Silenced by Accents: How Language and Culture Shape Bias in African Workplaces

Introduction: The Hidden Barriers to Belonging

Across Africa, workers face not only financial and racial discrimination but also subtle bias rooted in language, accent, and culture. A recent Labour Court decision in South Africa found that a Black social worker of Indian descent endured two years of harassment including being told she didn’t understand “our children and their culture” ultimately earning her R50 000 in damages. This ruling is a window into a wider phenomenon: when language becomes the litmus test for competence.

This case, though resolved in court, did not occur in a vacuum. It reflects deeper power structures forged by apartheid legacies, where racial hierarchies were not just legal but linguistic and cultural. Even in post-apartheid institutions, ‘belonging’ is often policed through language and cultural familiarity.

In such contexts, language becomes a litmus test for competence, and cultural bias is disguised as concern for service delivery. The ruling, while a small victory, casts a spotlight on the ongoing struggle for dignity and inclusion within African workplaces where race, ethnicity, and colonial histories still shape who is deemed ‘fit’ to serve.

Language as a Gatekeeper: Beyond Words to Power

A language or accent bias isn't mere mispronunciation; it's a micro-inequity that silences ideas and erodes confidence. Research by Andre Louw of Stellenbosch University outlines how South Africa’s Constitution and Employment Equity Act explicitly protect language as a ground against unfair discrimination, yet many workplaces ignore this right.

In African professional settings, there’s often a marked preference for "prestige" accents, typically British or American English, or Parisian French while local, indigenous, or non-Western accents are subtly devalued. This results in professionals being overlooked for leadership roles or client-facing positions, not due to a lack of skill, but because their way of speaking is deemed less “professional” or credible. The exclusion isn't of all non-prestige accents, but rather of those that reflect local, African identities or working-class backgrounds.

What’s at play here is a colonial hangover: a linguistic hierarchy where the accents of former colonial powers are still seen as markers of intelligence, authority, and competence. This reinforces deep class and racial divides, marginalizing voices that don’t conform to these arbitrary standards.

When Culture is Criminalised: The South African Case

In the Gauteng school incident, officials rejected the social worker based on her cultural identity and language, implying she “did not understand our children” While South Africa legally prohibits discrimination on language and culture under both PEPUDA and the Employment Equity Act, enforcement is limited to cases brought to court; leaving many experiences unaddressed.

Unions and Workers at the Crossroads

Workplace bias related to language and culture remains under-addressed among union demands. In South Africa:

• SACCAWU (South African Commercial, Catering & Allied Workers Union, ~107 000 members) has occasionally flagged cultural profiling in customer-facing roles but lacks explicit language equity campaigns.

COSATU, the federation representing over 1.8 million workers, supports anti-discrimination laws broadly but still prioritises wage and casualisation struggles over cultural inclusion.

• FEDUSA, another labour federation, notes that HR leaders still view race and gender discrimination as urgent, but seldom highlight language bias.

• Meanwhile, the Solidarity union, representing mostly white Afrikaans-speaking workers, has historically opposed affirmative action policies but has not engaged extensively with issues of linguistic discrimination in workplace culture.

Across Africa, umbrella bodies like Uganda’s NOTU, Kenya’s COTU, and Nigeria’s NLC have successfully mobilised on wages, job security, and safety, yet remain silent on language-based bias, an omission that often leaves minority workers unprotected.

Power, Class, and Colonial Lingual Legacies

The persistence of accentism reveals deeper power imbalances. In post-colonial Africa, language is still a class marker, distorting workplace inclusion and reinforcing colonial legacies. When policies like “English-only” become proxies for unity, they often exclude indigenous languages and by extension, the people behind them .

Yet the law affirms linguistic rights: accents are linked to culture, identity, and dignity. A ban on accent discrimination expresses a fundamental union demand for respect in the workplace, not just for fair pay.

Pathways to Inclusive Workplaces

To address these entrenched biases, we need systemic change:

1. Anti-bias training: All employees should receive training that confronts accent and cultural prejudice, as recommended by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.

2. Inclusive language policies: Organisations must allow multiple languages and avoid implicit accent filters in recruitment.

3. Union-led advocacy: Unions like SACCAWU, COSATU, and Solidarity must integrate language equity into collective bargaining, pushing for cultural rights alongside wages.

4. Legal enforcement: Workers must be empowered to pursue discrimination claims through processes like CCMA in South Africa or equivalent bodies elsewhere.

5. Cultural audit: Employers should perform workplace culture audits to determine whether language-based exclusion is evident.

Conclusion: Towards Dignified Multilingual Workplaces

Silencing voices through accent or language isn’t neutral; it reproduces power imbalances. African workplaces must replace these patterns with policies that affirm linguistic dignity and cultural respect.

As unions deepen their commitments to justice and solidarity, language equality must now rise as a frontline demand, for it is only when speech is liberated that the whole worker can be.

References

1. Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. “Dealing with discrimination based on language, culture and bias in the workplace”, 26 May 2025. Link

2. Louw, A. Language Discrimination in the Context of South African Workplace Discrimination Law. Stellenbosch University, 31 January 2022. Link

3. Toefy, R. “Accent discrimination, linguistic capital and the evaluation…” University of Pretoria, 2020. Link

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. “Discriminate in the workplace at your peril”, 20 Feb 2023. Link