In a moment of cultural reckoning, Dr. Lang Fafa Dampha, Executive Director of the Pan-African Centre for Cultures and Languages, delivered a virtual solidarity message to delegates at a landmark workshop in Cape Town. The gathering focused on a critical advocacy mission to secure official recognition and revitalisation of South Africa’s Khoi and San languages, which are among the continent’s oldest living tongues.
Dr. Dampha, a seasoned Pan-Africanist and former Executive Secretary of the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), urged government leaders, policy-makers, and traditional custodians to move beyond symbolic gestures and take concrete action. “This workshop is not just a meeting,” he declared. “It is an act of reclamation.”
His words underscored a growing movement to restore dignity to indigenous languages systematically marginalised by centuries of colonialism and apartheid. For Dr. Dampha, this struggle is not about nostalgia, it’s about justice, healing, and reclaiming identity.
Praising the enduring strength of South Africa’s First Peoples, Dr. Dampha highlighted their centuries-long struggle to preserve their languages despite deliberate attempt to erase them. He acknowledged the recent recognition of South African Sign Language as an official language, a step forward, but insisted more must be done.
“The Khoi and San languages, among the oldest spoken on Earth, still lack their rightful place in our institutions, schools, and media,” he said. “This is not a request for charity. It is a demand to restore what colonialism and apartheid tried to destroy.”
Organised by the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), the workshop brought together traditional leaders, linguists, activists, and government officials in a charged yet hopeful atmosphere. Dr. Dampha seized the moment to outline a clear roadmap for progress, including:
• Legislative reforms to enshrine linguistic rights in law.
• Teacher training programmes to integrate Khoi and San languages into education.
• Budgetary support for preservation efforts, including digital tools.
• Community-driven initiatives to ensure grassroots participation.
He highlighted that schools must become engines of linguistic justice, linking South Africa’s efforts to broader continental movements like the African Union’s Decade of African Languages within the context of the United Nations’ International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022– 2032).
Drawing parallels across Africa, Dr. Dampha highlighted successes such as the constitutional recognition of Tamazight in North Africa and the adoption of Kiswahili as an official language in East Africa, as well as its status as a Working Language of the African Union and a Language of Wider Communication in Africa. “Africa is reclaiming its linguistic sovereignty,” he said. “When we centre our languages, we centre our cultures, our values, and our dignity.” His tone combined urgency with optimism, framing the struggle as one for generational change. “When fatigue sets in,” he urged, “think of the children who will one day read their history in their own languages, knowing their heritage is protected by law and honoured in public life.
Closing with a quote from Nelson Mandela,”If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”, Dr. Dampha reminded the audience that language is more than communication. It is memory, belonging, and identity.
He pledged to carry the workshop’s resolutions beyond South Africa, offering them as a blueprint for other nations. “Long live the Khoi and San languages,” he concluded. “Long live South African languages. Long live African languages,” for a Peaceful, Prosperous, Integrated and Healthy Africa.
As the event ended, it was clear that this was no academic exercise. It was a historic step toward justice, one where the voices of the First Peoples are not echoes of the past, but architects of the future.