Language politics.

Okay, so I’ve been sort of terrible about posting this past month. I apologize. Things suddenly got very busy.
Rehearsals start for my Poetry in Performance show this week. It should be an interesting show at least, and the design looks pretty. Part of our directors style is to keep rearranging things until the last minute so I have been warned that nothing will be even remotely complete until the day before.
But in preparation I am going to an open mic night in newtown this week to perform. I will update you on how that goes.
I’m also working on this giant research project on language in South African theater. So far my conclusion: it’s a mess. When you have 11 national languages what language do you perform in? the linga franca? That would be English but only 8% of the population speaks English as a mother tongue. So is that a form of colonization? And if you put a play in Tswana on stage how do you make it accessible to a wider audience? Or do you accept that only Tswana speaking people will come? And if you decide to supertitle what language should the supertitles be in? English? But if you supertitle in English that declares that you are an English language institution where right now everything is just sort of undeclared. And so people are just sort of dodging the question even though it really is the next big debate not only in theater but in South African institutions of all types. Law courts happen in either English or Afrikaans. Only 5 of the 21 universitys are bilingual and then its English Afrikaans. Only one university, the university of Stellenbosch is all Afrikaans and attempts are being made to teach more classes in English.
And so should South Africa accept that 11 national languages mean one? If not, it means that they need to work much hard to push the other 10, including Afrikaans (more people speak Afrikaans as a mother language than English).
So what I am trying to say is: I am attempting to tack something that is a MA or PhD project in a month and a half.
That is my excuse.