Hasil untuk "African languages and literature"

Clemence Rubaya

This article explores how literary representations of African motherhood demystify oppressive patriarchal assumptions that have marginalised women whilst promoting male privilege. This study’s objective is to challenge patriarchal values that continue to damage and undermine many African women’s position and status in society. This is critical in order to address gender injustice and make a claim for African women’s rights to respectful, dignified and fulfilling lives as full members of society. An interpretive content analysis of Lauretta Ngcobo’s And They Didn’t Die and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions has been adopted. African feminist theory provided the interpretive framework for analysing the selected texts. In sharp contrast to patriarchal assumptions of women as inferior to men, this research indicates many African women performing critical roles that ensure family survival with little to no help from men. Depictions of African mothers’ sacrifice and struggles to safeguard the interests of the families contrast the irresponsible behaviours and failures associated with fatherhood in the texts studied. Given the important contributions of women to improving quality of life, the study recommends the need for transformation of oppressive patriarchal values that undermine women to create a more equitable society.

Editorial Office

Yvonne Reddick

Paul Lomami Tchibamba (1914–85) is often described as the Congo’s first novelist. Previous research in French and English has depicted Tchibamba’s work as a straightforward example of ‘writing back’ to the colonial canon. However, this article advances scholarship on Tchibamba’s work by demonstrating that his later writing responds not only to Henry Morton Stanley’s account of the imperial subjugation of the Congo, but to Joseph Conrad’s questioning of colonialist narratives of ‘progress’. Drawing on recent theoretical work that examines intertextuality in postcolonial fiction, this article demonstrates that while Tchibamba is highly critical of Stanley, he enters into dialogue with Conrad’s exposure of colonial brutality. Bringing together comparative research insights from Congolese and European literatures, this article also employs literary translation. This is the first time that excerpts from two of Tchibamba’s most important responses to colonial authors have been translated into English. Also for the first time, Tchibamba’s novella Ngemena is shown to be a crucial postcolonial Congolese response to Heart of Darkness. Through close textual analysis of Tchibamba’s use of irony and imagery, this article’s key findings are that, while Tchibamba nuances Conrad’s disparaging portrait of a chief, he develops the ironic mode of Conrad’s An Outpost of Progress, and updates the journey upriver into the interior in Heart of Darkness. This article illustrates the complex and nuanced way in which Tchibamba interacts with his European intertexts, deploying close analyses of his responses to Conradian imagery.

Justus Roux

Dan Wylie, Joan-Mari Barendse

Marni Bonthuys

L. J. Rafapa,, A. Z. Nengome, H. S. Tshamano

Bessie Head was one of the Drum writers of the 1950s. As critics such as Huma Ibrahim have indicated it was only after her death in 1986 that she was included in discussions on the Drum generation. The result of her prior exclusion has been the double marginalization of Head’s literary contribution, as one of the overlooked black South African writers of the 1950s and the lack of critical acclaim of her as an individual author. For this reason, she is one of the black South African writers who should consciously be given prominence today. This article utilizes an analysis of Head’s novels not attempted so far. It is difficult to interrogate Head’s work fruitfully, unless questions are addressed to whether she approaches her imaginative writing as an Africanist, a feminist or just as a woman. It will be argued that her fiction highlights the plight of the socially marginalized in eccentric and seminal ways and that it bears the potential to enrich debates on Africanism, feminism and womanism. Conclusions on how the complexities of Head’s psyche can be beneficially used to enrich a more judicious reading will be drawn from evidence gathered from her novels.

Padmanaban Murugan, Fekadu Israel

This study was aimed at unveiling the impact of a forest carbon sequestration initiative on community level livelihood assets by examining the case of local communities involved in the management of a restored forest in Humbo district of Southwestern Ethiopia. A triangulation of key informant interviews, focus group discussions, non-participant observations, and in-depth interviews were employed to gather the required data. Findings of the study reveal that at the community level, the project achieved positive outcomes such as the formation of Forest Development and Protection Cooperatives (FDPCs) and strengthening their local leadership capacity, building some physical assets though some of them were not in line with the priority needs of the stakeholder local communities, improved microclimatic conditions, and increased savings of FDPCs. On the other hand, the weakening of certain long existed informal institutions for joint ownership of livestock (Kottaa), share breeding of livestock (UloKottaa), and the exchange of farm oxen (BooraaGatuwaa) were worth mentioning as negative outcomes associated with the project. Therefore, letting the community decide over what to do with the carbon revenue in general and which community level assets to build in particular are likely to meet the priority needs of the concerned communities, enhance the sense of ownership of the forest among the members of the communities, and thereby contribute to the sustainability of forest management and carbon sequestration. Moreover, social impact assessments need to be exhaustively conducted during the replication of similar projects in order to anticipate their possible dysfunctions and thereby to save the long existing informal social institutions of target communities.

Anneleen van Hertbruggen

No abstract available.

D. Pisoni

A. Kioko, R. Ndung’u, Martin C. Njoroge et al.

Varied realities surround the use of mother tongue education in Africa. These realities are entrenched in the attitudes and misconceptions that have gone unchallenged due to inadequate literature on the successful use of mother tongues in the classroom and beyond. The realities discussed in this paper include the frustrations of children introduced to education in a foreign language; misconceptions about the success of mother tongue education; educational benefits of mother tongue education; and mother tongues and enhanced economic opportunities. The foci of this paper are the success stories from Africa and the economic benefits in the use of the mother tongue in creative media or economies. These success stories are a way of getting to stakeholders to invest in mother tongue education for there are returns on such investment. The stories are also a way of challenging scholars to get out of the conference rooms and do something gainful with the mother tongues.

J. Suchan

A. Koon, J. Goudge, S. Norris

BackgroundThe health of adolescents is increasingly seen as an important international priority because the world’s one point eight billion young people (aged 10 to 24 years) accounts for 15.5% of the global burden of disease and are disproportionately located in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Furthermore, an estimated 70% of premature adult deaths are attributable to unhealthy behaviors often initiated in adolescence (such as smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity). In order for health services to reach adolescents in LMICs, innovative service delivery models need to be explored and tested. This paper reviews the literature on generalist and specialist community health workers (CHWs) to assess their potential for strengthening the delivery of adolescent health services.MethodsWe reviewed the literature on CHWs using Medline (PubMed), EBSCO Global Health, and Global Health Archive. Search terms (n = 19) were sourced from various review articles and combined with subject heading ‘sub-Saharan Africa’ to identify English language abstracts of original research articles on generalist and specialist CHWs.ResultsA total of 106 articles, from 1985 to 2012, and representing 24 African countries, matched our search criteria. A single study in sub-Saharan Africa used CHWs to deliver adolescent health services with promising results. Though few comprehensive evaluations of large-scale CHW programs exist, we found mixed evidence to support the use of either generalist or specialist CHW models for delivering adolescent health services.ConclusionsThis review found that innovative service delivery approaches, such as those potentially offered by CHWs, for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are lacking, CHW programs have proliferated despite the absence of high quality evaluations, rigorous studies to establish the comparative effectiveness of generalist versus specialist CHW programs are needed, and further investigation of the role of CHWs in providing adolescent health services in sub-Saharan Africa is warranted.

M. A. Naveed, M. Anwar

M'Balia Thomas

R. Zachariah, A. Harries, S. Srinath et al.

Angi Stone-MacDonald, G. Butera

Leti Kleyn

Hierdie artikel fokus op die rol wat skryfopleiding gedurende die tydperk 1995–2012 in die groter Afrikaanse literêre sisteem vervul het, met spesifieke verwysing na skryfopleiding as nagraadse kwalifikasie. Ondersoek word ingestel na die ontwikkeling van die vakgebied op tersiêre vlak, soorte skryfopleiding en die rol van mentorskap in die ontwikkeling van skryftalent. Daarbenewens word die getal solopublikasies wat tot op datum verskyn het van skrywers wat skryfopleiding ondergaan het, die rol wat skryfopleiding in die verpakking speel, die ontvangs en die toekenning van literêre pryse oorweeg. Ten slotte word daar gekyk na die rol (positief en negatief) wat skryfopleiding in die literêre sisteem vervul.

Dawid H. van der Vyver

This article highlights some of the most pressing educational and language communication needs in the Republic of South Africa and emphasizes the urgency for accelerated programmes for teaching and learning. It further outlines and explains specific initiatives that have been started with in response to the needs described and it suggests an approach for the possible wider application of SALT in South Africa. Hierdie artikel belig 'n aantal van die dringendste opvoedkundige en kommunikatiewe behoeftes in die Republiek van Suid-Afrika. Die noodsaaklikheid van versnellingsprogramme vir die onderwys word beklemtoon. Verder omlyn en verduidelik dit spesifieke inisiatiewe waarmee begin is as antwoord op die bestaande behoeftes. Ten slotte word gesuggereer dat SALT in Suid-Afrika nog veel verder uitgebrei kan word.

J. House