The Implications Of Industrialisation On The Language And Identity Of Black Urban Families In South Africa

Abstract

This research study investigates how industrialisation has affected Black urban families in respect of their language, culture and identity. The study attempts to reveal how language is intrinsic to the expression of culture and is a fundamental aspect of cultural identity. Through language we transmit and express our culture and its values. Language, culture and identity are intricately entwined and dependent upon each other, as language is formed by culture, culture is influenced and impacted by language and members of a specific culture influence identity through their assumptions, beliefs and shared values. In this study the researcher employed the qualitative research methodology to indicate the interdependent relationship between the concepts of language, culture and identity, by investigating how industrialisation has impacted negatively in the demise of indigenous languages, cultures and the identity of Africans in South Africa. Aspects such as proverbs and idioms, songs and riddles, as well as philosophical beliefs which were used to hold communities together as unified entities by their language are disappearing. The future adults are not interested in learning about their languages and culture. Thereby they lose important information that could steer their lives in the right direction. Hence the emergence of aspects such as the moral corrosion of youth, family disintegration, and lawlessness, to name but a few. The respondents in this study are South Africans currently living in urban areas. The data were collected from 24 respondents living in Gauteng and the Free State Province. Video recordings of 3 prominent cultural celebrations formed part of the study as fieldwork (observations) to bring validation to some of the research questions addressed in the study. Literature was presented, which outlined the relationship between culture, language and identity. The conceptual framework presented the aspects, rituals and organisational behaviours of different cultures in South Africa. The data were presented and analysed, with the differences and similarities between the current urban and the traditional settings clearly outlined and analysed. The causes/reasons and corrections of the impact of industrialisation on the Black South African’s culture, identify and language, were presented through findings and recommendations, which emanated from the findings by the participants of the study.