Language Policy in South Africa and the Century-old Discourse on the Development of the Indigenous Languages for Epistemic Access, Decoloniality and Development

Abstract

The South African Government gazetted the Language in Education Policy (1997), which seeks to promote the use of mother tongue languages at schools, and the Language Policy Framework for Public   Higher Education Institutions (2020) which seeks to promote multilingualism and strengthening of indigenous languages as languages of scholarship, teaching, learning and communication in public higher education institutions. The argument of this article is that the two policy documents, which call for change, are a culmination of a more than a century-old discourse. The discourse on epistemological change and development and promotion of indigenous languages for epistemic access, decoloniality and development permeated the writings (creative, journalistic, historical and religious) of black South African writers in general, and isiXhosa writers in particular, since the era of introduction and control of black education by missionaries, the colonial government and the era of control by the Apartheid regime. To support my argument, I have purposively sampled writings of two organic intellectuals, Dr WBM Rubusana and Professor DDT Jabavu who were educators and political activists in the first half of the twentieth century. The former had profound interest in development of primary education while the latter contributed significantly towards the development of secondary and higher education.