10/14/2022
At 88 years old, Katrina Esau is leading the fight to save N|uu from disappearing. As one of the dialects of the San people, N|uu is a critical link to South Africa's earliest inhabitants. Its death threatens the loss of cultural identity. “But I speak my language,” Esau says. “And I want to teach people.”
Centuries ago, the San people roamed southern Africa as hunter-gatherers. “My people died out, those who spoke the language. So much so there were only four of us left,” Esau says. Most of her community speaks Afrikaans, which was introduced by Dutch settlers in the 1600s. During the apartheid regime, Esau worked for an Afrikaner farmer near the Kalahari who banned her from speaking N|uu. This was a common experience shared by workers. By the time South Africa became a democratic country in 1994, no written record of the N|uu language existed. So Esau set out to revive her mother tongue.
The language is believed to have 112 distinct sounds and its main characteristic is clicks. It’s a language that has been passed down to generations orally. In 2013, UNESCO estimated that there were 7 N|uu speakers left.
Africa is the only continent with languages in which clicks are regular consonants. The single pipe after the “N” represents a dental click consonant which is produced with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth. N|uu, now classified as critically endangered by Unesco, is one of just three languages known to feature a “kiss-click” produced with both lips.
After decades of being banned from speaking the language of her forebears, Esau has dedicated the past two decades to teaching N|uu in an effort to preserve the San language and culture. Despite years of silence, she never lost her fluency.
Today, Esau teaches kids in her community how to speak N|uu. Significantly, she has published the first children’s book in N|uu titled !Qhoi n|a Tjhoi, meaning Tortoise and Ostrich. She first heard the San folktale as a child, which tells the story of a race between a tortoise and ostrich. The book immortalises her indigenous language, making it a treasure of South African history. Esau also travels across the country, sharing her knowledge at cultural establishments such as Koena Art Institute. Determined to preserve her heritage, she is safeguarding the cultural significance of N|uu for generations to come. “My hope is for people to recognise the language, and to understand and speak the language,” Esau says. “People must take the language and hold on to it.”
The work and determination to save the language have not gone unnoticed. Esau was awarded one of South Africa’s highest honors: the Order of the Baobab to honor her efforts to preserve the language and culture.