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Prof Mmusi promotes use of Indigenous Languages

Date Released: Thu, 23 October 2014 10:12 +0200

A three-day, International Conference of African Languages and Literature held on July 30 - August 1, 2014 at the University of Botswana under the theme Language, Literature and Culture in the 21st Century urged the media to employ indigenous languages as medium of communication.

 

Giving a key note address on the role of the media in empowering the indigenous African languages, the Head of Department of Media Communication & Information Studies at University of Limpopo in South Africa, Professor Sheila Mmusi said it is generally accepted that the mass media is the tool through which society receives information about their society, politics, economy, culture and traditions, education, legislature judiciary, commerce, science and technology, and national and international current affairs.

 

Professor Mmusi noted that the indigenous African languages are utilised alongside English, Portuguese, and French in most African countries, yet the European languages, inherited from colonial times, dominate discourse in terms of role and function in these languages are spoken.  It is the belief of this academic that the mass media has the potential to preserve and promote the development of African languages, if these tasks were to be taken seriously by the media industry, governments, policy makers, and society in general.

 

Regrettably, due to the lack of seriousness, or perhaps a casual attitude towards the use of African languages in the mass media, many such media houses are continuing to face sustainability challenges which have resulted in closure for some.  South Africa, through its multi-lingual policy and implementation processes and structures, has legislated on the use of all official languages in the mass media, especially the public and community broadcasting arena, she said.

 

Prof. Mmusi stated that journalists are directly involved in issues of languages since communication involves language use, both written and oral. The media are critical and strategic stakeholders in effective communication to masses about language issues, especially the indigenous African languages.

 

She said “print media publish mainly in English in South Africa. No mainstream media newspapers are publishing in the indigenous African languages. Without government support, it is difficult to keep indigenous African languages in business.  African languages can be empowered by serious partnerships between mass media and language organisations. The media is not taking the languages seriously.”

 

She concluded by saying that African languages must be introduced in the curriculum of the media. Media practitioners and journalists together with language practitioners must begin to consider the importance of the use of indigenous African languages in the mass media.

 

Giving the keynote speech, Professor Lekan Oyegoke from Department of English at the University of Botswana stated that the language connection at continental level enables a Pan-Africanist approach to the study of African literature which in its own case is informed by two assumptions that the natural language of cultural expression is the colonial language, and that the continent is culturally monolithic.

 

He said the theory and criticism of African literature has sometimes appealed to universal ideals to canvass an all-inclusive globalizing strategy in the study of African literature, in an attempt to cultural parochialism at the levels of both creativity and criticism. An offshoot of this position is a parental approach to conceptualizing the literature as an extension of the language and literature of the colonizing country England, France and Portugal. By this supposition, the study of African university does not seem to be out of place.

 

Giving a vote of thanks, Professor Russell Kaschula remarked that most of the papers were scholarly and well-resourced.  He equally noted that the conference took place in a beautiful and warm-hearted country, at a university which, with its beautiful campus, had grown fast over the years to become one of the most renowned institutions in the region. He wished the Department of African Languages and Literature a more productive future.

 

Story Source: University of Botswana News

Source:University of Botswana News