LINGUA FRANCAS AND CULTURAL ISSUES

"SAY YES MAN"

According to folklore, the Southern Sesotho name for the English language Senyesemane, originates from “Say Yes Man”. It is believed among some of the older Basotho people that it is derived from the Anglo Boer War (1899 - 1902) on the question British soldiers asked a Black person to “say yes man” when they tried to establish whether the Black person could understand some English or not. If they did, they were considered to be on the side of the British. However, if they could not, they were considered to be working for the Boer soldiers and subsequently interned in the Black concentration camps. Word of course spread fast and quite soon the phonetic term Senyesmane was coined for the language lenyesmane, English men, spoke. A Black person only had to repeat the “pass word”: “Senyesemane” to escape the concentration camps! English, next to mother tongue Sesotho as well as Dutch spoken by the Boers, was inter alia the Lingua franca that one needed to walk around freely in the war stricken Boer Republic of the Orange Free State.

Today it is this very same Lingua franca that still predominantly dictates the policy on the language of instruction in South African education. When a language is used by common agreement, such a language is called a lingua franca, according to Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams in their work An Introduction to Language (2000). The authors say that a variation of Lingua Francas existed since Latin was the common language in the Roman Empire, Greek for the ancient Christian world, Yiddish among the Jews all over the world, Swahili in Northern African countries and Hausa in Nigeria. Without labouring the world wide phenomenon of Lingua Francas in India and especially in Chinese speaking countries such as main land China and Korea where the grammar is far too complex to ascribe it to only one Lingua Franca, our focus is on Africa.

Often we are inclined to regard our language issues in post Apartheid South Africa as only between Afrikaans and English while back at the ranch in deeper Africa, it is actually Arabian, French, Portuguese and Swahile in East Africa. At conferences which staff members of the CUT attended of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE), language services are common to translate the main three Lingua Francas, namely English, Arabian and French. Portuguese is still an issue to be sorted out in the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA) for Angola and Mozambique and as the Arab proverb states “ Language is a steed that carries one into a far country” (ibid). This proverb is packed with meaning regarding the fast growth of the Moslem religion in Africa.

When a South African academic was about to visit France for a Political Science conference, his knowledge about the French was tested, namely, how is he going to find his way without understanding their language. His natural response was that he will use English! Colleagues very courteously reminded him that the French do not speak English very likely. His typical reaction was that they must! Colleagues afterwards recalled how he got rebuked by the French when he tried his English on them and landed up very depressed in his hotel room He soon found out that French is the well known Lingua Franca of diplomats next to English.

When a broad base of mother tongue speakers use the same language or dialect, it could also be considered as Lingua Francas such as the current drive of the Education Minister, Naledi Pandor to foster home language tuition at the primary school level to define the roots and extent of our “Africanness” (SA Media, University of the Free State, City Press, 2006-10-08). The CUT ascribes to this policy with its Academic Literacy Programmes, however, English for all at Higher Education level is paramount for the globalised curricula. Students choose to speed with their more privileged class mates even at the expense of their mother tongue. Unfortunately there is a great shortage of aspirant teachers to educate the ground phase of African languages (Volksblad,2006-10-09). Africanisation versus internationalisation is a tough academic race between imperialism and nationalism. Far too complex to comprehend the outcomes within a rapid expanding e-learning environment where educational technology sets the pace between the haves and the have nots.
Eventually it becomes a struggle between Capitalism versus Socialism and Communism. Innovative entrepreneurial thinking for a Free Market system versus militant trade unionism.

It must also be remembered that the translation of the Christian Bible into Setswana near Kuruman, Northern Cape, by the missionary station of Moffet (father in law of the well known adventurer who named the Victorian Falls after Queen Victoria of England, Dr David Livingstone) was only done towards the end of the 19th century. It is closely related to the Sesotho language. This was actually the first technology driven event that brought the Black people of southern Africa into contact with the printed word. However, very important to note that we are referring to only about one century of exposure to printed technology through a huge quantum leap into computer literacy. Today, Black staff assist our students and lecturers with access to Web CT.

Language and academic literacy go hand in glove. Academic literacy opens wider concepts in real life. Also to humour which is so necessary for seeing the proverbial light during eureka feelings, according to educationist De Bono. For example, when a South African cardiologist diagnosed a patient with aggressive cholesterol which was clogging vena of the heart, the doctor remarked that the Portuguese- Greek- Spanish and French speaking countries enjoy their food and red wines and have little heart troubles while the Americans, Australians, British and South Africans are suffering of hyper cholesterol problems. His prognosis was that his patients should not speak English! English seems to be hazardous for one’s heart because it causes severe stress.. Yet thereby hangs a tale to be told. The patient corrected the doctor and said it is rather the dry red wine that lowers cholesterol! Subsequently one can say: to survive in South Africa is “to Say Yes Man for a glass of dry red wine” In Vino Est Veritas. It’s true, because it will shrink the “stretch” of our language issues. (Kallie de Beer, Director Distance Education)