Monthly Archives: May 2008

The Igbo are a people group of Nigeria. An interesting article about Igbo spirituality can be found on Assata Shakur Forums.

Igbo spirituality

by Onyi Anyiwo

The spiritual system of Ndi Igbo (the Igbo people) is one of the oldest on Earth. The roots of Igbo spirituality is the same as the roots of every other African one; that is, in Africa. Igbo spirituality predates Islam, Christianity, Judaism and every other -ism that one can think of. If there are any similarities between the traditional practices of the Igbo and those of other religions, it is because they were borrowed from our ancestors, and not the other way around.

Read the full article

Suggested Books

Ã-dïnanï: The Igbo Religion
The Igbo venerate or worship the God of the Earth and Its Hosts of spirits (Anï). Ã-dïnanï or Omenana describes this method of venerating or worshiping God.
IGBO Religion, Social Life & Other Essays by Simon Ottenberg (Classic Authors and Texts on Africa)
A number of detailed essays on the religious life of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria and on the Limba of northern Sierra Leone.

Related articles

• Key Solutions to Reviving The Igbo Culture (socyberty.com)

Ruth Ginio. “French Colonialism Unmasked: The Vichy Years in French West Africa“. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.

About the book

French Colonialism Unmasked is reviewed by Richard S. Fogarty, Department of History, University at Albany, State University of New York for H-Reviews (2008)

True France

Ruth Ginio’s examination of the three years of Vichy rule in the federation of French West Africa (FWA) opens with the memory of Bara Diouf, who described the sadness among many African residents of the capital in Dakar when they heard about the defeat of France in June 1940. This emotion, he explained, grew out of “‘a myth of an admired republican France toward which we all felt great esteem’” (p. xiii). Ginio’s book addresses how Vichy’s naked displays of the racism and discrimination inherent in all colonial regimes–but often hidden or obscured during the Third Republic-fatally undermined that myth, as well as the esteem it inspired.
The book is divided into four parts. The two chapters of part 1 provide background information about FWA up to 1940, including the tentative reforms of the Popular Front era in the middle of the 1930s that made the intensification of discrimination under Vichy that much more glaring. In this section, Ginio highlights the central place of the colonial empire in the new regime’s efforts to regain France’s respect and status in the wake of humiliation and surrender.

Read the full review

How to get a copy

Related articles

• The Tata, African Anti-Colonialism defensive walls in Sikasso, Mali (sociolingo.com)

Source: IMF

Public Information Notice: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2007 Article IV Consultation with the Republic of Equatorial Guinea
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2008/pn0848.htm

All languages equal but English (and Afrikaans?) more equal?

Posted on Language Policy list April 30th, 2008 by Pierre De Vos

Is it not strange – as a writer asks in an interesting piece in The Herald newspaper – that 14 years after the advent of democracy in South Africa, “the language spoken in our courtrooms still resembles the apartheid era and in no way does it reflect the demographics of this country”? While witnesses and accused persons can testify in one of the eleven official languages and can rely on the services of a translator when doing so (as Jacob Zuma did to great effect in his rape trial) lawyers, magistrates and judges may speak only English and Afrikaans (with less and less Afrikaans being spoken). This happens even when all the parties before the court speaks a first language other than English or Afrikaans.

Does this not make a mockery of the provisions of the Constitution that recognises that the official languages of the Republic are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu? And what does it say about the much bandied about need for transformation of the legal system in South Africa? The problem is that our Constitution is as clear as mud on the issue of language rights. Trying to strike a compromise between what is practical and what is ethically demanded, it contains a rather muddled provision that in effect allows for English to be treated as more equal than the other ten official languages (as George Orwell might have said). Section 6 of the Constitution recognises “the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages of our people”, and places a duty on the state to “take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages”.

This is a rather broad injunction and it is not so clear exactly what practical steps should be taken by the state to give effect to it. Section 6 does seem to give some clues on what would be required when it states that both the national and provincial governments “may use any particular official languages for the purposes of government, taking into account usage, practicality, expense, regional
circumstances and the balance of the needs and preferences of the population as a whole or in the province concerned” – which normally means that because of the expense involved in using other languages English wins out.

At the heart of the language provision in the Constitution is an understanding (as stated in section 6(4) of the Constitution) that ”all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably”. This does not mean that all languages must be treated equally or even that all the dominant languages in a region must be treated equally. It only means that they must be treated fairly “taking into account usage, practicality, expense, regional circumstances”. But because English is such a dominant language and because it is also the aspirational language of most people in our country, even second language speakers of English often do not insist on fair treatment for their indigenous language. English is seen as the language of money and status and often amongst lawyers and magistrates and judges (as well as most others in the professional classes) this means that it is taken for granted that everyone will speak English and if they cannot or will not speak it well, that they are stupid.

The water is further muddied by the fact that the only South Africans who actively promote and fight for their indigenous language are white and Afrikaans and often do so in ways that seem to have more to do with a disappointment about the loss of power and status and with racism than with a genuine concern for the indigenous languages of South Africa. Maybe it is time for people who do not speak English (or Afrikaans) to put pressure on the government to deal more pro-actively with the language issue and to develop a language policy for our courts. Perhaps this policy could allow for regional differences as suggested by the Constitution. This would mean, for example, that in the Western Cape lawyers and magistrate and judges would be allowed to speak not only English and Afrikaans but also Xhosa in court and to draft documents in any of these languages.

Lawyers trained in the Western Cape could then be required to take a non-English language course of at least one of the other two regional languages to qualify as lawyers. This would not be very popular with white lawyers I would imagine, but if we want to start somewhere to respect the language diversity of South Africa, we will have to be forced to do it. As someone who has twice started taking Xhosa lesson only to abandon them, I know I will probably not learn the other language of my region unless I am forced to. So what we need is a bit of government intervention to force us to do the right thing - otherwise everyone will just revert to English.

http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/?p=530

Related articles

• YouTube launches in IsiZulu and Afrikaans for South Africa. That’s now 51 languages. (thenextweb.com)

CHICHEWA/CHINYANJA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Paas, Steven (Ed.)

Chichewa is probably the most widely spoken African language across the regions of Southern and South-Central Africa, used extensively in the private and public spheres: in the family, schools, government, NGOs and media communications. This is the first authoritative, and most comprehensive dictionary of its kind, a notable scholarly endeavour, and with major practical applications. The dictionary grew from an ad hoc missionary publication of Chichewa/English translations from the 1970s, but far exceeds the scope of any previous efforts transcribe the Chichewa language, provide accurate English equivalents, and reach a popular audience. 400pp, MALAWI. KACHERE SERIES.

2004 9990816662 Paperback
Price: £30.95

Available from: African Book Centre

And African Book Collective

And Amazon English Chichewa-Chinyanja Dictionary

ALSO
English – Chichewa/Chinyanja Dictionary 3rd Ed.

Third Edition. Revised and Enlarged

Edited by Steven Paas

ISBN 9789990876307 | 456 pages | 216 x 140 mm | 2005 | Kachere Series, Malawi | Paperback

£29.95

Available from: Africa Book Collective

And Amazon (US)

English Chichewa-Chinyanja Dictionary: 3rd Revised Edition