Child development through Ndebele taboos: Motivation to blend the indigenous and the exotic

In the context of this paper, child development is upbringing, incorporating the care, education and protection of children. The traditional Ndebele  way of child upbringing ensures that the child develops responsibly and especially out of danger. This paper thus seeks to identify the gap between  modernity and Ndebele taboos and suggests possible solutions to address the gap and apply taboos in modern societies such as urban settlements. The social, physical and environmental regulatory institutions of the Ndebele people have always relied on the supernatural for enforcement. This study seeks to demonstrate, using interviews and focus group discussions, how traditional Ndebele taboos need to be blended into the modern culture if they are to be relevant. The research is an interpretivist descriptive survey of Nkayi rural and Nkayi urban centre (in Zimbabwe) with the aim of getting parents and secondary school children’s views on Ndebele taboos and child development. The study established  that there are some traditional concepts used in some Ndebele taboos which are no longer popular and children do not know them. It also established that there are some Ndebele taboos that have been overtaken by human rights discourses, while some are no longer compatible with modern institutions such as formal schooling and science. There are new taboos built to counter ills of modern society. The modern environment  has modern dangers and problems that require a re-visiting of Ndebele taboos so that more modern taboos can be developed. The study demonstrates that blending the indigenous and the exotic (cultures) in taboo formulation and application ensures that today’s children benefit  from taboos. The blending of indigenous and exotic cultures has already occurred in society and there is a need to align the modern culture to  taboo tenets so that the taboos can be fully utilised for child development. The blending involves changing some metaphoric vehicles in some  traditional Ndebele taboos to include concepts from modern culture, and in some cases there is a need to ‘de-taboo’ for child development. Conclusions of the study are important for policy makers in domains  of child development and care such as pedagogy, social work, children’s rights  and the family. The findings also imply connections between taboos and legal theories on rights and these can be explored further. Key words: Taboos, child development, Ndebele people (Zimbabwe), modernity, indigenous knowledge, Ndebele cultur

S'ncamtho Lexico-semantics and the Isichazamazwi sesiNdebele (ISN): Implications for Lexicography and Standardisation

S'ncamtho is an urban youth variety which uses Zimbabwean Ndebele as its matrix language. The youth language has had influences on the Ndebele language over time. This article argues that Ndebele benefits from S'ncamtho, its urban youth variety in terms of vocabulary although efforts at linguistic purism often moderate this contribution. The article avers that S'ncamtho terminology creates synonyms and polysemy in some cases whereby S'ncamtho lexis become as popular as the Ndebele counterpart and in some cases the S'ncamtho lexemes are more popular. The article goes on to evaluate the treatment of popular S'ncamtho terminology in the only Ndebele monolingual dictionary Isichazamazwi seSiNdebele (ISN) and gives recommendations on standardising some S'ncamtho terminology in Ndebele. The article is motivated in part by the debate that arose after the S'ncamtho term for prostitute umahotsha was included in a grade seven (primary school) examination. However, looking closely at S'ncamtho and Ndebele it is not linguistically and socially possible for S'ncamtho and Ndebele to share space and speakers and remain independent of each other’s influences on the other

IMPLICATIONS AND COMPLICATIONS OF BRIDE PRICE PAYMENT AMONG THE SHONA AND NDEBELE OF ZIMBABWE

ABSTRACT Marriage is an institution that exists in all human societies. For most African cultures, it involves the bridegroom paying bride price to the bride's family, what is known in Ndebele an

Evolution of S’ncamtho greetings: Bulawayo urban youth innovations of greeting genres over time

Bulawayo as a transport network-based urban settlement has been a conglomeration of cultures since it became an urban centre. Bulawayo urbanites have always spoken urban isiNdebele, which is a vernacular with a youth and urban bias. The isiNdebele-based urban youth language is generally called isiTsotsi (criminal code), just like Tsotsitaal in South Africa. The specific lingonym for the Bulawayo youth variety is iS’ncamtho taken from the old isiNguni word ukuqamunda (to talk). One of the markers of iS’ncamtho which distinguishes it from standard isiNdebele is its greeting genres. This article explores S’ncamtho greetings over time in the Bulawayo space and tries to unearth the S’ncamtho greeting genres in different historical periods in the city. The compositional content for S’ncamtho greetings has changed over time and continues to change; this change has created a situation where there are now old and new S’ncamtho greetings. This research collected S’ncamtho greetings in Bulawayo from 1970 to 2015, and traces their structural and usage evolution with the aim of classifying them into different time periods

Partial homophony and decoy lexicalisation in S’ncamtho and Ndebele slang

Sociolinguistic research has established that age is a factor in language variation and ultimately language change. Youthful manipulation of  language creates vernacular which results in the phenomena of youth languages and registers. The youth languages are similar to slang creation  and usage because they are both lexicalised through manipulating lexis from their matrix languages, and borrowings. S’ncamtho is a Ndebele-  based youth language in Zimbabwe and it shares a lot of lexis with Ndebele slang and urban vernacular. One of the manipulation strategies in  S’ncamtho that is also present in Ndebele slang is what is referred to in this article as partial homophony. In this manipulation, words that are partial  homophones are used to create decoy lexis. The article deploys qualitative research to gather instances of partial homophony in context and  uses content and orphological analysis of the rules and constraints in this hybrid morphological process. The article establishes that the  process relies on phonological, morphological and quasi-semantic manipulations to create decoy lexis. It is a special type of blending which violates  the main and conventional rules of blending. The word replacements are not based on semantic relations, but partial homophony, and the  replacements are actually decoys not semantic extensions

Thematic characterisation of Ndebele izichothozo

Izichothozo are insults used in gaming that can be identified as part of the ‘prohibited’ Ndebele folklore. This verbal art form is a form of folk humour popular with Ndebele youth. However, adults also play the game. The game is considered obscene by many people, at least in public, but most people may be playing it, especially using non-obscene themes. This paper is a thematic categorisation of izichothozo. It identifies the themes that are pursued in the folk humour. Images that are used in izichothozo are derived from a range of themes that help derive the humour. Social realities are subjected to humorous transformations, and these social and cultural realities are used as themes to derive izichothozo

Characterisation and social impact of urban youth languages on urban toponymy: S’ncamtho toponomastics in Bulawayo

This article focuses on the characterisation of S’ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and it goes on to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population of Bulawayo dwellers. S’ncamtho is an urban youth variety that is built on urbanity and streetwise style. The study assumes that, as S’ncamtho is the language of the youth in Bulawayo, people are exposed to S’ncamtho toponyms as the youth are found in all spheres of urban life in Bulawayo, especially the taxi industry which is used by the majority of people in the city. The research collected S’ncamtho verbal toponyms from Godini taxi rank in Bulawayo through undisclosed nonparticipant observations and some from the intuition of the researcher. Intuition and interviews were used to get the etymology of the toponyms and questionnaire tests of familiarity and usage were used to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population. Content analysis is used to characterise and classify S’ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and the metaphor comprehension test is used to measure their impact on the population. This article assumes that S’ncamtho has its own toponyms for locations in the city and that these are popular, especially with the youth, but people across age groups now use them

Figurative and symbolic function of animal imagery in packaging human behaviour in Ndebele and Shona cultures

This paper sets out to discuss how the Shona and Ndebele people of Zimbabwe make use of animal imagery to refer to human behaviour and habits in various situations. In this context, animal traits are drawn from both domestic and wild animals. A discussion of such a conception of human behaviour shall demonstrate that although animalisation largely seeks to denigrate and dehumanise, it is also used to acknowledge positive human qualities. This paper also highlights the following Shona and Ndebele cultural sites where animal imagery is prevalent: Muchohwe/Izichothozo (insult games) and totemic references

Teaching under-resourced languages: An evaluation of Great Zimbabwe University’s initiatives in the teaching of Tshivenda and Xichangana

Tshivenda and Xichangana, like other minority languages in Zimbabwe, are only taught up to Grade 3 of elementary education in areas where they are spoken. Chishona and isiNdebele are the only indigenous languages that are taught as subjects up to university level, either through the medium of English or through their own medium (as at Great Zimbabwe University). This paper seeks to evaluate the initiatives that have been set out to promote the teaching and use of Tshivenda and Xichangana by training teachers at university level to enable them to teach these languages beyond Grade 3, at secondary and university level. These teachers will then form the manpower base to teach at the grassroots. The initiatives include partnerships with language associations, universities that teach the languages in South Africa, affirmative action on recruiting students into the languages and lobbying for support from government and other stakeholders. The research describes the initiatives, evaluates them and recommends the best way to finalise the project and how to promote other minority languages to the level of Chishona and isiNdebele in the country.South African Journal of African Languages 2014, 34(1): 1–