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MULTILINGUALISM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: SEARCHING FOR NATIONAL IDENTITY IN DIVERSITY
Get PDFWhen the African countries gained independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they were confronted with three challenges, namely: to bring unity to the many and diverse semi-autonomous ethnic groups in the new nations, to forge sovereignty and national identity, and to build developed and modern states. The most crucial challenge was how to forge national identity and nationhood in a state of multilingual and multicultural diversity in each of the new states. Using the Optimal Language Policy Model, this study examines, in particular, the challenge of forging a national identity in a state of multilingualism or linguistic diversity. The article looks at how each of the southern African countries has dealt with the challenge, and the extent to which the chosen language policy has succeeded to bring true unity, identity, democracy and equality to all citizens, so as to ensure that they all have equal access to national resources and services. The study is based mainly on secondary data obtained from several sociolinguistic surveys. The findings of the study reveal that many southern countries have, rightly, opted for the inclusive and hierarchical language policies
TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR SETSWANA TO BE A RESOURCEFUL VEHICLE OF DEVELOPMENT IN BOTSWANA
Get PDFAbstractWhen most African countries became independent in the early 1960’s, they were driven by a strong nationalistic desire to be united, sovereign and developed. After realizing that many languages were spoken within their borders, they had to come up with language policies, which would meet their aspirations. Although many countries selected the demographically and socio-politically dominant indigenous languages to be national media, in most cases, the national language remained functionally symbolic. Botswana is one of the African countries which selected its dominant indigenous language, Setswana, to be the national language (Republic of Botswana, 1994).This paper examines the position of Setswana, whose role has remained largely symbolic, as a national language (Bagwasi, 2012; Chebanne et al., 1993). However, in order to ensure maximal utilization of the national medium, as a vehicle for development and mass mobilization, Botswana needs to accord Setswana more control of the country’s socio-political, economic and technological domains for sustainable development. The paper proposes ten possible measures, that it terms “commandments”, which ought to be followed for Setswana to become a resourceful and effective national and primary official language.Keywords: capacity planning, national language, norm planning, official language, status plannin
Preserving and transmitting indigenous knowledge in diminishing bio-cultural environment: Case studies from Botswana and Tanzania
Get PDFThe rapid bio-diversity loss due to the effects of urbanization, socio-economic demands, change in life style, technological advancement and globalization has resulted in the depletion of the ecosystem. At the same time, the younger generations are no longer acquiring knowledge in their indigenous environment, partly because of the new lifestyle of going to school instead of going hunting or herding, and partly because the fauna and flora is being destroyed and therefore no longer available for the children who are born and raised in villages. This has resulted in them not being able to acquire the relevant knowledge and skills when they become adults. This paper highlights the problem of indigenous knowledge transmission and preservation by describing case studies from Tanzania and Botswana. It then reflects on the known patterns of identity loss in societies. Finally it discusses the several measures that are being carried out to deal with the problems of bio-diversity loss in Africa
The Origin and Evolution of Setswana Culture: A Linguistic Account
Get PDFLanguage is one of the important means by which all cultural experiences, both conceptual and material, are accumulated, stored and transmitted either vertically from generation to generation or horizontally from one ethnolinguistic group to another. In most societies such accumulation, storage and transmissionare done by way of narration, stories, fables, proverbs, idioms, sayings, riddles, songs, totems and education. The most important form of transmission is done through education, whether formal or informal. Language is, therefore, both the means and the custody in cultural accumulation and transmission. Although a language’s sound system and grammar may refl ect societal cultural characteristics, it is the lexical stock or vocabulary which is the most important custodian of cultural experiences in a given ethnolinguistic group. This study uses Setswana speakers’ cultural vocabulary to trace the evolution of thisethnolinguistic group from its ancestral Bantu origins to its present state. It is based on the assumption that the current Batswana’s lexical stock is a refl ection of the cultural experiences which have been accumulated over several millennia following a series of complex group’s interactions with the physical environment, social milieu and the supernatural world, during the Bantu movements from their cradle in what is now Cameroon. These interactions gave rise to physical adaptations, innovations and adoptions which moulded the current Setswana language and culture
THE DEVASTATING PROCESS OF IDENTITY LOSS IN BOTSWANA
Get PDFMany foreigners, who are not familiar with Botswana, assume that the country is monolingual, as they equate the name of the country with the main ethnic group, namely, Batswana. But Botswana is a typical multilingual country, with no less than 30 languages, most of which are highly diverse in form, structure and lexicon. This misconception of Botswana’s linguistic and cultural reality, both locally and internationally, has given rise to several devastating consequences. This article examines the devastating process of identity loss of the marginalized minority language groups of Botswana. The article identifies the main killer factors and proposes ways of alleviating the situation. The Lamy-Pool Identity Loss Model is evoked to determine the fate of the helpless languages. The study is based mainly on secondary data obtained from several sociolinguistic surveys carried out on the minority languages of Botswana. The findings of the study show the seriousness of ethnic identity loss and how it is affecting the whole country. 
Preserving and transmitting indigenous knowledge in diminishing bio-cultural environment: Case studies from Botswana and Tanzania
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