Africans should unite in their diversity

Africa month this year is celebrated in the midst of the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. This will also be the case for Africa Day on May 25, which is the commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now known as the African Union (AU).

Amid the locked down Africa month, I look back at growing up in a Northern Sotho speaking household in Mohlonong village, Ga-Mashashane in Limpopo. I encountered English and Afrikaans languages at school. I was further exposed to isiNdebele and Xitsonga languages in the streets.

Though as a grandson of Phooko ya dinaka I sang about mitshelo, as in fruits, in the Madenathaga Primary School choir in the mid-80s. Tshivenda sounded unfamiliar to my ear for some time. Imagine hearing tshikoli nga bonndo in the mid-90s, as the Thohoyandou bound taxi snaked through the famous Tshakhuma market.