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The just-ended six-day long Zimbabwe International Book Fair covered a wide range of issues but the emancipation of indigenous languages from the grip of depreciation came out loud at some ZIBF events such as the Literary Evening and the Writers’ Workshop. The overall theme for this year’s ZIBF which ran from Monday, July 28 to Saturday, August 2, was “Indigenous Languages, Literature, Art and Knowledge Systems of Africa”.
On Friday evening local writers converged at the Book Café to read their works and discuss influences that shape their stories.
Different voices, delivered mainly in Shona, echoed the theme in such a manner that one could see the urgency of the need to free local languages.
Memory Chirere read from his new collection of Shona poems “Bhuku Risina Basa (Nokuti Rakanyorwa Masikati)” which is now also available in the UK.
Debra Vakira also had the opportunity to read from her new book “A Struggle Alike” which is based on real life.
Felix Mafumhe Mutasa, a poet, actor and writer was around to imbue the evening with his creative spoken Shona language.
His was an act to prove how beautiful mother languages can be when given their due respect. Son of the late well-known writer Nobert Mafumhe Mutasa, Lexta, reading from selected passages in his father’s timeless novel “Mapatya”.
The ambience inside the Book Café twisted into more seriousness when writer Colette Chido Mutangadura took to the stage to read from her 2013 book “Kusara Kunze Huda”. Before she read a chapter in her book, Mbuya Mutangadura, as she is passionately called, presented a powerful let’s-get-back-to-our-roots message.
“Zvekudya zvasiyana netsika. Vana sekuru vedu vaienda vega kunogeza kurwizi, Zvino vana vamazuvano mavakuda kudziisirwa mvura,” she said. She observed that almost every aspect of Zimbabwean life has been deeply infiltrated by foreign cultures, causing a number of societal ills such as rape and drug abuse.
“Chibharo, vakadzi vava kubata varume chibharo. Asi ndiwo ma genetically modified foods anodaro?” asked Mbuya Mutangadura.
Another writer Ketina Muringaniza also read from her book ‘Zviuya Hazviwanani” which pictures the struggles of a married young woman.
Tinashe Muchuri, a performance poet, added poetical flavour to the evening by throwing in his poem ‘Kazwi’. A natural cord linked the literary evening to the writers’ workshop which took place the next day at the City Presbyterian Church. Running under the theme “Maximising on Mother Tongue Writings through Value Addition”, the workshop had six presentations conducted in the morning and afternoon sessions chaired by published writers Monica Zodwa Cheru-Mpambawashe and Mashingaidze Gomo respectively.
Of the six presentations, four dwelt on indigenous languages and opportunities for writers writing in these languages. The workshop was mainly conducted in Shona and Ndebele languages as writers were eager to be doers than “talkers” regarding the local languages issue. Aaron Chiundura Moyo, who has successfully carved a niche in Zimbabwean literature through his Shona writings, said the belittling of indigenous languages began in the colonial era and it was psychologically passed on to next generations.
Chiundura Moyo said he remembered a time when it was deemed a crime to speak in proper English with white people who forced people to speak in “Silapalapa” no matter how much learned one was.
Being denied the liberty to speak in English psychologically affected some educated black people who then, after independence, right away wanted to express themselves through the once forbidden foreign language as a matter of showing off their freedom to their former oppressor. In the process, the local languages were no longer appreciated.
“I think that with where we are as a country, there should be recognition of mother languages at national level especially in the education and employment sector. If Shona made me have multiple jobs at the ZBC, why would one be asked to pass English in order to get employment which he/she will mostly serve to the Shona speaking people?” said Chiundura Moyo.
He advised that writers should not fight to have English language removed but to get our own languages rated with the same importance given to English.
The availability of Memory Chirere’s new Shona poetry anthology in the diaspora somehow put so much weight to what Ndebele writer and acting coach Stix Mhlanga said in his paper “Why I Write In My Mother Language” at the writers’ workshop.
Mhlanga said Zimbabwean people living abroad miss their language and just having a book in their mother languages in their houses connects them with home.
“The dynamics of the book market are that lots of people are leaving the country but when they are outside there, they miss their mother tongue. What do the children who are born there read? With technology to help us reach out to many, I think there is a market for my writings,” said Mhlanga.
Mhlanga, whose background is much in theatre, said another reason why he chose to write in Ndebele is he realised that when writing English plays his thinking process would be in his mother language.
“I asked myself, ‘Why can I not just write as I think in my language?”. Also, for Ndebele to be there and grow I felt that there is the possibility as a speaker of that language to go in and invent words,” Mhlanga said, giving an example of such word invention done by urban Ndebele speakers when the cell phone first arrived. They called it “umakhala ekhukhwini”, meaning “a thing that cries inside your pocket”. Today, Mhlanga said, everyone who is Ndebele calls it by that name.
“As writers, we should come in and create new words so that our languages expand instead of narrowing,” said Mhlanga.
Elton Mjanana, a writer, director and producer for film and theatre, also showed how broad the market is for works written in the mother languages.
“I have come to realize that some of the successful films are those that are done in the producers’ first language,” said Majanana whose paper was titled ‘Film Scripting for Indigenous Languages Authors’.
He said for instance the 2014 film Timbuktu 2, produced by Abderrehmane Sissako and based on the civil war in northern Mali, was written, directed, produced and presented in an indigenous language of Mali and yet the film won the coveted Jury prize at Cannes, France’s biggest film festival, just a few months after its release.
Majanana, who had just returned from Durban for the Durban International Film Festival, said Timbuktu 2 grabbed three awards at the Durban festival, and its success in such a short period could only be assigned to the power of mother language in which it was presented.
“I think the film has been successful because it was done in a mother language. I have noticed in my directing that when a script is in English, our actors who use English as a second language have problems in naturally delivering their lines. The result is a film bad for viewers and bad for the actors because the film will not commercially make it,” Majanana said.
As the coordinator for Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF), he also said they expect to make Timbuktu 2 the opening film at this year’s edition which runs from October 4 to 11.
Writer and theatre guru Stephen Chifunyise said despite some negative forces generally affecting writers such as socio-economic challenges and book piracy, there are opportunities especially for the indigenous language writer to remain afloat and viable.
In his paper titled “Prospects and Opportunities for Indigenous language writer: Unlocking Value”.
Chifunyise said writers cannot afford to ignore the doors opened by the new Constitution which has raised 16 indigenous languages to national language status. “It is left to the writer to decide what knowledge is needed by the community and what form of media should carry the knowledge,” he said.
Apart from the Constitution, Chifunyise went on to explain other opportunities for indigenous language authors in the global arena especially those offered by United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO).
He said UNESCO has certain funds for writers to produce indigenous products because in the current global knowledge economy, indigenous knowledge is on demand.
Other papers presented at the workshop by Zimbabwe Publishing House CEO Blazio Tafireyi and Mwazvita P Madondo of Consultus Publishing Services (CPS) looked at copyright knowledge from different viewpoints. The papers highlighted important copyright points crucial for writers to have in order to understand what they will be committing themselves to when they sign contracts with book publishers.
It remains to be seen if writers’ wishes are met as publishers also have to act if local languages are to be uplifted.
Online Reporter