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and communal self realization is language. That’s why the right to language is a human right, like all the other rights, enshrined in the constitution. It is exercised in different ways communally and individually chosen as a democratic right. But in most African countries before, but more so after independence the majority are denied access to their languages because the state has marginalized them to the point of official invisibility. English, French and Portuguese take the pride of place in the body politics. In some cases there is hostility towards African languages. He points out that even where there are positive policies, there is no economic, political, cultural and psychological will behind their implementation. All the will and resources are put behind European languages. Referring to those affording parents to

languages and not one’s own is enslavement. I hope Africa chooses empowerment over enslavement. Don’t turn our children into linguistic slaves, aliens in their own communities. The global citizen is not an abstraction: he or she has roots in all the countries, communities, and languages of the earth”. I am more attracted towards Ngugi Wathiog’o because he confronts the question of self determination head on using the Marxist – Leninist approach. In his work - The Right of Nations to Self Determination,Leninwrotethat“throughout the world, the period of the final victory of capitalism over feudalism has been linked up with national movements. For the complete victory of commodity production, the bourgeoisie must capture the home market, and there must be politically united territories whose population speak a single language, with all obstacles to the development of that language and to its consolidation in literature eliminated. Therein is the economic foundation of national movements. Language is the most important means of human intercourse. Unity and unimpeded development of language are the most important conditions for genuinely free and extensive commerce on a scale commensurate with modern capitalism, for a free and broad grouping of the population in all its various classes and, lastly, for the establishment of a close connection between the market and each and every proprietor, big or little, and between seller and buyer”. It is in this context that the ANC as a national liberation movement adopted the Freedom Charter as a vision which represents an anti thesis of colonial and apartheid regime. The Freedom Charter, among other says that: “All people shall have equal right to use their own languages and to develop their own folk culture and customs and that all national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride.” This vision got inscribed into the constitution which among others says that everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable. In order to ensure the effective

access to, and implementation of, this right, the state must consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, taking into account— (a) equity; (b) practicability; and (c) the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices. Everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice, but no one exercising these rights may do so in a manner inconsistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights. Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right, with other members of that community— (a) to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language; and (b) to form, join and maintain cultural, religious and linguistic associations and other organs of civil society. (2) The rights in subsection (1) may not be exercised in a mannerinconsistentwithanyprovisionofthe Bill of Rights.The Education Language Policy takes this to its logical operational practice and recognises that the inherited language in-education policy in South Africa has been fraught with tensions, contradictions and sensitivities, and underpinned by racial and linguistic discrimination. A number of these discriminatory policies have affected either the access of the learners to the education system or their success within it. The new language in education policy is conceived of as an integral and necessary aspect of the new government’s strategy of building a non-racial nation in South Africa. It is meant to facilitate communication across the barriers of colour, language and region, while at the same time creating an environment in which respect for languages other than one’s own would be encouraged. This approach is in line with the fact that both societal and individual multilingualism are the global norm today, especially on the African continent. As such, it assumes that the learning of more than one language should be general practice and principle in our society.That is to say, being multilingual should be a defining characteristic of being South African. It is constructed also to counter any particularistic ethnic chauvinism or separatism through mutual understanding. The Language

Picture source: www.thesouthafrican.com

take their children to English Speaking schools so that their children can learn better English, Ngugi had this to say about them: “The African middle class is running from their languages. In the process they perpetrate child abuse on a national scale. For to deny a child, any child, their right to their mother tongue, to bring up such a child as a monolingual English speaker in a society where the majority speak African languages, to alienate that child from a public they may be called to serve, is nothing short of child abuse. To have a mother tongue, whatever it is, and add other languages to it, is empowerment. But to know all the other

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