ABSTRACT

The extent to which Khoe and San people speak and are literate in their own languages within South Africa is of concern. The “Rethinking Khoe and San Indigeneity, Language and Culture in the Transformation of School and Tertiary Education in South Africa Seminar”, held in Johannesburg in 2018 debated these issues, amongst others. Papers presented at the seminar questioned which languages should be considered KhoeSan, how and if these languages should be maintained, and debated whether or not the term KhoeSan was meaningful in language terms. Some presenters pushed us to broaden our definition of language and literacy, to decolonise or indigenise the terms, and the practice of research as a whole. This paper provides a brief insight into some of the issues surrounding the topic as discussed at the seminar and provides a background to the conception, logistics, planning and challenges of the seminar. As the papers presented in this special issue emanated from the seminar a summary of them is also provided.

摘要

在南非，K族和桑族人以自己的语言说和识字的程度令人担忧。2018年在约翰内斯堡举行的“在南非的学校和高等教育改革研讨会中重新思考Khoe和San土著，语言和文化研讨会”对这些问题进行了辩论。研讨会上发表的论文质疑应将哪些语言视为KhoeSan，应如何以及是否应保留这些语言，并辩论了KhoeSan这个术语在语言上是否有意义。一些演讲者促使我们扩大语言和读写能力的定义，使术语非殖民化或本土化，以及整个研究实践。本文简要介绍了研讨会上讨论的与该主题相关的一些问题，并为该概念提供了背景知识，后勤，计划和研讨会的挑战。正如研讨会上散发的本期特刊中介绍的论文一样，本文也提供了摘要。