Ethnic Groups Face Resistance

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday July 04, 2002 11:57 by Foster Dongozi

EFFORTS by minority ethnic groups in Zimbabwe, such as Kalanga, Tonga, Sotho, Venda, Shangani and Nambya to have books and other forms of literature published in their languages have long faced resistance from publishers. The companies have claimed publishing books in minority languages was not commercially viable as only a few copies would be bought, thus failing to justify the investment.

As a way of overcoming the hurdle of persuading publishers otherwise, the affected communities have sought the assistance of donors and communities in neighbouring countries to get their literary works published.

In most instances, such languages are only spoken at home while Shona and Ndebele, regarded by others as the "colonial" languages of Zimbabwe, are spoken and taught in schools.

Although the government has declared that such languages be taught in areas where they are predominantly spoken, lack of literature and inadequate resources from the government, will make it difficult for the minority languages to be taught.

According to Isaac Mumpande, the author of the first book published in

Tonga, the affected communities will lose their cultural identity if they are not allowed to preserve their way of life in the written form.

"For example, Tonga is spoken in districts like Hwange, Binga, Gokwe and Kariba.

"In the case of Binga district, isiNdebele is taught at school ahead of the Tonga language.

"The same case prevails in areas like Gokwe and Kariba, where Tonga children speak the language at home but learn Shona when they go to school."

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Indigenous Languages Promotion Association, Saul Ndlovu, said minority languages faced demise as repeated efforts to have manuscripts published had continuously faltered, while the failure to have them taught in their own areas was not reviewed seriously.

"Previously, such languages were taught up to Grade Three but it was not mandatory, as the decision on whether or not to teach the languages was up to the headmasters.

"Now that it is a requirement that such languages be taught at schools, the problem is that there isn't adequate literature and personnel for the proper implementation of that language policy.

"It is totally unacceptable that a child at whose home Nambya, Tonga, Sotho, Kalanga and Venda are spoken, is required to learn a language alien to their home environment and later forced to use that language to write letters to his/her parents who would need someone else to translate the letter for them," Ndlovu said.

He said as a result, minority languages were threatened with extinction because they were being marginalised partly through the education system, while it was almost impossible to have literature printed by publishing houses in the country.

Ndlovu said in 1986, communities which speak Venda, Tonga and Kalanga formed the Vetoka Association, which he led with the late Million Malaba.

"Our aim was to produce literature in our languages but we failed to achieve our goals because publishing houses refused to accept our manuscripts and partly because I was sent to work in Swaziland while Malaba became ill and died."

The Zimbabwe Indigenous Languages Promotion Association (Zilpa), which hopes to pursue the same agenda, was formed last year, with the assistance of Silveira House, a developmental wing of the Catholic Church.

Already, Zilpa has, through Silveira House, managed to have the first book published in Tonga, Tusimpi (Proverbs) through money donated by the World Bank.

Ndlovu said Mukani Cultural Organisation from Botswana, had offered its printing facilities for books in Kalanga.

Sub-committees have been set up in some areas of the country to produce manuscripts in Kalanga for printing in Botswana.

There is a large Kalanga community in northern Botswana.

Ndlovu himself is working on a manuscript in Kalanga, called Zwidiyo zwetjiKalanga, (Lessons in Kalanga).

The Catholic Church had assisted the Nambya-speaking community with the publication of the First Testament in that language as well as a dictionary.

The deputy president of Zilpa, Dickson Mundia, who is from Binga, said:

"Zilpa's aim is to promote these languages so that they are taught in areas where they are predominantly spoken."

He said the failure to have books published in the minority languages would see the death of those languages and affect people's culture.

"The idea of promoting people's languages is a crucial one in any society that aims at preserving its cultures.

"Language and culture are inseparable as both complement the maintenance of the other. Language being a vehicle of culture means that culture cannot flourish in the absence of language, especially in the written form," Mundia said.

Mundia said languages which existed only in the spoken form could easily disappear as there would be no reference points.

"Literature, the written form of language, is central to language and cultural promotion. When a language exists in written form, it becomes a permanent reference for future generations." he said.