Here is a video of my camera-shy friend, Malebye, speaking some Setswana.

The Bantu language group is quite large and contains many languages across Africa.   It is similar to the relationship of French, Spanish, Italian, etc. in the Romance languages.  They are not mutually intelligible, but the structure is similar and if you can master one, learning the others becomes easier.  Amongst the Bantu languages Zulu is considered to be relatively easy, Xhosa (the “click language”) is one of the hardest.  Most people in the Northwest province, where I am currently staying, speak Setswana. 

An aside: “Setswana” is the language; the country of “Botswana”, neighboring South Africa, is literally the “land of the Tswana.”

Bantu languages have several interesting features.  They tend to be tonal languages, which means that saying something with a rising, falling, or neutral inflection changes the meaning of the world.  It also gives the languages a sort of musical quality.  In Setswana, like Spanish, the accent is generally placed on the penultimate syllable, which also adds cadence.  As one Tswana speaker said to me, “English is flat, Setswana rolls.”

Bantu languages also have many noun classes.  If you know Spanish or French then you can understand feminine or masculine words as noun classes.  Bantu languages tend to have anywhere from 10 to 20 noun classes, and unlike Romance languages, verbs conjugate differently with nouns from different classes.  In addition, conjugation can take place at either the front or the end of the verb, so you have to train your ear to listen for the verb stem in the middle of the word.

If all this is too abstract, try reading through the examples below and you will see what I mean.

Go tshameka - to play
ngwana - a child
bana - children
ngwana watshameka- the child plays
bana batshameka - the children play
monna- man
banna-men
Go bona - to see
monna obona ngwana- the man sees the child
banna babona bana- the men see the children
monna obona bana batshameka – the man sees the children play

South Africa is a country of many languages - 11 official languages, and several others besides.  In addition to English and Afrikaans (a Dutch derivative), most of the other languages here are in the Bantu language group.   Although regionally there may be a predominant language spoken, nation-wide there is no majority language.   Most people, especially young people, speak English, but it is the first language of only a small minority.

In many ways languages are the key to understanding South African politics and culture.  For example the fact that there is no majority language means that everyone is constantly reminded that they are part of a very diverse country.  Contrast this with the “English first” attitude of many Americans.  We have little tolerance for immigrants to our country who don’t quickly master English.  There is a cultural assimilation that is implicit in this expectation.  We think of ourselves as a diverse and tolerant country, but sometimes that just means that people from other cultures are welcome to come, learn English, and “act like Americans.”  In South Africa everyone is a minority.

Yesterday I walked into a store and was greeted by the clerk in Setswana (the predominant language in the township), then Afrikaans (most whites in the nearby area speak Afrikaans), and then finally we settled into English.  In a gas station I heard the Tswana speaking attendant and a Xhosa speaking driver switch into Zulu.  This kind of linguistic dance is very typical as strangers search for a common language.  Most people here speak 3-6 languages, so eventually something works.  As a pretty much one-language guy I am somewhat of an anomaly in this country.  Everyone is politely surprised.

A big piece of the anti-apartheid movement was the right to be instructed in one's mother tongue.  Which is interesting, because that is a right that is expressly denied to Spanish speaking students in the U.S., even in communities where Spanish is the predominant language.  In an increasingly connected world I wonder if there is not a critical polyglot* component of democracy that we have overlooked.

*Polyglot - knowing or using several languages.