Sacred Language(s) of the Past

Ancestral Linguistic Genocide, the Art of Loss, Necro-tragedy and the Process of Knowing

Abstract

Language can truly be considered spiritual and, in some respects, a scientific phenomenon. Empirically quantifiable phenomena occur as a result of cognitive intentions and processes that emanate from our volition, or spirit (e.Soul, 2024). Language is the connector of all things, configuring universal understanding and meaning. Beyond the surface, the languages that were born across cultures, time periods, and geographical locations are a window into the world view of that particular group navigating time and space. Further, the very language(s) we speak are directly synthesized with our spiritual being(s), which possesses the stories, traumas, victories, and knowledge of the past; or becomes the bearer of ontological and epistemological terror(s) (Warren, 2018). But what of those whose languages were erased and subjected to an early and brutal death? Are their stories and histories forgotten? Are their legacies worth remembering?

Using an historical analysis of ancestral linguistic genocide, I aim to answer these critical questions. This has forced me to better conceptualize the art of loss of language through racial violence and terror, which produces physical and metaphorical death. This historical analysis is a quintessential example of what Harris (2018) classified as–necro-being, entrapped in necro-tragedy, a condition and institution of racism that kills and prevents persons from being born, and surfaces as absolute irredeemable suffering in a non-moral universe. As I reflect on my story, I deem the linguistic genocide of my people as a form of necro-tragedy. Through this lens, I acknowledge the African lineages who died at sea during the Middle Passage who never got to pass down their ancestral languages, and those African ancestors who survived only to face death, brutality, and dehumanization in the processes of being forced to bury their own language(s) while adopting the English language.