Chapter 3: Languages, Language Learning, and Nationalism in South Africa

South Africa has a complex history of linguistic diversity and inequality related to race and identity, the legacy of European domination and the liberation struggle, and official use of language for control and for progress. The politics of language learning and teaching have been, and remain, integral to this history. Historically the official European languages (English and Dutch/Afrikaans) served imperialist and white supremacist nationalist ends, while the indigenous languages remained unrecognized until 1994. A dichotomy existed between official language policies (for mono-and bilingualism) and the realities of language-in-use (multilingualism). Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid ideology had as a cornerstone the promotion of Afrikaans to the status of an international or metropolitan language. Education and language issues were catalysts in the liberation struggle to overthrow the apartheid regime. In the post-apartheid era, issues related to language, nationalism, and education include the cultivation of a new multiracial, multilingual nationalism and Pan African identity, persistence of home language use patterns, recognition and acceptance of multilingual realities, and the importance of indigenous languages, potential for English to become an indigenized linking language, and the eroded status of Afrikaans despite its persistence and its use to maintain the apartheid era status quo in some schools. While new policies offer hope for achieving linguistic equality, their implementation presents a major challenge in education and other sectors. South Africa is a classic case in point regarding the complex relationships between language and nationalism, and language and education.