Paballo Leteba

Amid rapid language extinction, UNESCO's International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) calls for urgent action. South Africa, despite its 11 official languages, still grapples with colonial hierarchies that marginalize African languages, eroding cultural memory. This thesis explores architecture as a tool for linguistic preservation, proposing an African Language Preservation Centre in Magaliesburg—near the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO site symbolic of human origins. The location ties humanity's earliest communication to the revitalization of Bantu languages.

Beyond mere archiving, the center fosters living language through storytelling, song, and communal exchange. Architecture becomes an active participant in cultural reclamation, resisting erasure by embedding language in a landscape of deep historical resonance. The project reimagines built space as a manifesto: ensuring fading voices are not lost but amplified, anchoring identity in both past and future.