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SisandaN SisandaN is offline
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Default MS Word: Auto-correct function on the word "bantu"

My post is about a matter that would perhaps be pertinent to South African
people. I feel strongly about it and so will raise it.

Quite simply, the word "bantu" is offensive to some black people of South
Africa. This is because the term was often used by the oppressive apartheid
regime in reference to black people of South Africa. Wikipedia sums it up
perfectly for me:

"Black South Africans were at times officially called "Bantus" by the
apartheid regime. Strictly speaking, the term "Bantu" is a linguistic term
derived from the word for "people" common to many of the Bantu languages. The
use of the word "Bantu" as an ethnic term has no scientific foundation and it
is no longer in wide use as a description of black South African people. The
Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes its use in a racial
context as obsolescent and offensive because of its strong association with
white minority rule and the apartheid system. The correct full description of
the Bantu people that are indigenous to much of Central, Eastern, and
Southern Africa is "Bantu speaking peoples"."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_p..._South_Africa).

Therefore, in the South African context, the term/word can be regarded as
offensive.

The Auto-correct function on MS Word changes the word "bantu" to "Bantu",
thereby only recognising the use of the word only in the form that is
offensive to black South Africans.

My suggestion is that at the very least the language files for South African
English be changed so that the Auto-correct function in MS Word does not
recognise the word Bantu as a noun, and thereby attaching a capital letter to
the first letter of the word.

Looking at it another way, the English word "bush" can be used as both a
noun that is used to refer to vegetation; the very same word is used as a
surname, and thus spelt with a capital letter "B" in the beginning. Since the
use of the word [bush], in it's written form, can be for multiple purposes,
the Auto-correct function ignores this word. Similarly, the word "bantu" can
be used to refer to "people" and can be used again in its derogatory formart.
It then follows that the Auto-correct function should ignore the word "bantu"
as well since it has multiple meanings.

Sisanda Nomnganga



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