Languages: 
Land is language and language is land according to the keynote speaker and renowned language Professor Ncedile Saule at the regional African Languages Association of Southern Africa (ALASA) conference at WSU in Mthatha recently.
Saule said that in days of yore, African people were named after nature and the environment, which made the land an integral part of culture and language.
“Today’s youth have no culture or language,” he said.
Saule reflected on literature of acclaimed isiXhosa authors and how their writings predicted today’s predicament; questioning whether African intellectualism still exist in modern writers.
“A serious writer must address themselves as the African predicament. This is what makes writers intellectuals,” Saule said.
To elaborate his argument, Saule said writers such as S.E.K Mqahyi were able to write something abstract at the time, only to be understood decades later as it unfolds as reality.
“Our writers and poets, after the liberation struggle were never celebrated or acknowledged. We are here today because of them and their words.” said a concerned Saule.
He quoted Mqayí’s words “Amadoda oyisiwe mabaphathe abafazi” (Let the women lead where men have failed), which speaks to the predicament of feminism today.
Saule said isiXhosa writers always portrayed their society as one in conflict with itself and with external forces.
“Xhosa writers told about how the oppressors came to Africa with a Bible in one hand and alcohol on the other. This is how our society is still conflicted today,” he concluded.
University of Fort Hare’s Professor Nomsa Satyo said the conference is an opportunity for language experts to improve the curriculum and teaching methodologies.
“It makes it easier to get advice from peers and to get constructive criticism. It also allows us to coin terminologies that will be used and recognised across the board,” she said.
ALASA is a non-profit organisation established in 1979. The conference was attended by academics and student researchers from Walter Sisulu University, Rhodes University and the University of Fort Hare.
By: Sinawo Hermans
