How Can the South African Situation Broaden My Notions of Language and Identity?

            I have never thought of language as a major way to identify myself before. That’s probably because in the U.S. most people speak English and only English. Until I started high school, I had never attempted to learn another language, so it was a bit of a shock to learn that in South Africa, language was a huge part of identity.. Of course, it is a huge part of identity everywhere, but I was unaware of much of that connection.
            People naturally use language to identify themselves and others, even if they are unaware of it. It is often easy to tell where someone is from by their accent, or at least to know if they are from the same area. Different dialects of languages are also spoken in South Africa. The way isiXhosa is spoken in urban areas can greatly differ from the way it is spoken in rural areas, and different areas develop their own slang words. The same is noticeable in the U.S., where it is usually easy to tell where someone is from by the kind of English they speak.
            Language is also used to construct one’s identity. In the film Tsotsi, Tsotsitaal is used by the characters to identify themselves as criminals and gang members. Tsotsitaal is a mixture of languages that can be used to exclude those who do not speak it. Similarly, in the U.S. the use of slang can be used to seem “cool,” while at the same time it can be used to keep others from knowing what is discussed if they are not familiar with the slang words being used. Different slang words come with each generation, perhaps in attempts to exclude other generations. People sometimes try to blend in with a social group by changing the way they speak, such as converging by adopting a different accent, which changes the identity they are projecting.

           When I think of ways a government can oppress a population or a minority rule over a majority, I think of restrictive laws and economic control, not language. Language can also be used as a political and social weapon, though. An example of this is theBantu Education Act, where the apartheid government attempted to change the language used in public schools from English to Afrikaans, which sparked protest. 

Afrikaans was seen as the language of South Africa’s oppressors, while English was seen as more neutral, because the English speaking white population was not politically in control, the Afrikaans speaking white population was. During apartheid, liberation movements “used English as the medium through which they kept the international community” aware of their fight against apartheid (266, Kamwangamalu). English has become a pragmatic we-code, according to Kamwangamalu, because it was seen as a neutral language that allowed black South Africans to communicate with those of different ethnic groups, as well as the rest of the world.
            The importance of language as a marker of identity is font-size: 16px;evident in South African culture. Language diversity may continue to present problems with unity, but South Africa embraces its identity as a “rainbow nation.”

~Forest Gupta