True Linguistic Equity Needed in Africa, says Languages Professor

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“African Languages and the Struggles for Democracy in Africa: the Enemy from Within”, was the title of a keynote address by Executive Secretary of the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), Professor Sozinho Matsinhe, at a recent College of Humanities’ African Languages Colloquium.

Matsinhe identified the use of former colonial languages to the detriment of African languages as the enemy from within, militating against the tenets of democracy.

He pointed out that the demise of apartheid and the inauguration of the first democratically elected President of South Africa in 1994 symbolised the closure of the chapter on the struggle for the liberation of Africa.

‘This coincided with the dawn of a new era for the African continent, which represents the beginning of the struggles for democracy. In fact, following the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the ballot box gradually replaced the crying of Kalashnikovs and coup d’états as the means to ascend to power.’

Mantsinhe also pointed out that as a result, dictatorships and life presidents have also been gradually replaced by democratically elected leaders throughout Africa.

‘Considerable progress has been made. However, there are still serious challenges facing the establishment of a culture of democracy on the continent. Chief amongst them is the marginalisation and disenfranchising of the vast majority of Africans through the use of former colonial languages that are only spoken by small minority urban elites, who because of that, are usually the only ones eligible to set the terms for the exercising of democratic rights,’ said Matsinhe.

While drawing on the provisions of the African Union on languages, expressed in the mandate of the ACALAN, Matsinhe argued that, unless a true linguistic equity was created and promoted in Africa, it would be difficult to defeat the enemy from within and establish a culture that allowed all Africans to exercise their democratic rights.

Matsinhe of Mozambique holds a PhD in Linguistics with special reference to Bantu Languages from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

His postdoctoral research has focused on language planning and language development, language contact and bilingualism in education, the use of African languages as medium of instruction in formal education as well as on Morphology and Syntax of Bantu languages.

From 1992 to 2009, he taught in the Department of African Languages at UNISA. Since 2009 he has been the Executive Secretary of ACALAN, the official language agency of the African Union (AU), whose mandate is to develop African languages and, in collaboration with the member states of the AU, promote their use in all domains of society in partnership with the former colonial languages – English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Matsinhe has published widely and lectured in Brazil, Canada, China, Taiwan and the USA. He has also served as external examiner for the Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe; the University of Botswana; the University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Namibia. He is still associated with UNISA as Honorary Professor at the Institute for African Renaissance Studies.

-          Melissa Mungroo