Dr Bonke Xakatha from the Department of African Language Studies at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Image supplied.

Dr Bonke Xakatha from the Department of African Language Studies recently represented the University of the Western Cape (UWC) as a guest speaker at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) during their International Mother Language Day celebration on Friday, 28 February.

Reflecting on the invitation, Dr Xakatha noted that the occasion carried significance beyond a personal academic engagement. He explained that his participation as a guest speaker at CPUT during the International Mother Language Day celebration represented an important moment not only for himself, but also for the UWC community. According to Dr Xakatha, sharing this experience with the UWC community is meaningful, as it highlights and supports the University’s ongoing commitment to multilingual approaches in teaching, learning and research.

In his address, Dr Xakatha emphasised that language is central to dignity, identity and intellectual freedom. “To say that my mother tongue matters is not to romanticise the past,” he explained. “It is to affirm a people’s right to exist fully in knowledge, governance and scholarship.”

Drawing on the work of Kenyan scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Dr Xakatha reminded the audience that language carries culture, and that culture carries the values through which communities understand themselves and their place in the world. “A mother tongue is not decorative,” he said. “It is architectural. It forms the first intellectual world a child inhabits.”

He also highlighted the importance of mother-tongue education, referring to global research on language and learning. According to Dr Xakatha, “UNESCO has long maintained that children learn best in their mother tongue”. He further referenced educational scholar, Jim Cummins, noting that “conceptual knowledge developed in one’s first language transfers across languages,” which means that the mother tongue becomes “a bridge to global participation, rather than a barrier”.

Dr Bonke Xakatha was a guest speaker at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) during their International Mother Language Day celebration. Image supplied.

Dr Xakatha argued that the language question in higher education cannot be separated from history and power. Citing sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, he explained that language functions as “symbolic capital”, where some languages are legitimised in spaces of power while others are marginalised. “Colonial systems elevated certain languages into the domains of science and governance while relegating African languages to the private sphere,” he said.

For Dr Xakatha, reclaiming African languages in universities is therefore a matter of justice. Referencing scholars such as Sinfree Makoni and Alastair Pennycook, he noted that colonial language policies created hierarchies of knowledge. He added that what Walter Mignolo calls “epistemic disobedience” involves challenging those hierarchies by researching, theorising and publishing in African languages.

He concluded his reflections by emphasising the broader meaning of language preservation. “A mother tongue is more than grammar,” he said. “It is memory. It is identity. It is the first home of the mind. When a language is silenced, a worldview is silenced. When it disappears, humanity loses a library.”

Dr Xakatha further reminded audiences that embracing mother tongues does not require rejecting global languages. “Multilingualism is not a threat, it is strength,” he explained. “We can engage the world without erasing ourselves.”

His message resonates strongly with UWC’s multilingual language policy, which recognises language as a tool for inclusion, access and knowledge creation. By promoting the development and use of multiple languages in teaching, research and institutional life, UWC continues to advance a vision in which linguistic diversity strengthens both academic excellence and social justice.

He brought his address to a memorable close by reciting a poem titled, “My Mother Tongue Matters”, which he had specially composed in honour of International Mother Language Day. The heartfelt performance resonated deeply with the audience, leaving the room captivated, moved and inspired. The poem reads as follows.

My Mother Tongue Matters (By: Dr. B.Xakatha)

My mother tongue matters.
My mother tongue is not just a language.
It is memory.
It is identity.
It is history breathing through syllables.
It is culture wrapped in sound.

Before I knew the world, I knew my mother’s voice.
Before I understood society, I understood her words.
Those words shaped my thoughts.
They shaped my emotions.
They shaped my understanding of who I am. A mother tongue is the first home of the mind.

When we speak our mother tongue, 
We do not merely communicate, 
We connect, Yes! We connect.
We connect to our ancestors.
We connect to our heritage.
We connect to generations who lived, loved, struggled and triumphed before us.

Language carries wisdom.
In our proverbs, there is philosophy.
In our idioms, there is poetry.
In our oral traditions, there is history.
In our everyday expressions, there is worldview.
In our existence, language is the heart.

When a language is silenced, 
A worldview is silenced.
When a language is neglected, 
Knowledge is neglected.
When a language disappears, 
Humanity loses a library.<

My mother tongue matters,
Because it carries indigenous knowledge.
It carries ways of healing,
Ways of governing,
Ways of worshipping,
And ways of understanding community.

It teaches us values, respect, humility, and solidarity.
It teaches us that a person is a person through other people.
It reminds us that identity is collective, not isolated.
And yet, too often, mother tongues are treated as secondary.
They are confined to homes but excluded from boardrooms.
They are spoken in villages but silenced in universities.
They are celebrated culturally but ignored academically.
This must change, Yes! It must change, Now!

A language must not only live in conversation.
It must live in education.
It must live in research.
It must live in science, in technology, in literature, in governance.
When children learn in their mother tongue,

They do not struggle to think,
They flourish.
They do not translate ideas,
They create them.
To honour our mother tongues is not to reject other languages.
It is not division.
It is dignity.
Multilingualism is not a threat, it is strength.
We can speak global languages without abandoning our own.
We can embrace the world without erasing ourselves.

My mother tongue matters,
Because it affirms my humanity.
It tells me that my voice is valid,
My culture is valuable,
My history is worthy,
And, my identity is not inferior.

When I speak my mother tongue proudly,
I am saying to the world:
I exist, ndikhona!
My people exist.
Our stories exist.
Naphakade!

Let us teach our children to speak without shame.
Let us write in our languages.
Let us research in our languages.
Let us publish in our languages.
Let us dream in our languages.
Let us love ourselves.

Because, when we preserve our mother tongues,
We preserve ourselves.
My mother tongue matters.
Your mother tongue matters.
Every mother tongue matters.
Let us protect them.
Let us promote them.
Let us pass them on, not as relics of the past,
but as instruments of the future,
Camagu!