Critical Appreciation of the Dichotomy of Harm and Healing in Selected War Fiction in Shona Language-Communal and Everyday Aspects of Healing in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean war fiction writers are fond of depicting harm that is suffered by individuals and some groups of individuals in the Zimbabwean war of liberation The harm is in most cases in three broad categories of physical sexual and psychological The writers in question especially those that treat the war of liberation and its aftermath in their works propose different approaches to dealing with the harm which different individuals and groups of individuals suffered during the liberation struggle It is with such realization that this article selects three works of fiction to discuss how writers of war fiction treat the bipartite relationship of harm and healing during and after the war of liberation in Zimbabwe The chapter makes a critical appreciation of the harm which different characters in the war fiction suffer during the war and of the approaches which fiction writers propose for dealing with the harm after the war What fiction writers propose as the panacea to the harm which their characters suffer during the war is critiqued from an understanding of both the events in the history of post-independence Zimbabwe and of the demands of Shona traditional culture which pertain to conflict management and conflict resolutio

Challenging the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa : an evolutionist approach

This study discusses the evolutionist approach to African history as an action plan for challenging the hegemony of English in university education and in the teaching and writing of literature in post-independence Africa. The researcher selected Zimbabwe’s university education and literary practice as the microcosm case studies whilst Africa’s university education and literary practice in general, were used as macrocosmic case studies for the study. Some two universities: the Midlands State University and the Great Zimbabwe State University and some six academic departments from the two universities were on target. The researcher used questionnaires to access data from university students and lecturers and he used interviews to gather data from university departmental Chairpersons, scholars, fiction writers and stakeholders in organizations that deal with language growth and development in Zimbabwe. Data from questionnaires was analysed on the basis of numerical scores and percentage of responses. By virtue of its not being easily quantified, data from interviews was presented through capturing what each of the thirteen key informants said and was then analysed on the basis of the hegemonic theory that is proposed in this study. The research findings were discussed using: the evolutionist approach to the history of Africa; data from document analysis; information gathered through the use of the participant and observer technique and using examples from what happened and/or is still happening in the different African countries. The study established that the approaches which have so far been used to challenge the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa are not effective. The approaches are six in total. They are the essentialist, the assimilationist, the developmentalist, the code-switch, the multilingualist and the syncretic. They are ineffective since they are used in a wrong era: That era, is the era of Neocolonialism (Americanization of the world). Therefore, the researcher has recommended the use of the evolutionist approach to African history as a strategy for challenging the hegemony in question. The approach lobbies that, for Africa to successfully challenge that hegemony, she should first of all move her history from the era of Neocolonialism as she enters the era of Nationalism.African LanguagesD. Lit. et Phil. (African Languages

The youths and their capacity to partner and cooperate in the creation of Wealth in Zimbabwe – a Hunhu/Ubuntu approach

Like most African countries, Zimbabwe belongs to the category of what Sorensen (2004) has called weak postcolonial states. For Sorensen, most Africa states are weak since they fail to produce enough wealth to sustain their citizens. That being the case, this article argues that, both the development and the future of any country lie with its youths. In fact, the article argues that the youths are the reservoirs of both the energy that is needed for the creation of a country’s wealth. The article further argues that, forthe youths to play their part in the creation of wealth they need to co-operate in good faith: and that they will be incapacitated to play their part if they are alienated from group identity. That is argued to be the case since the youths, who do not have a genuine group identity, will lack an internal spur that will propel them to work together for the benefit of their people. The spur that can propel the youths to partner in the creation of wealth is hunhu/ubuntu. In light of that, the article grapples with what can be considered hunhu/ubuntu in Zimbabwe and also tackles how that which can be considered hunhu/ ubuntu can empower the Zimbabwean youths to co-operate in the process of creating wealth. This article benefits from the use of Freire’s (1972) characteristics of good dialogue and of wa Thiong’o’s (1987) thesis of the “human heart” (1987, P. 51-57)

A critical appreciation of the dual-sex system in the ‘Traditional’ Shona family: in defence of African culture-derived gender perspectives

A Critical Appreciation of the Dual-sex System in the ‘Traditional’ Shona Family: In defence of African Culture-derived Gender Perspectives

Exploring sex and sexuality in Shona idioms and idiomatic phrases: trajectory of thought or shift in thought

Shona idioms arc part of Shona people’s lingo-cultural heritage. They arc a reservoir of Shona people’s perception of reality and general world outlook. With the passage of time, Shona idioms are giving birth to some new forms of idioms and idiomatic phrases

Impediments in the use of indigenous African languages as languages of instruction at tertiary institutions of learning

This article explores why it seems ‘impossible’ to conduct teaching and learning through indigenous African languages in Zimbabwean tertiary institutions. It argues that the continued disglossic situation that regards foreign languages like English, French and Portuguese to name a few, as the High languages while local languages are regarded as the Low languages is due to the perpetuation of colonial language policies. The bipolar concepts of globality and transnationality, the rise and fall of superpowers and would be superpowers, the neocolonial educational policies and the nature of politics of power in postcolonial Africa are some issues this discussion deliberates on and the extent to which these are impediments or otherwise to the use of indigenous languages in Zimbabwean tertiary institutions

Impediments in the use of indigenous African languages as languages of instruction at tertiary institutions of learning

This article explores why it seems ‘impossible’ to conduct teaching and learning through indigenous African languages in Zimbabwean tertiary institutions. It argues that the continued disglossic situation that regards foreign languages like English, French and Portuguese to name a few, as the High languages while local languages are regarded as the Low languages is due to the perpetuation of colonial language policies. The bipolar concepts of globality and transnationality, the rise and fall of superpowers and would be superpowers, the neocolonial educational policies and the nature of politics of power in postcolonial Africa are some issues this discussion deliberates on and the extent to which these are impediments or otherwise to the use of indigenous languages in Zimbabwean tertiary institutions

Rape among the Shona in Zimbabwe

This chapter has three goals. Firstly, it proposes that certain traditional Shona maniage procedures, customs and practices are among the major factors that promote illegal sexual encounters of which rape is part. Secondly, it examines the efforts made by different governments in the history of Zimbabwe to curb those customs. Thirdly, it exposes circumstances that continue to sustain those marriage customs that perpetuate unlawful sexual conduct

Folk-telling and Freire’s (1970) framework of banking versus dialogical methods of education – In search of innovation and social cohesion

Freire (1972) established what he termed banking methods of education on one hand and dialogical methods of education on the other. For freire, banking methods of education should be discouraged whilst dialogical methods should be promoted in educational circles. Freire feels that the banking method of education should be discouraged since it kills a shared sense of education between the teacher and the learner. As such, it encourages learning by rote. That being the case, Freire feels that it is dialogical education that should be promoted in education circles since it promotes participatory education and in doing so, it curtails rote learning. This paper discusses how the art of folk telling discouraged banking methods of teaching the young and how it promoted dialogical education in Shona traditional societies. The paper also discusses how modern formal education promotes banking methods of teaching folktales at the expense of dialogical methods. Furthermore, the paper discusses the sort of innovation that can be improvised to restore the use of dialogical methods of education in the art of folk-telling in Zimbabwe. The researcher will use document analysis and in-depth personal interviews to gather data for this research endeavour

Africa has to follow the example of Asian countries by promoting indigenous and not foreign languages to languages of education and development; a possibility or a form of self-delusion?: paper presented at the Department of English 6th international conference June 2011

Some scholars of African descent, who include Mazrui (1978, 2000), Chimhundu [2002), Mutasa (2006) and Magwa and Mutasa (2007), admire, Japan, China and the Asian tigers in general for using indigenous Asian and not foreign languages in Asian education and programmes of development. The same scholars blame African counties for resorting to the use of foreign and not indigenous African languages in African education and programmes of development. This paper argues that scholars need to ask and answer certain specific questions before they blame African countries for not taking the Asian countries' way in the area of language choice and practice. The questions Include: 1) what really helped and still help Asian countries to enforce the use of indigenous Asian languages in their programmes of education and development? 2) Which politico-economic and socio-cultural factors hinder African countries from promoting indigenous African languages to languages of African education and programmes of development as what is the case in Asian countries? 3) Is it fair to blame African countries for not following the example of Asian countries In the area of language choice and practice given that the economic histories of African and of Asian countries are totally different? This paper interrogates scholars' positions and opinions when they blame Africa for not following the example of Asian countries, who have promoted indigenous Asian languages to language of education and development without first of all going deep into the politico-economic histories of the Asian and African countries