The Last Voice of an Ancient Tongue

Elsie Vaalbooi was the last speaker of !Auni, the ancient language of South Africa's first peoples. Producer Siven Maslamoney tells the story of how languages die and how Elsie's people have been driven to extinction.

2003 / ABC Ulwazi / BBC World Service, South Africa / UK

Elsie Vaalbooi was the last speaker of !Auni, the ancient language of South Africa's first peoples. Producer Siven Maslamoney tells the story of how languages die and how Elsie's people have been driven to extinction.


produced by

ABC Ulwazi

ABC Ulwazi is an NGO that undertakes both radio training as well as educational radio production. It is the merger of two organisations, Applied Broadcasting Centre (ABC) which has its main interest in human rights in communication, particularly in the field of broadcasting, and the Ulwazi Educational Radio Project which has been producing educational and developmental radio programmes in 7 languages since 1995.


Featured in


May we recommend…