University Botswana Journals
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LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR LANGUAGE USE AND LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN BOTSWANA
Full text linkExcept for allusions to some requirements or competencies for holding certain government offices or positions, no law legislates a planned language usage in Botswana. The colonial language practice dispensation of English, the official language for government records, and Setswana, the territorial language for oral communication and early literacy, were adopted at independence in 1966. In a country of 30 different languages, the immediate questions are, what happens with other national languages, and what role and right do they have in Botswana? The difficulty that the Botswana language situation presents is that the equality guaranteed by the Constitution does not translate into equality in language usage in education, public media, or other language use domains. The paper proposes a critical assessment of the legislative provision on language and what the current language use practice entails for other languages and the country as a democracy. Within a socio-linguistic framework, the paper will interrogate language as a right as advocated by UNESCO and Human Rights organisations. The arguments presented are that, if Botswana wants to adopt a holistic approach to its democratic ideals, she should also ensure that all aspects of human rights are constitutionally given, and that policies and laws are enacted to achieve equality and equity for all. With the new debates on Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2036, Botswana is in an opportune situation to implement language and culture rights that take all languages and cultures into account, and to ensure that they are promoted and capitated to be tools for the new call for the knowledge economy
ANALYSING THE ROLE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE CORONATION OF KING MISIZULU:
Full text linkKwaZulu Natal has historically remained a province that has embraced indigenous identity and remains the only province to keep a decolonial name in post-apartheid South Africa. The problem today is the disappointment of recolonising the way in which Misizulu was coronated as the new king of the Zulu nation following the death of his father, king Zwelithini. This article critically analyses the role of Christianity as part of king Misizulu’s coronation ritual. This article will further argue that reliance on the will to appoint a king is problematic because it brings a measure of legal uncertainty to the lineage of the KwaZulu Natal traditional leadership. References will also be made to judicial pronouncements where a similar fate of unsettling traditional leadership with legal uncertainty was enabled in a mission to achieve gender equality. The article will discuss the impact of such recolonization with particular reference to the limitation of the King’s option to marry more than one wife. It will be argued that courts must employ the true laws of indigenous communities and not effect distorted versions of indigenous law. Embracing African indigenous culture has been a topical issue in South Africa, sparking decolonial conversations. The article thus analyses topical issues that emerged in king Zwelithini's saga, such as the recolonization of traditional leadership, the role of Christianity, the prime minister, and wills
The Emergence and Challenges of Post-Liberation Pan-Hurutshe Renaissance in Southern Africa
Full text linkThis paper examines the plight of the various Bahurutshe merafe (ethnic groups) found in the three neighbouring Southern African countries of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. It demonstrates how the groups split from the original morafe (ethnic group) into various entities which experienced varying vicissitudes of fate in the pre-colonial, colonial, and apartheid South Africa and Namibia. The end of apartheid and the post-liberation period in South Africa saw various ethnic groups in the three countries (and even Zimbabwe) engaging in a Renaissance movement characterized by holding annual festivals for cross-border unity and preservation of their culture with a view for cultural or heritage tourism. In this regard the Bahurutshe appeared on the scene by 2011, but before they could consolidate their cross-border movement they lost their pioneering, pivotal, and dynamic coordinator, the Botswana-based Moses Lekaukau who died in 2015, and this robbed the movement the force it needed going forward. Hence, it declined after a very short period
The Botswana Campus of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS): 1971 Student Cohort and Subsequent Opportunity for a National University in Botswana
Full text linkThe University of Botswana’s Undergraduate Academic Calendar, 2023/24 includes a ‘historical note’ that makes scant mention of the establishment of the Botswana Campus in 1971 (University of Botswana, 2023:11). This article is intended to fill the gap in the narrative about the initiation of the Botswana Campus of the University of Botswana Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS). It is written from the author’s memory as a member of the 1971/72 cohort with input by some peers at the UBLS Botswana Campus. The Campus formed the foundation for the establishment of the University of Botswana (UB) and its subsequent development. These memories are augmented by content derived from published sources and unpublished documents to provide a context and meaning to the history of UB. The UBLS Botswana Campus was established following a decision by the Governing Council in 1970, to devolve the University and establish a physical presence of infrastructure, buildings, staff and students to a new campus in Botswana and add to existing facilities in Swaziland (Vernon-Jackson 1973:199). Establishing the Campus was a race against time, and presented a host of challenges, including procuring accommodation and facilities, recruiting staff, beginning the construction of infrastructure on a virgin site, registering and managing new students. Although no campus premises for teaching and accommodation existed, postponing the beginning of the 1971/72 academic year was not an option. Qualified school leavers were waiting and could not miss the academic programmes for that year. Keeping pace and maintaining established standards of programmes at the other two campuses in Lesotho and Swaziland was imperative. The Governments of Botswana and Swaziland demonstrated full support for the Council decision, hence the implementation in establishing the new campus in Gaborone. The Lesotho Government, however, was a reluctant participant in the devolution exercise (Mokgopakgosi 2013:467). All along, Lesotho had enjoyed the prestige of hosting the University and the status of a senior campus and administrative headquarters
“Avoid study groups . . . choose virtual sessions”: Multicultural factors affecting University of Botswana ESL students’ attitudes towards online group work.
No full textDisplayed on a small billboard standing along the road next to a busy pedestrian gate in the University of Botswana (UB) are the words “Avoid study groups . . . choose virtual sessions”. This caption motivated the author to conduct this study because research shows that group work is one of the popular instructional methods espoused by the students, but the caption seems to suggest that UB students prefer virtual group work to something else virtual. In view of the message carried by this caption, the present study sought to investigate the UB Social Sciences students’ attitudes towards online group work as compared to in person or face-to-face group work. Data for this study was collected through triangulation of questionnaire and semi-structured interview research methods. The findings of this study buttress the observations made by previous researchers that students support online group work although they did not fully do so because of its limitations and previous bad experiences of using dysfunctional Internet and “free riding” or lack of participation by some students. The findings of the current study further show that face-to-face group work was comparatively favoured more than online group work and that cultural differences did not seem to have direct influence on the students’ attitudes towards online group work.
 
A PREFERENCE OPERATIONAL GRAMMAR APPROACH TO STANDARDIZING KONGLISH PHONOLOGICAL CORPORA FOR PEDAGOGICAL PURPOSES
Full text linkThis study is an investigation into the phonology of Korean-accented English, Konglish. The objective is to propose a means to extracting preferred phonological features, which would constitute a two-way standard: inner and outer standards or formal and informal standards. This research is grounded on the workings of the Preference Operational Grammar approach to the standardization of the phonological corpora of New Englishes. It is a framework that adopts ranked but violable parameters that are parallel to ‘constraints’ in the Optimality Theory mechanism to categorize variations in spoken forms into members of a bi-normative inventory. This schema is paramount in studies relating to New Englishes regarding the formalization of phonological norms. Methodological considerations involve a descriptive and non-numerical analysis of phonological choices, and cross-linguistic evidence. Konglish lexical items are gleaned from the discourse contexts of selected K-dramas on Netflix, using an Infinix Smart 5 mobile device. Several vocabularies and sound sequences are selected, isolated, and presented for illustrative purposes in tables. Results establish a prototypical phonological inventory of Korean-style English as a non-native variety of English. These findings confirm the preference for certain phonological elements or outputs which would constitute the inner standard norms or formal standard while the next in rank, the non-preferred elements would form part of the atypical category which may be considered as allophones of the accepted components and described as the outer standard norm, informal standard. The non-standard patterns are categorized under the developmental circle, reflecting the regional and sociolinguistic aspects of Konglish
CAREER INTERESTS AND INSTITUTIONAL PREFERENCES OF STUDENTS IN BOTSWANA SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Full text linkThis paper surveys higher education career interests and institutional preferences of some senior secondary school students. It also discusses students’ views about the funding of their tertiary education. The research design is both quantitative and qualitative. A questionnaire that combines the two approaches was used to collect data from a representative sample of 101 students from 27 senior secondary schools in Botswana. The findings of the paper are in line with global trends. The career interests of students in Botswana, as elsewhere, cluster around few high-status courses, especially those in the health sciences, business, law, and engineering. Similarly, their institutional preferences are mainly public, government-owned schools that are well-resourced, reputable, and recognised internationally. Most of the students indicate that they require financial assistance to pursue their studies. However, while financial aid is available to all, the Government of Botswana disproportionately distributes it to students whose career interests would help engender economic development
