The Last Speaker: South Africa’s dying language | Africa Direct Documentary

Claudia Snyman is a language researcher in South Africa and her grandmother, Katrina Esau, is the last remaining fluent speaker of N|uu, the ancient language of the San, or Bushman, people.

Together they work painstakingly on a dictionary of the click-based words of this disappearing language, believed to be 25,000 years old. Once oppressed and derided in colonial times, they are determined that it will come back from the brink of extinction and into modern-day use.

Nadine Angel Cloete is an award-winning South African filmmaker who focuses on themes of identity and history. Her feature documentary, Action Kommandant, won several awards across Africa and the United States. She also directs fiction films.

Many of the languages spoken by the Nguni people of southern Africa as well as the San people have a range of click sounds.

In this video, Sakhile Dube from St Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, demonstrates how these click sounds are pronounced in the Zulu language.

In this video, Sakhile Dube from St Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, shares a few stories about the Zulu culture in English (his second language). In particular, he shares how the Zulu people view and revere their ancestors. His storytelling is amazing and is something very unique to African culture as a whole.