At the UCT Spring graduation ceremony of 10 September, we celebrated not only the awarding of her doctorate to our bua-lit collective member, Dr Babalwayashe Molate, but also the oration of both her and Dr Msakha Mona’s PhD titles in isiXhosa, siSwati and translanguaging. Dr Xolisa Guzula (our current chairperson of bua-lit, and also a Senior Lecturer at UCT) read out the citations in isiXhosa (for Dr Molate) and siSwati (for Dr Mona), alongside Dean Prof Shose Kessi who read the English versions. Both Babalwayashe and Msakha completed their PhDs in the School of Education.
Offering their titles in isiXhosa nesiSwati respectively not only showed that African languages can be used for the highest university degrees but also how the making of new knowledge depended on the use of African languages as well as English.
In her thesis, Babalwa develops the isiXhosa concept of ‘ikhaya’ to capture a more expansive idea of family beyond narrow ideas of ‘nuclear’ and ‘extended’ families who live in one homestead. ‘ikhaya’ for Babalwa is situated in multiple homesteads (e.g. rural and urban) between which family members traverse, as well as the range of people who make up the family. This has a profound impact on how we research and describe family multilingualism, the field which she contributes to. Apart from her challenging of western norms which can distort research within African contexts, Babalwa’s thesis, provides us with an inspiring story of ikhaya elibilingual (a bilingual family), where isiXhosa language and ways of knowing are cherished, and umama advocates for all her child’s languages, isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans to be taught and learned at the same level esikolweni.
The title of Babalwa’s thesis is “Ukuchasana neenkolelo ezongameleyo malunga nolwimi nelitherasi ngokubonakalisa ubulwimininzi bekhaya nokwakheka kwalo” (Resisting dominant language and literacy ideologies through family multilingualism and the making of ikhaya). It will soon be available open access through the UCT library.
Click here to watch a video of Babalwa’s citation being read at the graduation ceremony.
Written by Prof Carolyn McKinney, School of Education, bua-lit collective member
26 September 2025
