WORD DOMINATION - DO YOU READ BOOKS IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE?
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Show Notes
February is International Mother Language month and the 21st Mother Language Day. It is also the beginning of UNESCO’s Decade of Indigenous Languages.
GUEST: TERENCE BALL - Publisher at Heritage Publisher
What practically is being done to strengthen and preserve our indigenous languages and the other inseparable elements of our heritage, the diverse history and culture of South Africa’s people?
Ancestral Voices: South Africa’s largest, most unique indigenous heritage and language preservation project. A partnership between South African Heritage Publishers, The Special Collections Unit University of Pretoria, South African National Lexicography Units, South African High Commission to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.
Written by mother tongue speakers, many after interviewing the then elderly, these writings contain information on every aspect of the history and culture of the people written about as told and recorded by members of those communities.
In addition to the transcription and translation of these works we are trying to trace descendants of the 186 different authors who contributed 891 writings to the collection to produce brief biographies of each and trace their graves. We live among the last generations able to source this information for
the historical record. Together with our partners we are also trying to establish the meaning of indigenous language words used in the writings that have fallen into disuse and their meaning lost. From the descendants traced so far and, other sources available to us, we’ve discovered that the
oldest authors to date were born in 1852 and the youngest in 1918. Menziwa Merriman Balfour and Rev. Mpasa, the oldest, wrote histories of the Amarharhabe and Batlokwa of Mmatshaka in isiXhosa
and Sesotho sa Leboa respectively while the youngest, Noel Johannes Mabale, wrote his works in Xitsonga at the age of only twenty four. Most authors were, teachers of members of the cloth, some
both, and traditional leaders. One nurse and a well known isiZulu journalist were also contributors. Written nearly one hundred years ago and considering the age of the authors, many among the first in their community to be literate, record the oldest transfer of historical and cultural information
through oral tradition.