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3 - Decolonising Our Minds, Decolonising Our Languages

A Mentalist Approach to Language Attitudes

from Part I - Mental Decolonisation and Cultural Diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Mantoa Motinyane
Edited by
Russell H. Kaschula  and
H. Ekkehard Wolff
Russell H. Kaschula
Affiliation:
Rhodes University, South Africa
H. Ekkehard Wolff
Affiliation:
Universität Leipzig
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Summary

South Africa is well known for its multilingual and multicultural society. It is also famous for its constitution that guards against any form of discrimination. The aim of this chapter is therefore to examine the micro element of the indigenous African languages and how the meanings associated with blackness and whiteness reflect or shape the mental state of both hearers and speakers. Using the mentalist approach to understanding language, we examined data from social media as well as self-observation to study language attitudes associated with blackness and whiteness. We argue that the way in which language is used reflects and shapes feelings and behaviours. We further argue that language usage can be a tool of social control in further associating blackness with badness while glorifying whiteness.

Keywords

Decolonisationlanguage attitudeslinguistic discriminationnaming practicesblacknesswhiteness
Type
Chapter
Information
The Transformative Power of Language
From Postcolonial to Knowledge Societies in Africa
 , pp. 67 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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Websites

https://twitter.com/Google Scholar
https://www.facebook.com/Afrikanization/Google Scholar
http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2016/11/21/experts-say-umlungu-is-not-negative-in-meaning/Google Scholar

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