Monday 23 June 2014

Dear Black Child

Dear Black Child !

Dear black child, it is so unfortunate you were born into a country with such a painful history, a country where in order for you to receive a " better " education you had to attend a white school with absolutely no regard for pan-Africanism. It is so unfortunate that you had to leave your neighbouring schools and attend schools where you had to take taxis, while your white class mates easily worked to school, schools where you were forbidden to speak your own African language because it was regarded "barbaric" and useless . I mean we are in Africa aren't we? So why do our own African languages continue to be degraded and classified as less important. Don't get me wrong, English is a universal language and very economically useful, so does this mean we should focus more on what is regarded important and leave out our own languages that define who we are? I mean we could easily learn English and also do an African language. The youth of 76 didn't lay their lives so Afrikaans should be made compulsory instead of our own African languages, there's nothing wrong with Afrikaans, in fact learning many languages shows how smart we are especially as black kids, we were born and started speaking our native languages then we started learning English and Afrikaans, this just shows you how smart we are. But as time goes we are fed what I call "hogwash" which is the image that African languages are less important. I can't wait for the day where all South Africans regardless of race and class learn at least one African language, after all we are in Africa aren't we? Steve Bantu Biko once said and I quote " Black man, you are on your own" and after so many years I say to you, black kid you are also on your own, now make the best of it.

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