Some Lozi Relatives

There was a question this week in the search box about Lozi adjectives. So I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look at that subject. Many of us will flashback to seemingly interminable school periods with grammar lessons of parsing sentences: subject, verb, object, clauses, gerunds, substantives, tenses and the like.  For many this subject was as dry as the chalk-dust filled atmosphere of the classroom and the droning pedantic pedagogue at the board!

Before history repeats itself and your eyes glaze over again, a quick and basic definition: an adjective qualifies a noun and in Silozi it is brought into agreement by using adjectival concord.

Simple adjectival concord has a very limited use in Silozi as in Southern Sotho. Here the adjectival prefix is the same as the noun prefix it is qualifying.

Munna muhulu  old man

Banana bande    pleasant children

Much more commonly used is the combination of the demonstrative (or relative pronoun) with simple adjectival concord and then the stem.

Munna yo-mu-hulu                            Banana ba-ba-nde

Below is a table showing the adjectival form with the various classes of nouns.

CLASS

Singular                                                                       Plural

1. yo – mu – tuna                                                       2. ba – ba – tuna

3. o – mu – tuna                                                         4. ye – mi – tuna

5. le-li-tuna                                                                 6. a-ma-tuna

7. se-si-tuna                                                                8. ze-tuna

9. ye-tuna                                                                   10. ze-tuna

11. lo-tuna                                                                  12. lo-lu-tuna

13. to-tu-tuna                                                             14. bo-bu-tuna

15. ko-ku-tuna                                                           16. fo-ku-tuna

17. ko-ku-tuna                                                           18. mo-ku-tuna

19. se-si-tuna                                                              20. bye-bi-tuna

In Silozi adjective stems are very few in number around thirty. Over half of them refer to  colours and markings of cattle and they unusually have a feminine form when applied to cows. Others are to do with mainly physical description and numbers.

fubelu - red,  talaa –green, yellow,  ndilu – blue

nde – good, beautiful,  tuna - big,  hulu – big, old  nyinyani – small, young

nuna – fat,  siswani -  thin,  kima – thick, stout,  telele –  tall, long

ñwi – one,  beli – two,  lalu – three,  ne – four

With cattle colour adjectives the Sotho diminutive suffix (-ana) is used for the feminine form. It is very unusual for this family of languages to convey gender and to have a special feminine form.

Poho yekwaba                                                 a black, white-patched bull

Sitole sesikwabana                                          a black, white-patched cow

We can also just use the Class 9 form where komu: beast, is understood

Yensu (a black male one)                                Yeswana (a black female one)

Here is a list of the cattle colour adjective stems or roots. NB Ye- needs to be prefixed before use!

Male Form            Female Form                    Meaning

sweu                        swanyana                           white

nsu                          swana                                 black

kwaba                     kwabana                             black with white patches

puzwa                      puluzwana                           grey

seta                          setana                                  grey-blue

nala                         nalana                                  red with white patches

konoñu                    kunwana                               red

tukwa                      tukwana                               dark grey

sumu                       sunyana                               white-headed

sooto                       sootwana                             dark brown

tamaha                    tamahana                             roan

paswa                      paswana                               brown with white spots

tululi                       tuluzana                                black and white spots

This list is an indication of the close relation between the people and their cattle; clearly an affectionate one but certainly not sentimental. Cattle were highly valued, not only for milk, meat and leather but they played a vital role in social and economic transactions too. They were given, by the groom’s family as a dowry for taking a woman in marriage, for receiving traditional treatment for illness or disease, to settle debts, or as compensation in court cases.          

HELLO THERE, CHINA!

In recent years in Zambia there has been much debate about the pros and cons of Chinese investment and the Sino-Zambian economic partnerships that have been established. Much construction and infrastructure work has been undertaken that has helped to grow the Zambian economy. Locally we have had a Government Boarding School built and the much improved Sesheke-Senanga Road opened. However, there have also been some concerns expressed about institutionalised corruption, human rights violations, poor management style and cultural insensitivity. However, these failings are not the sole prerogative of Chinese companies and their expatriates. It would be equally instructive to see the results of a similar private poll of the employees at Mopani, KCM Konkola or Associated British Food’s Zambia Sugar. 

A recent survey has been conducted and the results published by the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA)  about the perception of Africans of the impact of Chinese business on the continent and their perception of Chinese business’ behaviour. The data is based on a sample of 1056 people mainly in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. 5% were Zambian.

Those sampled were asked about:

(i)              their reputation,

(ii)            the quality of products and services

(iii)          social responsibility

(iv)          economic responsibility

(v)            environmental responsibility

(vi)          employment practices

The table below shows that the responses were generally negative and there is much work needed to be done to turn this about and change this

Category	Negative perception	Positive perception
Reputation	43.3%	35.4%
Quality of Products/services	55.9%	22.7%
Environmental responsibility	53.9%	11.1%
Economic responsibility	40.1%	28.3%
Social responsibility	45.7%	21%
Employment practices	46%	19.1%

Unsurprisingly the report recommends that Chinese firms need to work hard, especially on improving the quality of goods and services, and on their responsibilities as environmentally and socially aware employers. To do this, increased engagement in mutual understanding is required. This is a two way process as African partners and leaders in business and politics must be ethical and responsible too if adherence to these principles is to work, and the ordinary African citizen is to benefit from the investment and exploitation of the continent’s resources.  China’s growing presence and its rapidly developing importance as a trading partner gave rise to all sorts of theories, insinuations and half-truths of their motives for doing so. This report gives some solid facts and data to help in developing Sino-African partnerships at various levels. The full report is available at: www.ethicssa.org