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Language matters in Zimbabwe

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By Dr Arthur Makanda

THE issue of languages published in The Patriot of July 18-24 2014 edition makes a very interesting read.
Dr Vimbai Gukwe Chivaura raised very pertinent issues on the language promotion and interpretation.
The constitution he made reference to while it recognises 16 languages as official, it still has got some shortcomings in the area of implementation. Whereas Chapter One, Section 6 (3) clearly says the state and all institutions and agencies of Government at every level must (a) ensure that all officially recognised languages in Zimbabwe are treated equitably and (b) take into account the language preferences of people affected by Government measures or communications, it is not clear who in the state, all institutions and agencies of Government at every level must be responsible.
Is it the policy makers or the foot soldier whose business is to execute or implement.
If it is everybody, what is it they will be promoting, is it the ordinary use of the preferred language or enforcing compliance in the use of, for instances if a distributor in Government receives a consignment of goods labelled say in English only must he/she return to sender and ask him to comply with the provisions of the constitution or does he/she assume the role of an interpreter to explain to the consumer of the goods in all the other official languages.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done.
In other countries such as Canada, there is a language board that is responsible for a host of issues that pertains to languages that are indigenous to their citizens from various areas of that country.
The issues of language is very emotive, in Somalia, language determines one’s nationality and citizenship.
Warsome indicates that, “the Somali language is the most powerful sign of their nationality.”
The Somali often consider specifically their language a sufficient condition for nationality.
In fact the first citizenship law in the northern regions defines a Somali as any person whose mother tongue is Somali language and follow Somali customs.
Is this the same situation with Zimbabwe or are we heading towards that direction.
It becomes the business of the language board or Commission to draw up those parameters.
If the issue of languages is not handled well it has a potential of causing ethnic clashes and or subordinating smaller groups to larger groups.
Unfortunately the constitution does not provide for an independent commission on languages neither does it state which Ministry of Government/Department is specifically tasked with dealing with the issues of languages.
Language is not just a means of communication, but it is much more than that.
One Germany writer, Meinhofin (1951) stated that colonialists believed, “to influence the African people, their languages must be penetrated by European knowledge and become (a) vehicle for European thought and this is not far from what Whitely another European writer who believed in two main reasons why one should learn the language of another person said.
The first one was in order to trade with him or have power over him (at least if you can trade with him where you need to wrestle his belongings). The second was to dominate spiritually and politically, so is this the stance of Zimbabweans or is it to celebrate our diversity and the diversity of our cultures and approach to the world view.
There must be an equal measure to fight the notion of minority and majority languages.
Elsewhere in the world organisation, languages are classified as such and numbers or figures are given to justify why a language must be regarded as majority or minority.
In my research I asked one publishing house why they don’t publish literature in certain languages they consider a minority and economic reasons were cited, actually the question was, does it make economic sense to publish in such languages.
Again the attitude comes into play, one other respondent asked the researcher whether he was able to translate some names of diseases that visit members of the society into indigenous languages.
My response was if the illnesses are suffered in any society, then they would coin a name for that particular disease and try to find a solution or remedy through the use of herbal or traditional medicine.
It is such attitude that the commission or the board will have to deal with.
It is unfortunate that the independent commission in our constitution do not relate directly to the language issues.
Is language an electoral commission, human rights commission, gender commission, media commission or national peace and reconciliation commission issue and how do they interact with the State and Government departments or agencies on this issue.
What is the status of the English language?
Is it the language of record, it is the language of citizenship, is it the language of trade, is it the ‘neutral’ language, what of its own cultural baggage that it imposes on other languages and cultures.
The Board or Commission would have to manage these attitudes and if it is left as open ended as is in the constitution then we are heading for a disaster. There are such issues of the status of the language, issues of the corpus, lexicography and orthography that need to be attended to.
The issue of language is not only about officialising them neither is it only about translating and interpretation, it has got an ideological, cultural, economic and social dimensions.
One Rhodesian native commissioner, Charles Bullock asserted that his studying of the Shona language was not to promote it, but to know how to subvert it or subordinate it to the English language even though he acknowledges that it was not a primitive language.
This could be the reason why we still have English names that are littered in our communities and place of residence for instances.
The Arthur in me subordinates the Takawira in me who was born under a tree as he is born again through baptism.
In the absence of a clear cut policy implementation plan, I assert that ordinary people will institutionalise their own ways of organising, selecting and implementing languages in particular social contexts, in ways that make sense to themselves.
One way of organising the cultural lives of the people is to analyse the language that the people create and implement as they struggle with nature and man.
The absence of language policy framework in any country does not put activities of life to a halt, but communities create, coin and implement language activities on their own.
A combination of down-upward and top-down approach to a language policy implementation is a preferred approach as both the people and the authorities jointly name, liberate, celebrate and create a world view defined in the indigenous languages of their choices.
Dr Makanda is the author of the language question in Africa, Zimbabwe case study and indigenous language creation struggles over policy implementation in post-colonial Zimbabwe.

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