The similarities between the linguistic regime of Apartheid South Africa and that of Catalonia

Today, the word "apartheid" (which means "separation" in Afrikaans) has negative connotations, implying discrimination and intolerance.

Catalonia: This is what some Spanish and international media almost never explain

A government that won with fewer votes because those from rural areas were worth more.

Apartheid was a regime of racial segregation imposed between 1948 and 1991 by the South African government, which during this time was in the hands of a single party: the Nasionale Party (National Party), an Afrikaner nationalist party (the name given to the South African population of Dutch origin). Curiously, this party came to power having received far fewer votes than its main opponent, the pro-British United Party, thanks to an electoral system that assigned more representation to rural areas than to urban areas (as occurs, for example, in Catalonia, where a vote is worth more in Lérida and Gerona than in Barcelona and Tarragona).

Linguistic isolationism promoted by Afrikaner nationalism

This is how a majority nationalist party in rural areas seized power in the country and imposed this regime of racial segregation. In addition to the rules that discriminated against the population based on their race, the Nasionale Party advocated an isolationist line in linguistic matters. To give us an idea, the South African nationalist government did not allow the introduction of television in the country until 1976 because it considered it a threat to Afrikaans, the Dutch-derived language spoken by the white Afrikaner population.

Another aspect of the Nasionale Party's isolationist policy was linguistic. English was not only the mother tongue of the white population of British origin, but it was also the most sought-after language of instruction among the black population, who had nine different native languages ​​and saw English as a way to gain more job opportunities, even abroad. Furthermore, the black population associated Afrikaans with Apartheid, as it was the language spoken by the white population that had enforced segregation.

The white Afrikaner population considered the Afrikaans language a symbol of their national identity and even of their marginalized class consciousness (until the mid-20th century, Afrikaners, who were the majority in rural areas, had lower average incomes than white South Africans of British origin, who were the majority in the cities). Since its officialization and separation from Dutch in 1925, Afrikaans had become a singular language limited to a single country. Its possible disappearance became a nationalist incentive for the Afrikaner minority. It is the same incentive that nationalism uses in Catalonia, using the pretext of the possible disappearance of the Catalan language as an excuse to violate individual rights.

The Afrikaners also marginalized whites who spoke English.

In "Multilingualism, Afrikaans and normative political theory" (2006), Professor Pieter Duvenage of the Department of Philosophy at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University explained: "The Afrikaner nationalist elite (mobilized by the National Party) set out to systematically construct a nationalist state by separating Afrikaners from white English-speaking South Africans, black ethnic groups, and Coloured Afrikaans speakers." That is to say, the language was used not only as an element to reinforce racial segregation, but also to marginalize white English-speaking people.

The Nasionale Party's language policy included a strong promotion of Afrikaans in public institutions, the publishing industry, education, science, and the media. Within a few decades, Afrikaners went from being "poor whites"—as they saw themselves—to becoming the country's political, economic, and cultural elite.

A minority determined to impose its language on the majority of the population

In 1974, the South African nationalist government took this policy of linguistic isolationism a step further: the Afrikaans Medium Decree. The unstated but more than obvious objective of this decree was to displace English as the majority language in South Africa in favor of Afrikaans. In short: a social engineering project to replace one language with another against the will of the population. In "The Afrikaans Medium Decree" (2019), the British historian Alistair Boddy-Evans, an expert in African history, recalled what the linguistic regime of that decree was: "English and Afrikaans will be used as media of instruction in our schools on a 50-50 basis".

Some might think it was a Solomonic and just decision. Nothing could be further from the truth. The decree had a trick to prioritize Afrikaans: science classes and the most practical subjects (those with less text and fewer opportunities to acquire a broad vocabulary) would be taught in English, and math, arithmetic, and social sciences would be reserved for Afrikaans. Likewise, religion, music, and physical education would be taught in the student's native language, something that in practice only applied to whites. This is a model similar to the "trilingualism" applied by the PP in Galicia, which reserves the subjects with the most text for the Galician language.

Mandatory immersion in Catalonia is an even more exclusive model.

As we can see, the compulsory immersion model in Catalonia is even more intolerant and exclusionary than that of Apartheid, since the Catalan government does not even allow 25% of teaching hours in Spanish: it wants monolingual teaching in Catalan, despite the fact that in Catalonia the majority of the population is Spanish-speaking. In South Africa, Afrikaans was also the language of a minority, and its imposition in schools, even if it was 50%, caused a social explosion.

The violent Afrikaner response to the protests against the Afrikaans decree

On June 16, 1976, in Soweto, a black residential area southwest of Johannesburg, hundreds of black children and adolescents demonstrated against the imposition of Afrikaans in schools and were shot by the South African police. A massacre that left 58 dead and 788 wounded and sparked an international scandal. Just as is happening now in Catalonia, the fanatical nationalist elite had no qualms about using violence against children to prevent them from speaking out against an intolerable linguistic imposition.

Mandela promoted a new Constitution that established linguistic freedom

In April 1994, South Africa held its first elections in which black people had the right to vote. This marked the end of 46 years of rule by the Nasionale Party and the definitive fall of the Apartheid regime (racial segregation had been repealed three years earlier). The African National Congress won an absolute majority. The new president, Nelson Mandela, began drafting a new Constitution, which was approved in December 1996. Article 9 of this Constitution established equality for all races.

Furthermore, the new South African Constitution, still in force, introduced in its Article 6 no less than 11 official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. Furthermore,its Article 29 states:"Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice." In case anyone is unaware of this, it is the same right to free choice of language that Hablamos Español demands and that Vox proposes in point 62 of its program: "Parents must have the right to choose the language of their children's schooling".

Catalan separatism rejects this freedom and supports the imposition

Paradoxically, separatist and left-wing parties, unions and media outlets call those in Spain who defend this same linguistic freedom "far-right" (let's remember that Mandela was a communist, but that didn't stop him from establishing this right comparable to that of other democratic countries). These are, furthermore, the same separatist and left-wing parties, unions and media that support in Catalonia a linguistic regime even more intolerant and undemocratic than that of Apartheid. The same ones, also, who remain silent in the face of the bullying of a 5-year-old boy by demanding not 50%, but a pitiful 25% of teaching hours in Spanish, the majority language of Catalans.

In democratic terms, what is happening in Catalonia is as abnormal as Apartheid South Africa was. It is time to overthrow this democratic abnormality. If nationalist fanatics think monolingual education in Catalan is fine, let them choose that for their children and let others decide in which language they want to school their children. This would be the hallmark of a democracy and a free society, and not the linguistic dictatorship that separatists and the left have imposed on Catalonia.

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Image: Pixabay.