16/06/2026
Every year since 1994, national Youth Day commemorates a generation of young South Africans who challenged exclusion and inequality, leaving a lasting impact on the sociopolitical landscape of the country. While it is a day of remembrance, it also invites us to reflect on the power of young people to shape the future, and to celebrate the progress thatโs been made โ especially regarding access to education and language inclusion.
A half century on from the tragic events of 16 June 1976 in Soweto that became a defining moment in the struggle to end apartheid, multilingualism isnโt just a policy feature; itโs part of the everyday fabric of living in our richly diverse country. And increasingly, it is being understood not as a challenge to overcome, but as a strength and a resource that fosters connection and belonging, broadens access, and enriches teaching, learning and intercultural understanding.
At Stellenbosch University (SU), this shift in perspective has been particularly visible. Once associated with a staunchly monolingual landscape, the university is now evolving into a multilingual institution that actively promotes access and participation through language. Multilingualism at the university is not just about accommodating different languages; it reflects a recognition that knowledge itself becomes richer when diverse perspectives are included. Using different languages in class can bridge understanding of threshold concepts, as different languages allow different ways of thinking, expressing ideas and engaging with the world. In this sense, multilingualism strengthens both academic excellence and social justice.
The SU Language Centre plays a central role in moving multilingualism beyond abstract policy on paper to a lived reality. Through multilingual teaching and learning support, interpreting services and translated material, and actively promoting a multilingual mindset across campus spaces, the Language Centre empowers more students to participate meaningfully in academic life and also feel at home at SU.
As we commemorate Youth Day and the resilience and courage of past generations, we also celebrate the multilingual, inclusive future being built by todayโs youth. Over the past three years, the Language Centre has been privileged to engage closely with student leaders at our Building Communities through Multilingualism workshops, and, more recently, at our Ziva usekhaya: Language and Belonging workshops. What is striking at these occasions are the generosity and creativity with which students engage in conversations about identity, language and inclusion on our campus, and how they work together towards creating lasting resources tailored to their own environments. From storytelling and creating language tapestries reflecting their own and others' linguistic repertoires to cultural mapping, multilingual glossary walls and videos showcasing how to bring multilingualism into different spaces, SU student leaders embody and lead with a multilingual mindset.
On Youth Day, we remember past generations of young people and the sacrifices they made in the fight for equality, access and inclusion, and we honour them by actively advancing the work they started a half century ago. But we also celebrate the progress thatโs been made and the possibilities this generation of young people and students are helping to realise, co-creating our collective future as a country and a university.
