African languages and the challenges of community development in South Africa

Abstract

African languages, like other disciplines, have a critical role to play in development. Therefore, universities can contribute positively to the upliftment of people's lives by using these languages in ‘creating an enabling environment for people to live long, healthy and creative lives’ (Alkire, 2010:3). This article addressed the indifference or apparent lack of effort by professionals and academics offering African languages in community development. It was premised on one of the aims of the University of South Africa (1990:3), which stated that the ‘University of South Africa (UNISA) must see the changes and the developments taking place…as a challenge to contribute towards the establishment of an open and just society and, most importantly, through empowerment of communities’. This article enjoined universities to use African languages as a resource for development and ‘promotion of individualised self-help for the empowerment of community’ (Carpenter & Miller, 2011:12).