The University of Cape Town (UCT) has awarded Her Excellency ǂXuu Katrina Esau an honorary doctorate for her work on preserving a 25 000-year-old endangered indigenous South African language.
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The 90-year-old Esau accepted her degree of Doctor of Literature (honoris causa) on Wednesday, 28 March. The university awards these honorary doctorates to distinguished individuals in recognition of excellent work in their respective fields, who also make significant contributions to the country, the continent and internationally.
Also fondly referred to as ‘Ouma Katrina’, Esau has made it her life’s mission to teach the largely oral language and educate the youth on other unique traditions of San people. The tribe is indigenous to mainly the Northern Cape, and in parts of Botswana and Namibia.
Esau teaches N|uu – a language thought to be extinct until recently – at a small school at her home in Rosedale, which is located outside Upington in the Northern Cape. During the late 1990s, people in the Northern Cape who were able to speak N|uu were encouraged to contribute to its survival. Esau and here siblings were among the group of 20, though now she is the only remaining speaker. By teaching the language to the next generation, she hopes to transfer valuable knowledge to the youth and thus preserve the San people’s language and cultural ways.
Her book, Qhoi n|a Tijho, is the only children’s book published in N|uu, and has been translated into English and Afrikaans. She received the Order of the Baobab in Silver from former president Jacob Zuma in 2014, a national honour awarded to South Africans for their service to the country in their respective fields.
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