7 - Cry, the Beloved Language

Summary

This essay, which is based on a lecture Sindiwe Magona delivered in 2014 at a conference in South Africa, articulates her beliefs about the importance of indigenous languages and the damage that is done through the estrangement from mother tongue. Just as Alan Paton warns in his famous novel 1 of the danger that the apartheid regime poses for the nation, Magona anticipates the disintegration of the society should mother tongue continue to be sidelined or, worse, blatantly denied.

THE THEME OF this conference – ‘Reclaiming Our Heritage through Language’ – leads me to believe that we recognise that, as a nation, we were left something by our progenitors: heritage. I make bold to say that this belief goes beyond mere recognition to include the realisation that this heritage, this inheritance is worthy – hence the intention to reclaim. In short, we admit to the fact of having been left something worthy, which we no longer have, and which we intend to get back.

What is it we have lost, or think we have lost? How did we lose whatever it is we have lost? Was it taken from us, stolen, or did we lose it through neglect – our neglect? Or did we simply throw it away? Did we go to sleep and let it die an unmourned death, without even being aware it was dying or had died?

Since we declare that we intend to get back that which we have lost, and to do that by means of language, it seems to me it would be right and proper to first examine the instrument by means of which we mean to accomplish our goal. Thus, for the main part, I shall attempt to do exactly that – examine that instrument. Having chosen language as the instrument we shall use in this most important task, have we looked at it closely? Have we examined it to evaluate its fitness for the job? I assume we have. Surely we have, for what warrior would dare set out to do battle without having first ascertained that their weapon was up to the challenge? Our weapon, according to the title, is language – to be specific, isiXhosa, the language of amaXhosa, the Xhosa people. But is isiXhosa ready for the task?

First, however, what, precisely, is language?