Forum on Public Policy 1 Linguistic Diversity and Development: the Language Question and Social

Language is without doubt the most important factor in the learning process for the transfer of knowledge and skills is mediated through the spoken or written word. Ayo Bamgbose, 1992. The linguistic landscape of Southern African states, which includes South Africa, is diverse and complex. Multilingualism being a global norm today, this should be an advantage rather than a disadvantage for individual countries. However, the problem is that African countries in Southern Africa, which include South Africa, favour ex-colonial languages rather than indigenous African languages, but it is these tongues that the majority of Africans use in their day-to-day interaction. The article argues that the non-use of the countries ’ pronounced official languages is unjust in the socio-economic and political life, since the citizenry are excluded from fully participating in aspects of their national lives. The central argument, therefore, is that there is absence of social justice to correct the imbalances of the apartheid rule in post-colonial South Africa. South Africa’s constitution of eleven official languages, is hailed as one of the most progressive language policies in the world, but this is only gesturising and theoretical. It is mired in undemocratic practices with absence of rights to the majority of its country’s citizens. In practice, Afrikaans and English are the de facto languages of use in higher education, government, commerce and industry, diplomacy, and in almost all documentation. The linguistic domination continues to politicise the language question and there seems to be lack of the political will to implement appropriate policies. The article towards the end examines these socio-economic and political consequences of language policies and the impact of the efficacy of various development projects in the region. The challenge is to convince policy makers of the pedagogical usefulness of using African languages in education and also in society, at large, not instead of European languages but in addition to them