Linguistic rights in Africa: A critical analysis of the survivability of indigenous languages of Namibia

The call for the protection and promotion of languages, especially minority languages has gained prominence in recent years largely due to awareness campaigns by academics and human rights organisations. The United Nations through its agency the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) continues to promote linguistic and cultural diversity as well as multilingualism. To this effect, the UN recognizes 21 February as ‘International Mother Tongue Day. Alarmingly, about 90% of the world’s languages are expected to die out within the next 100 years or so if mechanisms to reverse this impending tragedy are not adopted by various states across the world. The study therefore focused on the language situation in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. It should be noted that the study was interdisciplinary in nature. It encompassed areas of sociology, linguistics, anthropology, history, political science and law. Because of its interdisciplinary approach, the study discussed issues of language and nation state, language loss, international law and language rights, the linguistic history of Africa as well as the economic and political effects related to the marginalization of African languages. Desktop research methodology and to a lesser extent face to face interviews were the main methods used to acquire data for the study. The study revealed two crucial findings: These are: (1) there is no specific international legal instrument that recognizes the right to language. (2) The study further found that Namibia recognizes the right to language under its Constitution, however, there is no specific law nor a language body that specifically protects and promotes local languages. The author thus recommended that the Namibian National Language Policy as crafted in 1981 be reviewed and updated. The author further recommends that African languages be used in all educational settings. This will encourage language scholars to develop new vocabulary and new scientific terminologies to represent new thoughts and philosophies articulated in African languages.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Namibia

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Harris, Christian

• Indigenous languages
• Language protection
• Language promotion

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11070/2953

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.unam.edu.na:11070/2953