There is no Chinese bogeyman
By introducing Mandarin to our public schools we are merely uniting our diversity
THERE is no China coming over to gobble up South Africa, with Mandarin paving the way towards her cultural and economic colonisation. And the South African government is not some gullible, mindless native child ready to prostitute herself to China with all her economic might, her power and her glory.
It sends chills downone’s spine to watch the unravelling sensation over the introduction of Mandarin as an unofficial, optional language in our public schools, when a simple, yet uncommunicated process that rolled out is as follows:
The Department of Basic Education released Circular S10 in July titled “Incremental Implementation of Mandarin as a Non-Official Language from 2016-2018”, announcing the introduction of Mandarin as an optional language in public schools, fromgrades R to 12. Why?
It singled out Mandarin because it is not offered in all the grades in public schools, while other optional languages (German, Serbian, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Spanish, French, Tamil, Telegu, Urdu, Arabic, Hebrew and Gujarati) are already offered in upper grades (8 to 12), and German and Serbian in grades 7 to 9. These and Mandarin therefore all need to be offered in all the grades.
The introduction of the other optional languages is reflected in the National Policy Pertaining to the Programme and Promotion of the National Curriculum Statement Grades R to 12 of September 2012. Hence the Department of Basic Education singled out the introduction of Mandarin and other optional languages in those lower grades, because it had already pronounced on the teaching of the other optional languages in the upper grades (7 to 12) in 2012. Simply put, Mandarin is the new kid in class.
In clearing out the commotion generated by a lack of communication by the Department of Basic Education and the deliberate and heated misinterpretation by the public, what else should have been communicated about this?
It is that although these optional languages seem arbitrarily chosen, they are not. They (with the exception of Latin) are representatives of substantive constituent ethnic language groups ingrained in South African society, some for more than four centuries. To that effect, they need to be reflected and represented in our social, cultural, heritage and educational institutions, proportionately, as we strive to build a socially cohesive country. This cannot be emphasised enough, as we push against xenophobia, and other forms of divisions.
We are a 21-year-old democracy, soon to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our constitution spawned out of “unity in diversity”.
The Department of Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga had asked: “Why is it that there are no complaints about these languages that already exist? An answer to that will be interesting.” Perhaps the interesting question should rather be: What kind of public space that we inhabit gives birth to this absurdity of deliberate misinterpretation? It is a space wherein the public sector takes up only 18% in the production of knowledge and information, followed by the civil society sector contributing 23%, and the private sector 59%.
South Africa remains characterised by public thinking dominated by binaries: white/black; white-rich/black-poor; East-authoritarian/ West-democratic. This announcement fell squarely into this moist, befuddling public space, ready to transform simple announcements into political and destructive diatribes. Already, newspapers articles are replete with stories of how the government is selling herself to China. Contrary to that thinking, countries relate and trade with each other based on reciprocity and respect for sovereignty.
The bogeyman is a monster that comes out of warped perceptions and post-Cold War thought
South Africa’s White Paper on Foreign Policy, “Building a Better World: The Diplomacy of Ubuntu”, emphasises the country’s intention to reach all political-geographic corners of the world in her political and economic engagements. Its top five export markets are the US (7.35%), Germany (5.08%), Japan (3.47%), Zimbabwe (2.49%) and China (2.46%) while its top five import source countries are China (14.91%), Germany (11.33%), US (8.03%), Japan (5.11%) and India (4.24%).
We introduce Mandarin as an optional language, in addition to the others, to reflect the multicultural fabric of our society. We are uniting our diversity, as we strengthen our democracy. In doing so, we relate with other countries as necessitated by our national interests. China, the second-largest economy in the world, is but one of them. There is no Chinese bogeyman. The bogeyman is a monster petering out of the production of knowledge that comes out of our warped, binary-based perceptions, post-Cold War thought-dominated South African public space. The bogeyman is you.