourselves on having not “sold out” suddenly seemed all too comfortable making a joke of a SA language and culture at our expense.
Data from global statistics service, Statista, state as of 2018 Afrikaans was the third most common language spoken in SA homes (12.2%), behind isiZulu (25.3%) and isiXhosa (14.8%). English was sixth.
The 2011 census found more than 6-million Afrikaans first-language speakers in SA and more than 10-million who spoke it as a second language, while Worlddata estimates more than 8.4-million people speak Afrikaans globally.
It is worth noting the census a decade earlier had listed only 5.9-million Afrikaans speakers.
Far from “dying”, the language had grown 13.5% in 10 years.
It takes government, the private sector and ordinary citizens to fight for cultural and linguistic heritage.
While Theron brought the focus on Afrikaans, the state of other local languages should be of equal — if not more — concern.
Ndebele, SiSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga and (non-official language) San languages are each spoken by less than 2% of the population. Their advocates have often cried out for recognition and respect, while they warn of the possible extinction of their way of life.
These languages, and many others, belong to small cultural groups, but they are equal in importance to their more widely spoken siblings.
The “death” of Afrikaans may be perceived in it being slowly replaced in schools and other social settings, but that does not mean it is being spoken less.
The replacement of Afrikaans in such a space should be applauded where it allows the exposure and “survival” of other languages better suited.
Last year Rhodes University announced a collaboration with local and foreign universities to revive and preserve indigenous African languages by encouraging them as mediums of instruction at higher education institutions in SA.
A few months later, basic education minister Angie Motshekga spoke of government’s national mother-tongue-based bilingual education programme to upgrade African languages into the medium of instruction for maths, science and technology, and other critical subjects.
Such moves must be applauded as methods to help preserve and empower local communities. They should be a source of pride, not ridicule. Acknowledging the dominance of English, Zulu, Xhosa and other languages as a medium in business, education and social settings is not a licence to relegate others.
It takes government, the private sector and ordinary citizens to fight for cultural and linguistic heritage. Government has a duty to implement programmes and policies to highlight these languages. The private sector often has the funding and influence to make these a reality. While citizens have a responsibility to share their language and heritage with the rising generation as something to be guarded, not mocked.
We have seen the political will to debate Afrikaans heritage, and citizens’ eagerness to make their voices heard in the same matter. We have also seen the private sector’s support in matters related to Afrikaans heritage.
But the noise draws still when other African languages are spoken about and their needs expressed. Suddenly, funding is a problem, schedules are full, and “logistics” becomes a barrier. The vehicle of communication for so many of our people becomes an afterthought.
The UN has highlighted that every two weeks a mother tongue disappears. Let us not one day wake up and realise other African languages have faded into oblivion while we watch “the death” of Afrikaans.
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