adminFactmore Dzobo Chronicle Reporter
SAN people from Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North province are complaining over the death of their mother tongue language, Tshwao, and its exclusion from the country’s school curriculum. Speaking during the International Mother Language Day commemorations in Tsholotsho district recently, the San community representative, Davy Ndlovu bemoaned the fading away of the San people’s language and cultural values. He said the San community’s Tshwao language should be documented and included in the school curriculum to preserve it for the coming generation.
“There is a need for government to document the San language (Tshwao) and the need for it to be included in the country’s education curriculum. Tshwao language should be taught in some of the schools in the San communities. It is one the indigenous minority languages that are down trodden.The language needs to be preserved for the next San generation,” said Ndlovu.
Ndlovu said mother tongue languages should not be discarded and should be revitalised as mother tongue languages are a communicating tool and an essential component of one’s collective individual identity and provides a sense of belonging to one’s community.
“The cultural values and language of the San community faces extinction. The language for the San community is no longer passed from one generation to the other because of its exclusion from the school’s curriculum.
“We want our mother languages to be given prominence and to be taught in some schools for the sake of our children to be able to speak and read their mother tongue language as part of preserving our cultural values,” said the San village head, Madlela Maphosa in Gariya, Tsholotsho district.
Speaking at the same occasion, Roselene Sipepa Nkomo, Member of Parliament for Tsholotsho North Constituency, said some of the indigenous minority languages like the one for San community should not be left to die. She said the San’s Tshwao language has never been documented and the young generation no longer speaks and understands their mother tongue language. Most of the San children speak IsiNdebele.
“We need to raise the issue in Parliament, the Tshwao language for the San people cannot be left to die a natural death. Only a few San elders who can speak and understand the language are left. There are no longer speakers and teachers of the San language, as most of the elderly Tshwao speakers are dying leaving the young generation with no one who can speak and teach the language,” said Nkomo.
Nkomo said the promotion and preservation of mother tongue languages should be taken seriously as this will promote community’s cultural values and encourage multilingual education and cultural diversity in the country.
It has been revealed that from the population of over 3000 San people in Tsholotsho and Plumtree districts, only 13 San elderly people between the ages of 66 to 97 were identified as the only San people left who can speak and teach the San language.
The International Mother Language Day has been observed every year on February 22, since 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism and the day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations, Educational, Scientific (Unesco) and Cultural Organisation in November 1999.
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