Indigenisation of education through indigenous African languages in SA: an afro-optimistic perspective

Abstract

South Africas colonial and apartheid past has been characterised by racial divisions and inequalities perpetrated through a web of policies and legislations with their attendant social institutions. To reverse this past legacy, the post-1994 democratically elected government made it its commitment to eradicate these past inequalities and divisions through transformative policies and legislations. Guided by the national constitution, the government introduced amongst such policies, both the Language Policy for Higher Education in 2002 and the Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) policy in 2004. These were informed by the need to promote multilingualism through the development of the historically marginalised indigenous African languages, as well as the recognition that education is part of culture and that culture is transmitted through education. Hence the recognised need to integrate into educational curriculum, the historically repressed African indigenous knowledge not only as a measure of redress, but also as a strategic intervention that would give South Africa a competitive and comparative advantage in the globalising economy. This chapter provides a critical review of the existing discourse centred on these policy efforts aimed at supporting and developing indigenous African languages as scientific languages, as well as examines the progress made towards this, and implications for indigenisation of education through African languages.