LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR LANGUAGE USE AND LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN BOTSWANA

Abstract

Except for allusions to some requirements or competencies for holding certain government offices or positions, no law legislates a planned language usage in Botswana. The colonial language practice dispensation of English, the official language for government records, and Setswana, the territorial language for oral communication and early literacy, were adopted at independence in 1966. In a country of 30 different languages, the immediate questions are, what happens with other national languages, and what role and right do they have in Botswana? The difficulty that the Botswana language situation presents is that the equality guaranteed by the Constitution does not translate into equality in language usage in education, public media, or other language use domains. The paper proposes a critical assessment of the legislative provision on language and what the current language use practice entails for other languages and the country as a democracy. Within a socio-linguistic framework, the paper will interrogate language as a right as advocated by UNESCO and Human Rights organisations. The arguments presented are that, if Botswana wants to adopt a holistic approach to its democratic ideals, she should also ensure that all aspects of human rights are constitutionally given, and that policies and laws are enacted to achieve equality and equity for all. With the new debates on Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2036, Botswana is in an opportune situation to implement language and culture rights that take all languages and cultures into account, and to ensure that they are promoted and capitated to be tools for the new call for the knowledge economy.