Numeracy skills are just as important as literacy skills to a people. They underpin a society’s development and progress in the fields of Mathematics, Science, Engineering and Creativity. These skills when acquired in a people’s language they indicate a language’s development and sophistication to handle complex and abstract concepts. Numbers in a specific language signal that numeracy skills and culture have been in existence in that language and culture for a long time. Numeracy skills in one’s language are therefore key because they signal a language’s independence and ability to function meaningfully for its speakers.
In the African case, when education was developed and curricula developed for African languages, one of the areas that remained undeveloped for a long time was the system of counting in African languages. Numeracy skills were taught and developed in English in Anglophone Africa and in French in the Francophone. In Botswana this meant that counting in Setswana was not developed beyond rudimentary numbers. The development of Mathematics terminology was therefore hampered by this lack of lexical and terminology development. It must be borne in mind that languages develop when they respond to a specific cultural and social need. Languages don’t develop in vacuum. They develop to fit a specific cultural and social need and function. Setswana numbering system has also developed to fulfil a cultural need. This is important because speakers of a language must know that a language develops when it is used. Speakers don’t have to wait for a language to develop for them to use it. Instead, they have to use a language for it to develop. They don’t have to wait for Setswana to acquire Science terminology for them to use the language in the field of Science, instead they have to use it in the field of Science so that its vocabulary in the field of Science could expand.
So how do Batswana count? Batswana have clear terms (lexicalised) that refer to numbers between zero and ten. They are (0) lefela, (1) bongwe, (2) bobedi, (3) boraro, (4) bone, (5) botlhano, (6) borataro, (7) bosupa, (8) borobabobedi, (9) borobabongwe and (10) lesome. Between ten and twenty, Batswana add numbers from one to nine to ten. For instance, 11 is lesome le bongwe (ten and one), 12 is lesome le bobedi (ten and two), 13 is lesome le boraro (ten and three) … and so on while 20 is masome a mabedi (two tens). This numbering goes on just like this where numbers multiply ten and append a digit between 1 and 9. For instance 57 is masome a matlhano le bosupa (five tens and seven). The number for a hundred is lekgolo. It’s roots is “golo” meaning great suggesting that its etymology comes from the concept of being just a great number. Conceptually this suggests that anyone with anything in the hundreds, such a number was considered great, either in terms of it being massive or impressive. Again Setswana in stating numbers adopts an appendage approach. 150 is therefore lekgolo le masome a matlhano (a hundred and five tens) while 167 is lekgolo le masome a marataro le bosupa (a hundred and six tens and seven). The number for one thousand in Setswana is sekete, an obvious derivative of bokete (heaviness). Sekete is therefore a number so great that it weighs a Motswana down. This is a clear indication that Batswana were never in the habit of calculating in the thousands. It was too much; too heavy to comprehend. Counting using a thousand also follows the pattern outlined above. 1956 is therefore sekete, makgolo a a robang bongwe, masome a matlhano le borataro (a thousand, nine hundreds, five tens and six). A million in Setswana is sedikadike. Go dika in Setswana means to surround. Sedikadike is therefore a number so large that objects being counted surround you from all sides. The word sedikadike literally means the thing that surrounds you from all sides. It means a most overwhelming number.
It is clear from the Setswana terminology that large numbers are alien to the Setswana lexicon, culture and conceptualization. The Setswana language doesn’t have a long and rich culture of numeracy, especially in the three and four digits scope. This is partly cultural and partly a consequence of a failure of the Setswana culture and education to develop numeracy at this level. Instead, our education developed numeracy in English and alienated Setswana native speakers from their language and culture. It is therefore incorrect to argue that articulating numbers in Setswana is difficult. A more accurate approximation is to claim that since Batswana are not familiar with numbers in Setswana, they find it challenging to say numbers aloud in Setswana. This doesn’t mean that Setswana numbers are difficult. It does mean that to inspire confidence amongst Batswana to say numbers in their language, there is a need for them to get used to saying such numbers in their tongue. It is therefore a matter of getting used to the terminology and not a problem of terminology complexity. Setswana numbers are not difficult, they are alien to the Setswana speakers and for speakers to be comfortable with them they need to familiarize themselves with them.
