Last known speaker fights to preserve South African indigenous language

Ouma Katrina Esau, the last known fluent mother-tongue speaker of the indigenous N|uu language is seen during the ceremony where she was honoured with an honorary Doctor of Literature degree by the University of Cape Town, in Cape Town, South Africa, March 29, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander

When she was a girl in South Africa's Northern Cape, Katrina Esau stopped speaking her mother tongue, N|uu, after being mocked by other people and told it was an "ugly language".

Now at age 90, she is the last known speaker of N|uu, one of a group of indigenous languages in South Africa that have been all but stamped out by the impacts of colonialism and apartheid.