adminUnity of any nation can be achieved through many ways, one of which is through languages, an important component of communication.
Zimbabwe as a country has many languages, some viewed as major such as SiNdebele, ChiShona and English while others such as Kalanga, Nambya, Tonga, Venda, Sotho and Shangani are said to be minorities. With such an array of languages, we can say there is beauty in diversity.
However, of late there have been complaints from some communities in the country especially from the Matabeleland region that there is a conspiracy to destroy iSiNdebele, the language of many in the western part of the country.
For some the issue has become so emotional that tempers have flared at gatherings over the issue. A typical example is the meeting at the Large City Hall in Bulawayo on Saturday afternoon to discuss the state of education in the city and surrounding areas.
Some residents said they were concerned about the future of their children who were now being taught in Shona at the expense of iSiNdebele. Worse still, they expressed concern about the future of their children who are being taught by people who could not speak the local language at primary school.
Others went overboard and questioned why Shona was being taught at teachers’ colleges found in Matabeleland.
However, we found such thoughts retrogressive and divisive because even if those colleges are found in Matabeleland, they are national and people from any corner of the country are free to enrol at them. Some people from Matabeleland have trained at teachers’ colleges outside the region and have been taught iSiNdebele there. The University of Zimbabwe, for argument’s sake, is in Harare, deep in Mashonaland, but has the biggest Ndebele Department than any other academic institution in the country.
We agree that those teaching children, especially at primary school level, should be conversant with the local languages. The challenge is on the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture to ensure that this is corrected.
We, however, take this opportunity to call on fellow Zimbabweans to avoid being emotional and disembark from divisive issues as that leads to dangerous situations.
We also call upon the Government to make it compulsory for schools regardless of geographical location to teach Shona and SiNdebele from Grade One to Ordinary Level.
We commend the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture for having taken the stance to have Tonga taught up to Ordinary Level in areas where there are many people who speak the language such as Binga.
We urge the ministry to go further and extend such a move to the other so-called minority languages. During the constitution-making exercise, the issue of languages has been raised and we hope our supreme law will reflect this.
Such a move would bring unity and a sense of belonging among all Zimbabweans.
The teaching of the national languages would destroy all the misconceptions about our languages.
At times we marvel at our neighbours in South Africa a majority of who are able to converse in different languages which have been declared national languages.
We need to protect the so-called minority languages such as Kalanga, Sotho, Venda, Tonga, Nambya and Shangani as they are very important for nation and cultural building.
We must enjoy our unity and our cultural diversity.
Online Reporter