Siver Loerie Winner Tokanye by Serena-Marie van der Nest

South Africa and its people share a rich diversity of race, language and culture. In an attempt to create unity in this diversity a custom language was developed, based on the concept of fanagalo. Fanagalo is a pidgin (simplified language) based primarily on Zulu, with English and Afrikaans influence. It is used as a lingua franca, mainly in the gold, diamond, coal and copper mining industries in South Africa. Tokanya, meaning “together unite”, was developed as a language consisting of  English, Afrikaans and Zulu words as well as corresponding South African slang. 

Basic words, compliments and phrases, designed to unite people, were developed by combing Zulu words with words from English and Afrikaans. For the purposes of this brief, only three of the eleven official languages of South Africa were used.