Language rites: writing ourselves into the academy

Africanisation and decolonisation have brought education into a new age, one which embraces multilingualism. African societies are transforming from knowledge consumers to active knowledge producers. However, the process is slow and the historical privileging of Afrikaans and English in South Africa requires restructuring, which is achievable through the development of indigenous languages in universities. If indigenous languages and knowledge are not used, not developed, not intellectualised, then how will we meaningfully Africanise and decolonise?

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Publication Details

Journal
Human Science Research Council SA
Published
2026-05-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14749/32379387
Primary Topic
African cultural and philosophical studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Language rites: writing ourselves into the academy

Human Sciences Research Council
Human Science Research Council SA
African cultural and philosophical studies
article

Language rites: writing ourselves into the academy

Human Sciences Research Council
article en

Abstract

Africanisation and decolonisation have brought education into a new age, one which embraces multilingualism. African societies are transforming from knowledge consumers to active knowledge producers. However, the process is slow and the historical privileging of Afrikaans and English in South Africa requires restructuring, which is achievable through the development of indigenous languages in universities. If indigenous languages and knowledge are not used, not developed, not intellectualised, then how will we meaningfully Africanise and decolonise?

Human Science Research Council SA
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
African cultural and philosophical studies
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