Why (and how) are 11 languages recognized as official languages?

Every time I met someone new while in South Africa the same worried question crossed my mind; how do I say hello? In many countries, while it may not be your native tongue, saying hello is as easy as memorizing a couple words. South Africa on the other hand is a different story. Although we were studying Xhosa while abroad, there is only so much preparation that can go into teaching you that there are eleven official languages, eleven ways of greeting people. While learning all eleven ways could be potentially helpful, how do you know which one to use when? It’s virtually impossible.

Throughout our classroom discussions the same question continued to arise, “how can a country function with eleven official languages?” and even more discussed “how can South Africa hold a national identity?” in answering these questions I came to the conclusion that South Africa’s identity is diversity; diversity through unity and vice versa. Each language has a specific background rooted deep within their history making it a very hard task to eliminate languages. Their music, poetry, history documents as well as everyday works are written in their mother tongue. According to Neville Alexander’s “language Politics in South Africa” during the spreading of the idea of “Stalin’s theory of a nation” South Africa began to believe the notion that having the same national language would make them a stronger nation. However that idea quickly disintegrated after the realization that the majority of South Africans would lose their native language.

More than 50 years since this theory, South Africa continues to hold on to tribal and historical roots by keeping many of native languages alive. Although these 11 languages have been recognized, one problem remains; communication. While studying abroad I noticed the primary use of one language more than any other, as you can probably guess it was English. English is seen as the “language of opportunity” a group of locals put it, the language understood by the majority. English is the language of business and of success in their eyes, because it is mandatory for most of the available jobs. One of South Africa’s biggest struggles, which can be seen at primary schools like the one we visited, is the education system and which language to educate in. kindergarteners usually are only familiar with one language, the one they use at home. How do you go about teaching them English and maybe even Afrikaans to make them better candidates for the limited amount of job opportunities? More importantly, how do you do this when they all come from different languages in the first place?

I don’t see South Africa’s language situation as a failure by any means, but a success. A success to uphold the history they have and to remain strong regardless of the many divisions in language and race. I look forward to analyzing South Africa in the future and seeing where their languages will take them.

~Riley