My language, my culture: an exploration of the cultural significance of isiXhosa language to people who identify as amaXhosa: a case study with six urban and six rural speakers

Mtsi, Ncedo

My language, my culture: an exploration of the cultural significance of isiXhosa language to people who identify as amaXhosa: a case study with six urban and six rural speakers

Thesis / Dissertation

2023

Abstract

There are several factors that cause people to convert from their cultures to cultures that they view as being more economically and socially desirable. In South Africa, cultural conversion became evident with the arrival of missionaries: Africans started to adopt the culture and world view of missionaries (Ndlovu, 2002; Oduyoye, 2009). The adoption of western culture came at a high price for African languages, particularly in terms of developing the skills associated with learning and speaking one's first language (people started learning languages that were in line with their newly found culture). Bamgbose (2011:5) contends that one of the things that contributes to African languages being seen as languages without value is the fact that some African people display negative attitudes towards their mother-tongues by sending their children to schools where they would be taught in a foreign language. Growing up in a middle-class family in Delft in Cape Town, where most people aspired to get a good education, land a well-paid job, and move to the suburbs, I was always aware that these aspirations were firmly linked to acquiring the highest level of English. In my daily life I, and my friends who were also young isiXhosa-speakers, could tell that the need to acquire English was paramount to achieving these aims. We saw no evidence of our own language, isiXhosa, being used in powerful institutions such as banks, hospitals, and universities. However, we did witness, at many cultural events, our language being used robustly and with pride. There appeared to be a separation between language that was valued as a way to gain economic wealth (English) and language that was important for spiritual development (isiXhosa). We thus were led to believe that our language is not sophisticated, that it holds no value in the economic world. Kramsch (2000:7) argues that the predominance of certain languages in institutions of power, and the neglect of others, can cause harm to the less powerful language and culture and slowly instil in its speakers a feeling of rejection and alienation from mainstream society: “The prohibition of its use is often perceived by its speakers as a rejection of their social group and their culture.” In other words, equating success with one language and realizing that one cannot use one's language in certain contexts that are deemed economically important, can lead a speaker of a less economically powerful language to shift from his/her home language to another.

Keywords

African Languages &amp

Literatures

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