As I mentioned before, South Africa has eleven national language (crazy because we can't even decide on one). Up until recently (1994 that is) South Africa had only two official languages (English and Afrikaans) and the Bantustan languages, as they were called, were not recognized even though for most Africans these were their primary languages. This backwards logic came about because of Apartheid and nothing changed from 1925 until 1994 when a new democracy was instated. The new constitution of 1996 recognized Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana, and Venda all as national languages, a major breakthrough. While all of these languages are nationally recognized, certain regions have different predominant languages. Below is a map that will give you an idea of where each language is spoken. Courtesy of the South Africa Tours and Travel website.
As you can see, Kwazulu Natal, my destination, is colored almost entirely yellow [isiZulu] with a little blue [English] and purple [isiXhosa], so I am trying my hardest to learn as much Zulu as I can before my trip. From what I have heard, most everyone speaks some English; lucky for me as I have yet to get the distinctive clicks down that are characteristic of the Zulu language.
-Becca
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