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The insistence on ‘Standard Shona’ is a silent controversial issue in the literary sector. It always poses a challenge to both budding and established writers who are endeared to their ethnic dialects. These writers are sometimes compelled to discard their ethnic idiom in favour of a version of Shona language which is an aggregate of all dialects under it such as Zezuru, Kalanga, Korekore, Venda, Ndau, Manyika and others.For instance, Clever Simbarashe Kavenga, a published and award winning author, once told this writer in an interview, “I write in Shona that is understood in the country, not dialects like Ndau or Budya though I love my Manyika dialect in spoken word”.
This attitude as exemplified by Kavenga towards dialect is partly a result of the Shona language standardization process and partly caused by the tough book market conditions in the country.
The issue of writing for a wide market is indeed a significant factor. Kavenga and many others seem to suggest that dialects limit readership and that dialects are difficult to understand. This is true. Writers, with a push from publishers, have been drawn towards ‘standard Shona’ which seemingly appeals to a large part of the country.
Yet now that our school curriculum has been ‘refreshed’ to welcome literature which identifies with its own people and indigenous cultures, Kavenga and other writers elsewhere in Zimbabwe need to be extremely motivated either by publishers working in partnership with the education sector.
The war, however, does not seem to be easy. Writers have to be dauntless if they are to totally eliminate this continuing process of creating Standard Shona which was hatched by the missionaries and consolidated by the Southern Rhodesian Literature Bureau established in 1954.
Standard Shona, clearly an attempt to run away from dialectical differences, is the brainchild of missionaries who found it difficult to communicate with the local people and therefore saw it fit to create a ‘single language’ which would be used to collectively manipulate the minds of the ‘natives’. Colonialism, in its bid to take away the people’s pride in their ethnic cultures, watered down their language and created its own brand which then it imposed on learners at school.
Renowned critic and author Prof George Kahari in his wealthy book “The Rise of the Shona Novel” (1990, Mambo Press), notes that in 1931, a language expert named C. M Doke who was a Professor of Bantu Studies at the University of Witwatersrand, influenced the standardization of Shona orthography.
Prof Kahari says that the colonial administrators invited “the expert Clement Doke to standardize the word-division and spelling” and this process, says Prof Kahari, launched a shift from community idealism to individualism and realism. This standardization process was again taken over by the Shona Language Committee which advised the Secretary for Education. The Committee handed over the responsibility to the Southern Rhodesia Literature Bureau founded in 1954 with the expectation that the Bureau will sponsor the publication of the Standard Shona Dictionary which was eventually published in 1959. The dictionary was to “act as a guide to the new way of spelling called Standard Shona Spelling”.
And today many years after Independence, there is still a tacit agreement between publishers and local authors to embrace this Standard Shona phenomenon.
However, the issue of Standard Shona has always been a thorny problem which even the then Southern Rhodesia Literature Bureau found difficult to solve because authors maintained that there is nothing called standard Shona and they also claimed that to standardize Shona is to adulterate dialects.
Take for instance Ndau or ChiNdau dialect. It has since been endorsed as one of Zimbabwe’s official languages. Ndau is mainly spoken in Chipinge and Chimanimani but it has spread to different parts of the country now.
Ndau is one of the languages in which an attempt was made by the missionaries to provide reading material to African students. Ndau also seemed a language of interest for the settlers. According to Prof Kahari (Rise of the Shona Novel), the Ndau translation of John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” was done by a missionary named J. E Hatch and it was published in 1927 with the title “Kuhamba Kwomuhambi”. A new edition was published in 1958 by Morija Press. Various religious materials were translated from English to Ndau during this time until a recommendation was made to standardize Shona.
However, with the insistence of Standard Shona before and after Independence, Ndau literature, just as other Zimbabwean ethnic languages, has been depleting. Thanks to the-powers-that-be for according the language an official status, a motivation for authors!
Already, in the case of Ndau, a local poet and author Ishmael Penyai is one of the people who have been vocal against the fascination with standard Shona which he describes as ‘one-sided’. “Nhekwe Dziri Kanyi” (2011), his anthology of poems written in Ndau and Manyika dialects, was published as a rebellious break from the established colonial model of standard Shona.
When the book was published in 2011, veteran writer and academic Musaemura B Zimunya did put weight behind the anthology, saying, “To read this poetry collection is to discover words, accents, tones, and nuggets of ethnic expression currently alienated by the Shona Language Committee’s obsession with the so-called Standard Shona.”
The marginalization of ethnic dialects in Zimbabwean literature is also the reason why Penyai has taken the lead in reviving ChiNdau.
Penyai has in the past said that it took him about ten years to publish his anthology because local publishers insisted that he writes in Standard Shona, a demand too hard to meet as he burned with pride and passion for his Ndau language and culture.
With the support of a local non-governmental organisation, he then published the poetry anthology which captures various themes in Ndau and Manyika dialects. In his fight for the respect for Ndau, Penyai created a Facebook page in 2008 called ‘Rekete ChiNdau- Leave a Legacy’ which has been embraced by a huge number of followers, including public figures in and outside the country. The page, according to Martha Tholanah, caters for the Ndau people and fans of its culture living in Zimbabwe, Africa and the global village.
The formation of Ndau Legacy Association in 2011, again with Penyai as part of it, confirms the lasting love the Ndau speakers have for their cultural heritage.
Isn’t it true that the nation owes writers like Penyai and others who, through their writing talents and deep love for identity, have advocated for the recognition of their dialects and languages which for a long time were being sidelined by the prophets of standard Shona?
The liberation of a language guarantees a safe future for the children who are growing today amid a technological revolution threatening to wipe away communal identity. All Shona dialects deserve their respect and for this respect to be real, writers (and publishers) who use Shona have got to welcome ‘the roots syndrome” and where possible, do away with the perception that there is a language called Standard Shona to explore the endless riches of our languages.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter