University Botswana Journals
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THE PROSPECT OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BOTSWANA: A CRITICAL REFLECTION
Get PDFAlthough the languages in education policy has not been officially published, the current initiatives debates geared towards its implementation demonstrate excitement and caution by stakeholders and researchers. The excitement is in the sense that this will be one way that the country fulfils its ideals of democratization, of language rights, and of improving pedagogy for learners who do not have the national language, Setswana, as their home language. The cautions expressed by some emanate from the realization that the timelines that are suggested will not afford the Government to make appropriate preparations towards the January 2023 date. Associated with these trepidations, it is also the argument made in this paper that, while the Government believes the initiative will create an inclusive curriculum that will deliver education for all and the Vision 2036 ideals of knowledge economy, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) quality of life standards, the draft policy as is being discussed at Government levels may not be a smooth riding through implementation processes. This article assesses the situation and points out points out issues that need to be taken into consideration for the policy to be gainful once signed into a formal legal document
Broken Monody: Sounds as Presages of War in Christopher Okigbo’s Labyrinths
Get PDFPoetry is closely knit to music and as such it remains the prince of the genres despite the comparatively more recent arrival of the realist novel on the popular scene. Critical commentary continues to revisit Christopher Okigbo’s Labyrinths in part because of the union of music and poetry in this fascinating collection of lyrical lines. Okigbo was as a person a talented musical instrumentalist, hence the almost magical hold of his poetry on the listener/reader. There is also the rich suggestiveness in his lyrical composition that is a product of sound, olfactory and visual imagery, for example, as well as an unmistakable ear for ominous signals reaching out to the present from the future. Also, the poetry illustrates the age-old designation of a poet as a prophet, a visionary. This essay examines some of the ways in which Labyrinths speaks eloquently to the past, present and futuristic trajectories of Nigeria’s experience as a postcolony
Chinua Achebe’s Use of Language in “The Theme of Change”: The Case of Things Fall Apart
Get PDFThe paper discusses the theme of change in Things Fall apart, showing how Chinua Achebe has handled language to demonstrate the conflicts that occurred between the people of Umuofia and the white missionaries over the threat of change of the Igbo culture. The missionaries look at the Igbo culture despicably and want Igbo people to follow Christian religion. It is shown through some characters like Okonkwo who is portrayed as strongly resisting change from his culture to the white man’s religion, and his son Nwoye who epitomises some of the Igbo people who give up their culture and follow the white man’s religion. The paper shows how Okonkwo’s refusal to give up some aspects of his culture and adopt the white man’s religion finally destroys him as he ends up committing suicide. The message that is communicated here is the importance of considering other people’s cultures for purposes of growth and development. In the process of preservation of one’s culture, one should learn to accommodate other people’s cultures and adapt some aspects that are of use for them
Multilingual dialogue in a post-Apartheid television drama in South Africa: More than a rhetorical function
Get PDFThis paper examines the use of multiple languages in the television dramas of post-Apartheid South Africa that are broadcast in the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), with special reference to a single scene selected from an episode of the popular soap opera Generations: The Legacy (GTL) which is a sequel to Generations. Multilinguality is not a new phenomenon in creative verbal art, nor is it peculiar to South African fictional television. Given the country’s separatist political history, the sudden change in the late 1990s from exclusively monolingual to multilingual dialogue in the SABC soap operas is of socio-political significance. The subject is considered within the frameworks of Communication Context and Code of Realism, inter alia, and the article argues that Rainbowism is the main motivation behind the multilingual switch. Promoting the Rainbowism agenda through TV drama constitutes a reliance on the mass media to influence society, a reliance which finds resonance among Cultivation as well as Social Cognitive theorists.
 
A FEATURE GEOMETRY EXEGESIS OF NDAU CONSONANT PHONEME INVENTORY
Get PDFThis research investigates the consonant phoneme inventory of Ndau, a once marginalized language spoken in the Chimanimani and Chipinge districts of the Manicaland province in Zimbabwe. The data for this study were collected mainly through intuition and secondary sources. The research identifies and characterizes the language’s distinctive consonant phonemes using the minimal pair and set tests. The study utilises the constriction-based Feature Geometry (Clements & Hume, 1995) model to describe Ndau segment inventory. The study identified Ndau consonants which include aspirated, breathy-voiced, pre-nasalized, labialized, palatalized, and click consonants. The research categorised Ndau consonants into two main categories, namely, simplex, and complex segments. The Ndau simplex consonant phonemes are divided into Labial, Coronal, Dorsal, and Pharyngeal segments. The Ndau complex consonants are sub-categorized into compound place, secondary articulation, manner contour segments, and double complexity. The contribution of this research resides in the mono-segmental analysis of Ndau complex segments from a Feature Geometry perspective. The study has established thirty simplex consonant phonemes and fifty-one complex consonant phonemes. All these phonemes add up to eighty-one. This study contributes to Zimbabwean linguistics since Ndau, which has been closely associated with Shona for 82 years, shows that it differentiates simplex and complex consonant phonemes
ASPECT OF BOTHO/UBUNTU IN BOTSWANA
Get PDFThe objective of this article is to interrogate the concept of Botho/Ubuntu in relation to Botswana and argue that it is more than just an ideology but a way of life for Botswana. It is noted that, there has been much debate on what Botho/Ubuntu is and where it can be found within the Nguni and Bantu speaking people. This article aims to add to such discussion and state that the concept of Botho/Ubuntu also exists in Botswana. In addition, such concept in Botswana is referred to as “Botho”. Botho in Botswana is a basis of various cultural expressions and forms part of the way of live of Batswana. This article will show how Botswana has integrated Botho into its national principle through including it in their national strategy outlined in Vision 2036. It will argue that Botswana needs to take lessons from South Africa and its incorporation of the concept of Botho/Ubuntu into their legal jurisprudence, and incorporate Botho into Botswana legal jurisprudence as well
Women’s representation and environmental sustainability in the Niger Delta: A critique of two Nigerian novels
Get PDFThis article examines the discourse of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region with a focus on the representation of women and their roles in environmental renaissance and sustainability in the Niger Delta. Women have traditionally been portrayed as victims of environmental degradation in contemporary Nigerian fiction. The objective of this article is to deconstruct the perception of female victimology by investigating the roles women in environmental sustainability, ecological regeneration and the development of African societies, especially in the Niger Delta. This article therefore attempts to foreground firm resolutions of women characters in May Ifeoma Nwoye’s Oil cemetery and Vincent Egbuson’s Love my planet in relation to human and environmental regeneration. This study employs eco-feminism, an aspect of Eco-criticism, to critique issues of women and environmental sustainability arising in the Niger Delta environment, their awareness of and responses to the ecological damage in the region.
 
A Synoptical Appreciation of Moteane Melamu’s Botswana Short Stories
Get PDFThis article is an appreciation of five of Melamu’s short fictional pieces. It shows how the selected stories depict life in Botswana. All the stories discussed are set in Gaborone. They offer glimpses of urban life in domestic spaces, political arenas, the streets and neighbourhoods. The stories feature a variety of fallible characters with different traits, anxieties and foibles. The discussion shows how the characters act and interact in the particular circumstances they find themselves in. The stories attest to Melamu’s prowess as a storyteller
Eurocentrism: Plato, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Tournier’s Friday
Get PDFErnest Gellner (1994) contending with Edward Said (1993) critiquing Western attitudes towards the East in Culture and Imperialism, wrote the following: “At the heart of European culture during the many decades of imperial expansion lay an undeterred and unrelenting Eurocentrism’’ (p.169). This assertion leads to a question which constitutes the starting point of this article. Why do Europeans venerate so deeply their culture, and why do they think of it as if it were somehow transcending the everyday world? It is Plato’s fault. This essay is a speculative contention of the foregoing assertion using theorists and characters (as tropes) from philosophy and literature of antiquity and contemporary experience