THE SIGNIFICANCE OF XK RADIO IN STRENGTHENING !XUN AND KHWE LANGUAGES OF THE SAN COMMUNITIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17501/24246778.2025.9204Keywords:
Khwe, Multilingual and Multicultural Positioning Theory, San people, XK-FM, !Xun, informal interviewsAbstract
In addition to the history of oppression that Indigenous people all over the world share, there are other aspects regarding the lives of these communities that have not been given enough scholarly attention. These include their indigenous means of communication, cultural practices, indigenous land rights and their daily existence. As a result, their culture and languages are increasingly under threat. The goal of this study is to explore the efficacy of a local community radio station based in the Northern Cape, South Africa, in promoting the two San languages that it caters for. Documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with radio personnel, including the station manager and programme presenters, were conducted. The study is undergirded by the Multilingual and Multicultural Positioning Theory, which argues for deliberate and meaningful efforts to use languages that are under threat in private and public discourse in order to preserve them. This issue deserves attention because indigenous languages are slowly becoming extinct in Southern Africa. This exploratory study finds that the two languages were gravely endangered due to many years of acculturation, and radio was playing a significant role in trying to preserve them, confer status to them, and imbue a sense of pride in the language speakers.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Gilbert Motsaathebe
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
