Sesotho sa Leboa comprises multiple dialects, estimated at around 33, primarily spoken in Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga Province. Although most dialects are considered mutually intelligible, those in the eastern part of Limpopo Province (Selobedu, Sepulana and Sepai) are argued to be mutually unintelligible with dialects associated with the standard language, that is, Sepedi, Sekopa and Sekone. However, a closer observation of arguments reveals four linguistic factors that have not been considered by previous studies. Firstly, the opinions are advanced without any direct measurement of the mutual intelligibility of the dialects. Secondly, when mutual intelligibility is not bidirectional, the dialects are misconstrued as mutually unintelligible. Thirdly, the dialect continuum has not been explored to explain the linguistic landscape of the dialects. Lastly, language (dialect) contact has not been considered when reference is made to the mutual intelligibility of the dialects. Considering this background, the current study provides a linguistic overview of the mutual intelligibility of Sesotho sa Leboa dialects as reported by various scholars, while also arguing that the above-mentioned linguistic factors are intricately linked to mutual intelligibility and, therefore, essential to be considered when reflecting on the mutual intelligibility of these dialects. The study adopted a qualitative desktop research method, whereby various secondary sources on mutual intelligibility and Sesotho sa Leboa dialects are reviewed for analysis.
Contribution: The study postulates that speakers of Selobedu, Sepulana and Sepai can understand speakers of Sepedi, Sekopa and Sekone based on acquired intelligibility as speakers of the first three dialects learn the standard language as a home language in schools. The study further proposes for adoption of a revised methodological approach as a possible means to measure and ascertain mutual intelligibility, while also demonstrating how the approach could be adopted in the context of Sesotho sa Leboa dialects.
Julie Hennegan, Nuworza Kugbey, Anthony Danso-Appiah
et al.
Introduction Poor menstrual health and unmet menstrual needs influence several aspects of adolescent girls’ lives, including their educational outcomes. However, evidence on menstrual health needs and educational outcomes among these vulnerable girls living in countries across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is fragmented and inconclusive. The systematic review aims to explore the association between menstrual health needs and educational outcomes among adolescent girls (10–19 years) living in SSA.Methods and analysis Studies (published and unpublished) will be identified from relevant electronic databases including PubMed, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and LILACS without language restriction from January 2012 to December 2024. A comprehensive set of search terms and their alternate terms, together with the names of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, will be used for running the searches. We will also search Scopus, Web of Science, African Index Medicus, HINARI, African Journals Online, Academic Search Premier, MedRXIV, ProQuest, EBSCO Open Dissertations and reference lists of relevant studies. We will contact experts, identified through authorship of key publications in menstrual health research and recommendations from established research networks, for potentially relevant unpublished studies. All retrieved articles from the electronic databases and grey literature will be collated and deduplicated using Endnote and exported to Rayyan QCRI. The pre-defined eligibility criteria will be followed to screen papers for inclusion in the review. The flow of studies will be reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram. Given the anticipated volume of literature to be reviewed, at least two reviewers will independently select studies, extract data and assess the quality of the included studies for risk of bias using the Robbins-E risk of bias assessment tool. Any disagreements will be resolved through discussion between the reviewers. The Joanna Briggs Institute’s Sumari Software will be used for citation management. Binary outcomes will be estimated using pooled proportions (for non-comparative studies) and odds ratio (OR) or risk ratio (RR) (for comparative studies), reported with their 95% CIs. The mean difference (MD) will be used for reporting continuous outcomes with their 95% CIs. In the case where different instruments have been used to report means, we will employ standardised mean difference (SMD). Heterogeneity will be assessed graphically for overlapping CIs and statistically using the I2 statistic, and if heterogeneity is detected to be high (>50%), subgroup analysis will be performed to assess the impact of such variation.Ethics and dissemination While ethical approval is not required for the systematic review methodology itself, appropriate data sharing agreements and confidentiality protocols will be followed when collecting unpublished data from experts. The findings from this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at relevant conferences. Also, the findings will be communicated to local stakeholders (eg, adolescent girls, parents/guardians, school authorities) in appropriate formats and languages to support translation into policy and practice to improve menstrual health and hygiene and education for adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa.PROSPERO registration number CRD42024565296.
Les néologismes de la Covid-19 sont témoins de la réalité pandémique qui a enrichi
le lexique de la langue française. Nous avons analysé la question des néologismes
employés par les Congolais lors de la crise sanitaire de la Covid-19. Ces nouvelles
unités ont été adaptées par les locuteurs du français pour compenser le vide linguistique. Toute langue est vouée non seulement à l’emprunt des mots, mais surtout
à la néologie pour garantir sa survie dans les communautés où elle est employée.
Ainsi, les locuteurs d’une langue ont le choix de créer des nouvelles unités lexicales
pour désigner les nouvelles réalités.
Language and Literature, African languages and literature
The epic poem about the Soweto uprising, “Laboraro le lesoleso”, written in Sepedi (Northern Sotho) by H. M. L. Lentsoane has only recently been translated into English by Biki Lepota as “Black Wednesday” and published in the anthology Stitching a whirlwind (2018). In this article I suggest that, by discarding English, some crucial shifts from the bulk of protest poetry written in English must have taken place. Lentsoane wants to speak directly to fellow mother tongue speakers and not a national or broader African or international ear. It becomes clear that, by deploying various strategies based in orality, the poet manages to contribute new material and new approaches to creative texts of black protest during the apartheid years, e.g., a release from specific apartheid content about their oppression that every indigenous speaker had common knowledge of; an adherence to orality in terms of presentation, vocabulary, and form; and a linkage with the ancestors and a release from trying to reach the conscience of whites. This manifests through the poem’s particular perspective and emphasis as narrative, as telling, combined with vivid visceral poetic imagery of the event. The poem evocatively captures the unfolding of incidents while at the same time shifting the focus to an ancestral demand to stand up for righteousness in a universal field of justice.
Along with the English translation by Cecil Wele Manona, the volume also includes the original isiXhosa account by Jabavu. Additionally, in the introductory chapters, the editors have included a detailed analysis of the travelogue and provided historical background exploring the interconnections between India’s freedom struggle, East Africa’s fight against colonialism, South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, and the American Civil Rights Movement, as well as Jabavu’s andManona’s biographies. Most importantly, the editors argue for the study of literature in regional languages: ‘Any study of African and Indian Ocean literatures that overlooks materials in local languages is an academic joke in bad taste’ (). As a comparatist who researches Canadian literature written in heritage languages, I cannot emphasise enough both the need for recognition of literature in non-hegemonic languages as well as translations of these works. To that end, the editors as well as the translators of Jabavu’s book should be commended for undertaking this project. As comparatists have been arguing for a long time, translation is crucial to expanding the canon of world literature. This translation of Jabavu’s travelogue from isiXhosa into English offers a window into a world which would have been otherwise left out of the reach of scholars globally. For readers who do not have the knowledge of isiXhosa, the translation is interesting as it attempts to retain the style, tone, and flavour of the original text. Jabavu’s travel narrative provides readers with a new vantage point from which to reconsider the cultural and political landscape of India, South Africa, and East Africa in particular, as well as the Indian Ocean region in general. The book will be an excellent addition for anyone interested in Africa, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean world, as well as those working in comparative literature, travel studies, African studies, and translation studies.
ABSTRACT The attempted erasure and inferiorisation of indigenous languages by the colonisers have robbed and continue to rob African people of the authority to self-define. As a result, numerous knowledge forms African languages transmit have disappeared or lost meaning. With vehement calls from African people, world over, to reclaim African ways of being, we have decided to explore the manner in which language is central to reclaiming of African healing practices. While colonialism managed to marginalise indigenous languages in colonised lands, these languages have not been completely erased and they could play a role in building Humanities literature, which is relevant to the experiences of Africans in conqueror South Africa. In this paper, we use the IsiXhosa expression of ‘Ukucelwa ukuzalwa’ to illustrate how ordinary African practices carry a spiritual meaning. We also illustrate how this concept loses meaning when it is translated into English. Ukucelwa ukuzalwa could be literally explained as a process of requesting blood relations yet the English translation turns the process into a bride price negotiation. This loss of meaning occurs when it is absorbed into the Western value system. Thus, there is a potential for epistemological dissonance at every attempt to translate from one language to another
Research has shown that writing centre use has a positive effect on students’ performance of specific writing tasks, as well as their overall academic achievement and progression. Yet many writing centres at higher education institutions around the world report low levels of usage of their services. Surprisingly little empirical research has investigated the reasons for this situation. Focusing on students in an undergraduate marketing module at a South African university, the research reported on in this article explored what factors influenced whether or not students made use of the writing centre, as well as potential strategies for increasing the usage of writing centre services. Thematic analysis of participants’ written responses to open-ended questions indicated that the major reason for non-use of the writing centre related to time. Misunderstandings around the role of the writing centre were also apparent. Participants’ proposed strategies to increase voluntary use of the writing centre included providing evidence of its value to students. The findings offer insight into an overlooked perspective in writing centre research thus far – that of non-users of the service.
Language and Literature, African languages and literature
For post-colonial African musicians, decolonization became an imperative. Singing in one’s native language was not creative expression alone, but also a reclamation of indigenous culture and identity. In Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o makes a case for African literature to be written in African languages. He also points out that singers and musicians have resisted mental colonization by retaining indigenous musical practices while promoting innovation: ‘These singers pushed the languages to new limits, renewing and reinvigorating them by coining new words and new expressions, and in generally expanding their capacity to incorporate new happenings in Africa and the world’ (1986:23). This article explores emphasis on African languages by African musicians as a form of agenda setting in communication as theorized by Scheufele (2000), focusing on the performance practices of ‘Mama Africa’ Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) and more recent artists influenced by Makeba. By making introductions to her songs and explaining the Xhosa culture in the context of Apartheid, Makeba primes her audience to hear the lyrics she sings as formed from intelligible language instead of alliterative nonsense. For many African singers since, singing in one’s native language (and other African languages) has become an intentional act of decolonisation and a recognizable signifier of pan-African identity for African audiences. This article studies performance choices, including singing in Xhosa and Zulu, and their significant impact on future musicians, the robustness of African languages and cultural identity formation.
This paper examines the syntactic properties of interjections in isiXhosa and their compliance with the interjectional prototype and its extra-systematicity as postulated in linguistic typology. By reviewing nearly two thousand uses of interjections in the comic genre, the authors conclude the following: in its integrity, the category of interjections is internally complex and diversified, containing members with varying degrees of canonicity and extra-systematicity. Although in various uses interjections comply with the interjectional prototype, and being extra-systematic in many others, their canonicity and extra-systematicity are significantly lower.
Philology. Linguistics, African languages and literature
This article outlines a theory of world literary reading that takes language and the making of boundaries between languages as its point of departure. A consequence of our discussion is that world literature can be explored as uneven translingual events that make linguistic tensions manifest either at the micro level of the individual text or at the macro level of publication and circulation—or both. Two case studies exemplify this. The first concerns an episode in the institutionalization of Shakespeare as a global canonical figure in 1916, with a specific focus on the South African writer Sol Plaatje’s Setswana contribution to A Book of Homage to Shakespeare. The second case discusses how Edwidge Danticat’s novel The Farming of Bones (1998) evokes the bodily and affective charge of boundary-making by troubling the border between Haitian and Dominican speech.
A renewed interested in Indian Ocean studies has underlined possibilities of the transnational. This study highlights lexical borrowing as an analytical tool to deepen our understanding of cultural exchanges between Indian Ocean ports during the long nineteenth century, comparing loanwords from several Asian and African languages and demonstrating how doing so can re-establish severed links between communities. In this comparative analysis, four research avenues come to the fore as specifically useful to explore the dynamics of non-elite contact in this part of the world: (1) nautical jargon, (2) textile terms, (3) culinary terms, and (4) slang associated with society’s lower strata. These domains give prominence to a spectrum of cultural brokers frequently overlooked in the wider literature. It is demonstrated through concrete examples that an analysis of lexical borrowing can add depth and substance to existing scholarship on interethnic contact in the Indian Ocean, providing methodological inspiration to examine lesser studied connections. This study reveals no unified linguistic landscape, but several key individual connections between the ports of the Indian Ocean frequented by Persian, Hindustani, and Malay-speaking communities.
This paper assesses positively the important contributions which Ato Quayson and Douglas McCabe have made to the understanding of Ben Okri’s The Famished Road. But it questions whether placing the novel firmly in the context of Yoruba orality, as Quayson does, or in the tradition of New Age spirituality, as McCabe does, does not diminish the work unduly. It points out that Ben Okri did not take his Yoruba material directly from traditional folklore but from secondary sources in which the myths and legends of the Yoruba have been modified and re-interpreted and in The Famished Road the original folk narratives are further transfigured by close linkage with the myths and legends of other lands. Similarly, Azaro’s chanting of the soft paradisal anthems of New Age travellers does not stand in the novel unchanged; it is absorbed and transformed by the context of a novel which deals with the problems of growing up and willingly accepting the burdens of an adult life. The article concludes, after a careful re-evaluation of leading episodes in the novel, that a broad late twentieth century context of existentialist thought and postmodern fiction is the proper background for appreciating a novel in which the extravagances of African folk art are adapted to contemporary myth of the culture hero.
This study comprises a review of oil palm development and management across landscapes in the tropics. Seven countries have been selected for detailed analysis using surveys of the current literature, mainly spanning the last fifteen years. Indonesia and Malaysia are the obvious leaders in terms of area planted and levels of production and export, but also in literature generated on social and environmental challenges. In Latin America, Colombia is the dominant producer with oil palm expanding in disparate landscapes with a strong focus on palm oil-based biodiesel; and small-scale growers and companies in Peru and Brazil offer contrasting ways of inserting oil palm into the Amazon. Nigeria and Cameroon represent African nations with traditional groves and old plantations in which foreign ‘land grabs’ to establish new oil palm have recently occurred.The literature surveys have been conducted in English and complemented with literature in local languages (Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese and French), and where possible have also included fieldwork. Four major themes are used to structure the argument and maintain a comparative approach. They are: 1) the influence of oil palm expansion in economic development and land use change, especially deforestation; 2) the role of government policies and corporate strategies in shaping oil palm development; 3) the business models commonly used, especially plantations and various types of smallholders, either assisted or independent; and 4) ongoing initiatives towards more sustainable and inclusive oil palm production. This study shows that oil palm development is heavily entrenched in local and national political economies and responses for advancing towards more sustainable oil palm have to look beyond oil palm as a sector and a commodity.
The present article investigates several elements of the microstructural level of Swahili bilingual dictionaries. The main emphasis is on the grammatical information, its content and presentation in the various dictionaries chosen for analysis. The other components of a dictionary entry analysed include the headword, its citation form, and additionally the pronunciation, usage labels and etymological information not found in every dictionary. We investigate the many ways in which information can be presented to the user, influencing the user-friendliness of a given dictionary.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Philology. Linguistics
This article argues for a vision of the African diaspora as an arena of “insurgent nostalgia,” a restive remembrance and embodiment of the past. Blacks throughout the diaspora reconstituted and reconfigured elements of African culture through a series of sacralized and ancestral elements created, imagined, and remembered in ritual practice. But the black cultures that subsequently arose throughout the plantation Americas were not mere broken fragments of African cultural precedents. Instead, they comprised wholly formed cultures in the Americas that claimed certain historical relationships with African art and aesthetics—to be sure—but that also reflected a communion with larger communities of black people around the diaspora for whom “Slavery” was the name of a history, yet to be overcome; and “Africa” the clarion call for a world of new horizons, hopes, and possibilities.
History of Africa, African languages and literature