From Reuters:
“South Africa's recognition of sign language signals new hope
for the deaf”
(South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gestures in sign
language after he signed legislation into law last month recognising sign as
the country's 12th official language, alongside English, Zulu, Afrikaans and
others, to help protect the rights of the deaf and promote inclusivity in
Pretoria, South Africa, July 19, 2023.)
Bongumusa Manana, a 19-year-old deaf student who studies in a
township in Johannesburg, sees South Africa's move to recognise sign as an
official language as a huge breakthrough that will help him to get to
university and make his "dreams come true". President Cyril Ramaphosa
signed legislation into law last month recognising sign as the country's 12th
official language, alongside English, isiZulu, Afrikaans and others, to help
protect the rights of the deaf and promote inclusivity. "Previously the
challenge was that when you go to a police station or take a (minibus) taxi, it
was very difficult to communicate," Manana said in sign at the Sizwile
School for the Deaf in Dobsonville, Soweto. "Before it was an official
language... there was absolutely no access" to communicating with other
people, he signed.
Still, South Africa only has about 40 deaf schools and one
tertiary institution that is fully accessible to deaf people, meaning there is
still work to be done to improve that access. "It is a very rich,
beautiful language but we need people who are going to be equipped enough to
develop it even more," said Andiswa Gebashe, a South African Sign Language
activist and former interpreter for Ramaphosa. World Atlas, an online site that
studies demographics, says only 41 countries recognise sign language as an
official language, just four of them in Africa - Kenya, South Africa, Uganda
and Zimbabwe. It has been a long journey for South Africa to get this far, and
deaf students have been waiting "for those barriers to be removed",
signed Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, the country's only deaf member of parliament. Manana's
dream is to attend university next year. "Now that it's an official
language, I know that I can go to university and I can make my dreams come
true," he said in sign. "I can achieve anything."
^ This is an awesome step in the right direction for South
Africa. I wish other Countries would follow this example and make their own
Sign Language an Official Language. ^
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