Why indigenous languages matter for da’wah in South Africa

For Islam to grow meaningfully in South Africa, Muslim institutions, schools and Imams must embrace indigenous African languages such as isiXhosa and isiZulu as central to effective da’wah.

By SHABODIEN ROOMANAY

More than 330 years ago, Muslims first arrived at the southern tip of Africa. The arrival of political exiles, scholars and enslaved Muslims at the Cape in 1694 laid the foundations of what would become one of the oldest Muslim communities in the southern hemisphere. Through colonial conquest, slavery, segregation and Apartheid, Islam survived and even prospered under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

Yet despite this remarkable history, the Muslim population in South Africa has remained relatively small, hovering between one per cent and two per cent of the population for centuries. While there has been notable growth in townships and among indigenous African communities over the past three decades, particularly after the end of Apartheid, the spread of Islam has not matched the scale of the country’s demographic realities.

This reality demands honest reflection. One of the most important, and often neglected, reasons is language. So when a call comes for donations of Qur’ans to be shared in township madaris and masaajid, the effectiveness of donating and dropping the Qur’ans off, perhaps as an act of conscience cleansing, foregrounds the need to understand what the next steps would need to be. Where does da’wah in the mother-tongue language contribute to sharing the gift of Islam?

The lingering colonial pattern

Throughout history, imperial and colonial powers understood something very clearly: language is not merely a tool of communication; it is a vessel of culture, memory, values and identity. The colonial project across Africa imposed foreign languages, foreign religious frameworks and foreign cultural expectations upon indigenous peoples under the banner of a so-called ‘civilising mission’. Indigenous languages were marginalised because colonisers understood that once a people lose linguistic confidence, they become easier to dominate culturally and intellectually.

Ironically, many religious communities today continue to replicate aspects of that same pattern unintentionally.

In South Africa, Islam is often communicated through Arabic, Urdu or English frameworks without sufficiently entering the linguistic and cultural universe of the indigenous majority. The message may be universal, but the method of communication often remains socially and linguistically confined.

A person may hear Islamic teachings translated into their language, but translation alone is not the same as meaningful communication. Deep understanding emerges when concepts are shared within the worldview, idioms, cultural references and emotional realities embedded in a mother tongue.

Language shapes consciousness

Numerous linguistic and educational studies across the world have demonstrated that people absorb ethical systems, moral values and complex ideas most effectively in their first language. UNESCO has repeatedly emphasised the importance of mother-tongue education in cognitive development and social participation. Research in African linguistics similarly shows that indigenous-language communication creates deeper trust, stronger emotional resonance and greater social legitimacy.

This is particularly important in matters of faith. Religion is not merely information transfer. Da’wah is not the mechanical delivery of doctrines. It is the communication of meaning, ethics, spirituality and worldview. Or dropping off pots of half-eaten food after one or another lavish event.

To speak to a person in their mother tongue is to speak to their heart, not merely their intellect. Nguni languages such as isiXhosa, isiZulu, isiNdebele and siSwati contain deeply embedded concepts of dignity, communal ethics, respect for elders, hospitality, justice, humility and collective responsibility.

These are not alien to Islam. In fact, many resonate profoundly with Islamic moral teachings. But one can only recognise these bridges if one understands the language and cultural world of the people.

The failure to engage the indigenous majority

For decades, Apartheid deliberately prevented meaningful interaction between racial, linguistic and cultural communities. Muslims themselves were divided geographically and socially by racist legislation.

After 1994, South Africa entered a dramatically different political and social era. Yet many Muslim institutions did not fully adapt to this new reality. While small organisations and dedicated individuals have done commendable work in townships and rural communities, many mainstream Muslim bodies have not invested sufficiently in indigenous-language competency.

The consequences are visible. Too much of the Muslim community remains inward-looking, focused on internal controversies, factional disputes and self-preservation rather than strategic engagement with broader society.

There remains an uncomfortable distance between established Muslim institutions and the linguistic realities of the majority population. This cannot continue.

Imams must learn indigenous languages

It is no longer sufficient for Muslim leaders to operate only in English or Arabic spaces while expecting meaningful engagement with indigenous African communities.

Imams, teachers and da’wah workers in the Western and Eastern Cape, for example, should be encouraged – indeed expected – to learn isiXhosa. Similarly, Muslim leaders in KwaZulu-Natal should develop competency in isiZulu, while institutions in Gauteng should embrace the linguistic realities of their own regions.

This is not symbolic multiculturalism. It is strategic necessity.

An Imam who can greet a community in their mother tongue, understand local expressions, appreciate cultural nuances and explain Islamic concepts naturally within that linguistic framework immediately removes barriers of distance and suspicion.

Language learning is itself an act of respect.

And respect opens hearts and breaks down the notion that Islam is a religion practised only by ‘Malays and Indians’.

Muslim organisations must act urgently

Bodies such as the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa, the Jamiatul Ulama KwaZulu-Natal, United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA) and other representative organisations should urgently establish structured indigenous-language programmes for Imams, teachers and community leaders.

Such programmes should include:

Conversational isiXhosa and isiZulu courses for religious leaders
Cultural competency training and comparative religion
Development of high-quality Islamic literature in Nguni languages
Translation of khutbahs, educational material and children’s resources
Partnerships with African-language academics and educators
Scholarships for multilingual Islamic scholarship
Community immersion programmes for students of Islamic institutions

This must become a national priority.

Muslim schools must lead the change

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Perhaps the greatest long-term failure has been within Muslim schooling itself.

In a country where Nguni-speaking communities form a demographic majority, it is astonishing that many Muslim schools still treat indigenous African languages as peripheral or optional. If anything, many of these schools are viewed as elite, private and exclusive schools for Muslim children – not Muslim schools for children of all race, class and ethnic origin.

This is deeply short-sighted.

Muslim schools across South Africa should by now have made at least one Nguni language compulsory. A new generation of Muslims should emerge fluent in English, competent in Arabic and conversant in an indigenous African language.

Such multilingualism would not only strengthen da’wah efforts; it would also produce Muslims more rooted in the realities of their own country. It would nurture empathy, social cohesion and national belonging.

Most importantly, it would break the perception, still lingering in some communities, that Islam remains culturally distant from African identity.

Islam is universal. But people are local.

Islam does not belong to any ethnicity, language or civilisation. Its message is universal.

But people experience universality through their local realities. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) communicated with people in ways they understood. He recognised tribal dynamics, social customs, linguistic patterns and cultural sensitivities. Effective da’wah has always required understanding the people one seeks to engage.

South African Muslims now face a historic choice. Will the community remain trapped within inherited social silos and internal disputes while the country around it changes dramatically? Or will it embrace the linguistic and cultural realities of the nation with confidence, humility and vision?

The future of da’wah in South Africa depends not only on what is preached, but also on the language in which it is spoken. If Muslims wish to communicate Islam meaningfully to the majority of South Africans, then the message must increasingly be heard in isiXhosa, isiZulu and other indigenous languages – not as an afterthought, but as a central strategy.

For Islam cannot truly flourish in translation alone.

Why indigenous languages matter for da’wah in South Africa

For Islam to grow meaningfully in South Africa, Muslim institutions, schools and Imams must embrace indigenous African languages such as isiXhosa and isiZulu as central to effective da’wah.

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