Ek is kwaad. I am angry. Ngithukuthule
Buddy my very fat puppy understands me and the words I speak be it English, Afrikaans or Zulu and especially the tone of my voice. If I say sit, he sits. If I say stay, he stays. If I say don’t attack your fellow dog because of wanting to drink water instead of eating his food, he listens to me. See the fundamental difference between us and our canine companions are that we are busy waging war over words and language and missing each other in the midst of it all; we are becoming animals.
If you browse through Facebook now or read a newspaper you will find that there will most certainly be a report about the language debacle for Afrikaans to be removed as a teaching language from Afrikaans Universities. Did you read the irony in that statement just now? That’s like me protesting against Mugg ‘n Bean for serving coffee when I am sitting with coffee in my hand. In our constitution we have the right to receive tutelage in our home language and institutions have implemented new language policies a few years back in order to accommodate our multi-cultural heritage but alas, politics has infiltrated once again to push their personal agendas down on all students involved.
In my eyes language is not a racist issue at all, political parties have turned it into a racial issue with blatant disregard to all students and academic institutions and their pursuit to raise the leaders of tomorrow and we as a country are suffering more and more because of it. Any person of any colour can learn any language and it’s open to all. We as South Africans have 11 languages to choose from so it’s as good a place to start as any. The language we end up speaking, our home language is taught to us by our parents and we have the choice to kindle or diminish the flames of our tongues and we cannot allow external factors to determine the outcome because then we are helping them use their tongues for spreading hate.
As for the language debacle, all are entitled to their beliefs, another right we as humans have in our constitution and we should use it, but if it means we end up silencing each other by inciting violence and trying to take away our native tongues we are just doomed to repeat history, and as for me: I am learning more and more to speak “dog” and I told Buddy to “sit”. Hope the carpet can get cleaned.
