White schoolboy chooses to learn Zulu over ‘dying language’

17.11.08

Article by: Prega Govender
Sunday Times Published: Nov 09, 2008

Trent-Dean Richardson has been nicknamed “Zulu Boy” because he is the only white matric pupil at his school studying an African language.
The Greenside High School pupil is among a handful of white matrics in Johannesburg who has chosen to study Zulu as a second language.
Richardson’s teacher, Merriam Sibande, who advises Zulu teachers at eight other schools in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, admits to encouraging grade 8 pupils to take Afrikaans instead because of the shortage of Zulu study material and reference books.
“My Indian and white kids are not exposed to isiZulu at home. They don’t listen to Zulu radio stations and depend only on what the teacher is doing in class.”
In addition to Richardson, Sibande’s only other pupil is an Indian girl in grade 10, who does not speak the language at home.
Sibande blames parents for the fact that children don’t want to learn Zulu at school. “Most parents look down on the language. The general feeling is there’s no need to do isiZulu. My argument is: Why do Afrikaans? You don’t use Afrikaans in the corporate world. ”
Richardson said he chose Zulu because he thought it would be more helpful than Afrikaans, which he described as “a dying language”.
“I can read Zulu but I tend to struggle with language and literature. My essay writing is also not fantastic,” he said.
“We all hear in grade 7 that Zulu gets much tougher once you get past grade 10 and that seems to scare a lot of pupils.”
A few suburbs away at Parktown Boys’ High, Zulu teacher Bongekile Kubheka said that in her matric class of 21 there were only five pupils who didn’t grow up speaking the language.
Her principal, Tom Clarke, said it was impossible to “fight the general belief that Zulu was more difficult than Afrikaans” and that they had tried to encourage more children to take the subject.
Geoff Harrison, principal of Kingsway High School in KwaZulu- Natal said: “If pupils want to do Zulu, they need to be able to speak it fluently. At high school it’s no longer a fun thing. There’s a definite syllabus.”
Vishnu Naidoo, head of Buffelsdale Secondary in KwaZulu-Natal, said Indian pupils were still choosing Afrikaans, because they were afraid of failing Zulu. “They are afraid of change. The language that is relevant in KwaZulu-Natal is Zulu.”