A case study of civil society organisations' initiatives for the development and promotion of linguistic human rights in Zimbabwe (1980-2004)
Date
2008-10-23T07:18:59Z
Authors
Nyika, Nicholus
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Abstract
This thesis considers the initiatives of civil society organizations involved in efforts to
revitalize the endoglossic minority languages in Zimbabwe in the period following the
attainment of political independence in 1980. The study sought to understand how
particular organs of civil society in Zimbabwe, such as the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, Silveira House, Save the Children Fund (United
Kingdom), and the African Languages Research Institute, have contributed to the
development and promotion of linguistic human rights in Zimbabwe. These civil society
organizations have worked with grassroots organizations formed by speakers of the
endoglossic minority languages, such as the Tonga Language and Cultural Organization
and the Zimbabwe Indigenous Languages Promotion Association. This thesis traces the
initiatives undertaken by these organs of civil society through the formation of
collaborative networks involving the various actors who collectively mobilized for the
linguistic human rights of minority language groups in Zimbabwe.
A qualitative approach to research was adopted for this study. Data was collected through
qualitative interviews with key informants as well as through documentary materials that
were collected from the identified organizations involved in the minority language
revitalization project in Zimbabwe. Drawing on analytic frameworks of language
revitalization efforts advanced by Fishman (1991, 2001), Crystal (2000), Skutnabb-
Kangas (2000) and Adegbija (1997), I argue that the minority language revitalization
efforts in Zimbabwe targeted two main domains of language use; education and the
media. I further identify three main strategies that were adopted in advocating for an
increased presence of the minority languages in these domains.
The first strategy involved what Fishman calls the search for “ideological consensus” and
“prior value consensus”. This strategy involved efforts by the language activists to
mobilize the grassroots members of the minority language-speaking community to
assume an ideological orientation whereby the minority languages were viewed as a
resource and a right, and to actively participate in developing and promoting their
languages. The second strategy arose from the focus on the state’s language ideology as
constituting the basis on which the marginalization of their languages was legitimated.
This second strategy, identified as an ideological or politically-oriented language
revitalization strategy, involved instituting measures that challenged the state’s language
policy as the manifestation of an exclusionary and linguicist state language ideology. The
third strategy, identified as a language-based and technically-oriented language
revitalization strategy involved initiatives geared towards corpus development of the
minority endoglossic languages.
This thesis concludes that these language revitalization initiatives were successful
because as a result of these initiatives, the Government of Zimbabwe made concessions
that gave the minority language groups a bigger stake in their targeted domains: the
Ministry of Information and Publicity set up a radio station broadcasting exclusively in
the minority languages, and the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture put in place
new provisions on the learning and teaching of minority languages which allowed for the
teaching of minority languages up to Grade 7 by 2005, with room for annual progression
to secondary school level.
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Keywords
Linguistic Human Rights, Minority Languages, Exoglossic Languages, Endoglossic Languages, Language Revitalization, Language Policy, Language Planning, Zimbabwe, Shona, Ndebele