adminOne of the issues close to my heart is the need to protect and promote our local cultures and languages, which have been corroded and diluted by colonial processes and also problems of our own making.
As a society we have allowed our cultural heritage to be undermined and marginalised and the constitution-making process provides an opportunity to redeem ourselves in that regard.
The South African constitution, one of the most enlightened and liberal founding laws in the world, for instance, states everyone has the right “to use the language and participate in the cultural life of his or her
choice — though no one may do so in a manner inconsistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights”.
The constitution provides for eleven official languages: English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.
Not only are the eleven official languages named and their uses and right to promotion specified, but specific attention is also paid to the Khoi, Nama and San languages and to sign language as well.
In addition, there is mention of “all national languages commonly used by communities in South Africa” and those used for religious purposes.
One does not have to know much about the constitution-making process to realise that this kind of inclusive detail is the result of minute consideration of diverse and sometimes competing interests.
Such attention to detail makes South Africa’s constitution one of the best in the world.
South Africa’s constitution was the result of remarkably detailed and inclusive negotiations — difficult but determined — that were carried out with an acute sense of awareness of the oppression and injustices during the country’s colonial and apartheid past.
Of course, in our constitution-making process, there are many issues articulated by the people that we have to capture accurately and impartially, particularly during the interpretation and drafting stages.
We need to build a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights, these being the things that we fought for collectively as Zimbabweans, mainly grouped around Zanu and Zapu (although the liberation movement was broad) and should bequeath as our legacy for posterity.
Using such processes, including constitution-making exercise, and other mechanisms, as leaders and citizens we have a responsibility to ourselves and future generations to ensure we protect and promote our cultures and languages in their diversity and range.
As Noam Chomsky would say: “Language embodies the world view of a culture and is unique to the culture that created it. It reflects values and concepts that are deemed to be the most important by a culture. A language describes the culture it comes from.”
Language policy and cultural inclusion or exclusion can unite or divide a country.
The colonialists particularly used our ethnic diversity and languages to regiment and divide us.
Pre-colonial African societies were characterised by interlocking, overlapping, multiple identities based on ethnic, cultural and geographical communities sometimes smaller than tribes.
In most cases Africans had only a very weak allegiance, if at all, to what might now be classed as a tribe, according to objective criteria of genetic, linguistic or cultural homogeneity within a geographical region.
This has been shown by many studies on the subject matter. Far from being primordial units with defined boundaries, some ethnic groups as we know them today are largely a colonial construct, which emerged as instruments for the control and distribution of people and resources.
That is why it is as retrogressive as it is disappointing that we seem still bound by mutually antagonistic ethnic groups and identities, which are largely a creation of elites and colonial masters.
There were ethnic clusters in our societies before colonialism but ethnic consciousness and contemporary identities, now further defined by arbitrary and artificial colonial borders, were influenced by colonialists.
Africa has suffered so much because of politicised inter-ethnic rivalries that are present throughout the continent south of the Sahara. Indeed, ethnic politicisation and mobilisation have been the main source of conflict in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the major barriers to human and economic development in African societies.
For a long time, we have allowed ourselves to see and interpret politics through regions and tribes. Consequently, there have been all too many conflicts in Zimbabwean history and politics — clashes between and within our political parties, within the liberation movement itself, divisions between our people, voters, indeed strains within our society.
As a result, there arose a number of schools of interpretation of such divisions. Some see the situation in terms of class conflict; others, however, see it in terms of ethnicity.
They invoke not only the allegedly traditional hostility between the Ndebele and the Shona (often exaggerated and misconstrued), without realising these are now largely one and the same people, both by historical circumstances and development, inter-cultural relations and other forms of interface.
The reality is that Shonas and Ndebeles are today now deeply intermixed and bound together socio-politically by history and circumstance, no matter what the divisive elements would have us believe.
Of course, there were serious problems in the socio-political formation of the modern Zimbabwean state in so far as the question of who rules, how social inequalities between races, classes, ethnic groups and even gender influence politics.
This, together with how public figures, social movements and trends outside formal institutions of political power, affect politics, and the power relations within and between different ethnic and other groups will always be contested terrain.
So we need to make efforts to correct some of these problems in our society through social and democratic political processes.
It would be useful if we can consolidate our knowledge and understanding of our history, diverse cultures and languages (realising we have more in common than differences) during the ongoing constitution-making process and beyond as part of that progression.
I’m aware Government and communities are already doing a lot but we need to do more. The media can play an important role in that.
A clear language policy must follow the constitution-making process to consolidate gains already secured. We need to build on the solid foundation and progress in that regard laid by President Mugabe and the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo.
These leaders tirelessly fought to ensure we build a united, cohesive and progressive society despite all the challenges they faced.
I was recently impressed to realise some progressive Zimbabweans are already forging ahead with that vision in line with Government policies and programmes to ensure integration and cohesion, partly by unrolling the policy to teach Shona and Ndebele in all schools across the country.
After reading in the Press an example of Umvukwesi Primary School in Mvurwi, Mashonaland Central Province, where pupils have been taught and can speak Ndebele, I was encouraged and persuaded our country could and would advance towards durable integration and cohesion.
We need to consolidate on such policies and move forward. Shona and Ndebele — among other languages — must be taught around the country. Maybe for a start, we can teach these two main vernacular languages across the country, while minority languages are taught and consolidated in areas where they are spoken.
This will be an important step forward and must be done in the nation’s interest.
Two years ago, I was saddened that I found myself in court with a police officer in Bulawayo, entangled in a ridiculous dispute after we clashed, him speaking in Shona and myself in Ndebele, about parking (just imagine) and ended up at each other’s throats over that. It is clear if we understood each other right from the beginning, there would have been no problem at all.
Without knowing that in my family my own kids speak both Shona and Ndebele because of their mixed parentage, the police officer then made an outrageous claim that I said he should not speak in Shona in Matabeleland. It was such a sad story.
The whole issue — a complete fabrication by a police officer or public servant who should know our main African languages, particularly the one spoken in the community he works in — was such a shame. Fortunately, the court found in my favour, showing the police officer was telling a cock-and-bull story.
That and many other experiences in my life have taught me that we need to protect and promote our different and diverse cultures and languages in an inclusive and integrated manner to ensure unity and cohesion.
The Umvukwesi Primary School example is such an inspiring, bold and progressive story.
The constitution-making process and other initiatives should help us in that regard.
Having come along a route of struggle and pain, we need to take these issues and processes deeply to heart to ensure we build a dynamic and progressive society — and take great pride in that.
*Malinga is a politician, people living with disabilities activist and lecturer at three State universities.
Online Reporter