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A large South African university has abandoned Afrikaans as the official language for the benefit of English.
The University of Pretoria told the BBC that she needed to "transform the culture" to make it "truly South African".
English is the language of choice in South Africa.
The politics of the Afrikaans language has always been used to exclude black learners in a country where racism remains deeply entrenched 25 years after the end of the white minority's rule.
The word apartheid, which is now internationalized and appears in the Oxford Dictionary, is actually an Afrikaans word.
The language is still spoken by millions of people, but it is hoped that this decision will allow the many millions of people who do not speak it to feel welcome in one of the best academic institutions in the country.
Fortunately, I studied English there BUT man, I had the most naughty speakers of Afrikaans. They deliberately used to fail black students, then enjoyed watching them beg for two points. ?
– Michelle (@Michelle_Igwe) January 25, 2019
On Twitter, black and non-Afrikaans students discussed the new politics, many of them sharing the humiliating and alienating treatment they claim to have been submitted to the University of Pretoria.
One of them said that black students had been intentionally humiliated by lecturers speaking Afrikaans.
A few days after landing at the University of Pretoria as a freshman after 1994, I was confronted with academic buildings named in Afrikaans. You can imagine this fight for a 17 year old black teenager coming directly from a commune. Help came from the black staff at the library
– Getrude Makhafola ?? (@GetrudeM) January 25, 2019
Another recalls that language was a struggle for them as a 17-year-old black teenager from a township.
The speakers were walking in an English clbad room and telling us, "My English is bad, so I will mainly go back to the Afrikaans and if you do not understand, it is not my problem ", it was in 2010. I had a hard time understanding. many things, I've never done Afrikaans in my life
– Ero-Sennin (@Its_Neo_) January 25, 2019
And another former student said that lecturers had refused to speak English, telling students, "If you do not understand, this is not my problem."
Asked about the testimony, Pretoria University spokesman Rikus Delport told the BBC: "I'm sure there are incidents.
"That's what got it all together and saying," let's decide how we're going to move forward. "That flows from that."
Towards multilingualism
South Africa has 11 official languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, English, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenda and Ndebele .
Their constitutional recognition came with the advent of democracy, with the aim of helping to put an end to institutional racism and to remedy the bitter historical divisions of South Africa.
"In an ideal world, we would like all languages to have the same status in education, but this is not practically possible or achievable, so that little else happens in other languages", told the BBC the spokesman of the University of Pretoria.
"The university will continue to encourage multilingualism and we will provide support services to students when they register – as far as possible in their mother tongue."
Graduation and other official ceremonies will continue to present the three languages already used for these occasions – English, Afrikaans and Sepedi.
The six main mother tongues of South Africa:
- Zulu: 22.7%, Xhosa: 16%, Afrikaans: 13.5%, English: 9.6%, Setswana: 8%, Sesotho: 7.6%
- South Africa has 11 official languages in all
- English is the most commonly spoken language used officially and in business
Source: SA.info/Census 2011
Demand for education in Afrikaans is declining, according to the University of Pretoria, according to which 85% of its students came from Afrikaans-speaking households in 1992, dropping to 30% in 2015. Only 18% of students have stated that they want to take Afrikaans courses. at the last count in 2016.
"The Afrikaans will be phased out," said the BBC spokesman for the University of Pretoria. "Students already enrolled will continue to attend Afrikaans clbades."
English received the same status as Afrikaans from Stellenbosch University as a result of student campaigns
Although the changes took effect early in the year, the university announced that the decision to move to English had been made in 2016, as a result of highly publicized student campaigns throughout the year. the country, such as #AfrikaansMustFall and #FeesMustFall.
This wave of protests has also given English an equal status to Afrikaans at the University of Stellenbosch in 2017.
backlash
AfriForum's civil rights group AfriForum opposed the reform proposal of the University of Pretoria at the time and has now accused the university of dishonesty in its amendments to the linguistic policy. The university denies this.
"They were wrong, they badociated him with [the appointment of] the new vice-chancellor – but I do not know where they got that impression, because change is imminent ".
The South African finance minister was also involved in the debatesaying that people will regret the decision of the university to abandon the Afrikaans in the years to come.
"It is obvious that there are people who differ from us, who do not agree with that – and we have to accept it," said the spokesperson of the group. University of Pretoria.
"It was a decision made by a lengthy consultation process over a long period of time, not something that happened overnight."
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