Other Gender Matters – Lozi Names

As we saw in a previous posting “Some Lozi Relatives”, gender is not often used to differentiate nouns in the Bantu languages. We saw that in Silozi an unusual case was the pairing in differentiation in colours of hides with different forms for bulls and cows. Another interesting area is with personal names, where a similar pairing can be found, this time using prefixes. Most Silozi names can be given to children of either sex, however, there are a small group of names using the prefixes Si-, I-, Na- and Ka- that also use these as male and female markers. The underlying meaning of these 4 prefixes is “Associated with”, or  “Characterised by”  Si- is the original form but in some dialects the “S” is dropped leaving only I- as the prefix eg. Simboela (Southerner) with the dialect variant of Imboela.

MALE FORM                      FEMALE FORM         MEANING

Ilukui                                      Nalukui                       (Awesome one)

Imutulo                                   Namutulo                    (Northerner)

Imwaka                                   Namwaka                    (Born at New Year)

Silishebo                                 Nalishebo                    (Born during famine)

Silukena                                  Nalukena                     (Cleansed one)

Silwendo                                 Nalwendo                   (Habitual traveller)

Simasiku                                 Namasiku                    (Born at dawn)

Simangolwa                            Namangolwa               (Born in the evening)

Simboela                                 Namboela                    (Southerner)

Simbula                                   Nambula                    (Born in the rains)

Simonda                                  Namonda                    (Born 1^st Q of moon)

Simwinji                                  Namwinji                    (Born in daytime)

Sindila                                      Nandila                       (Born en route)

Siyoto                                       Nayoto                       (Soft things)

As usual with language and human organization nothing is ever simple. There are always exceptions. The following names beginning with I- are strictly male with no female form

Ifunga                                 (Planner)

Ikacana                               (Small one) (Namucana: Female Equivalent?)           

Ikafa                                   (Immortal one)

Iluuka                                  (Returnee)

Ingombe                              (Cattle Owner)

Isilabo                                  (Paddle Owner)

However, the following names beginning with I- are female only names!

Ilinanga                               (Born in the drought)

Ilitongo                               (Landowner)

Iñutu                                   (One who doesn’t curse me)

Inoonge                              (One associated with complaints

 

The following names beginning with Na- are strictly female:

Nakwinji                              (One at the bottom of the pile)

Naliyeya                               (Pensive one)

Naluca                                  (The wee one)

Namakau                              (Owner of many hoes)

Nañalelwa                             (Suffer)

Nañunyi                                (One associated with firewood)

And finally to complete the confusion the following are marked as female but are used by both sexes:

Nalilungwe                          (Born at dawn)

Nalumango                          (Stingy one)

Nalumino                             (Cursed one)

Nakubyana                           (One who eludes you)

Namitondo                           (Born with help of herbs)

Namukulo                            (Born at the forest edge)

Zambian Languages as a Medium of Education.

A recent matter of interest and also of some controversy, is the use of the main Provincial Zambian language as the vehicle for all primary school teaching until Grade 4. This has met with some resistance mainly in the urban and peri-urban areas where other Zambian languages are spoken at home and outside the home by sizable minorities whose mother tongue is not that of the majority in the Province. For example, Livingstone is in Southern Province and the majority language in Southern Province is Tonga. However, in Livingstone there are sizable groups of mother-tongue Bemba, Lozi and Nyanja speakers, who feel their children will be disadvantaged by having to learn exclusively through Tonga. There are similar arguments in all the urban areas, over Nyanja in Lusaka and Bemba in the Copperbelt.

In a recent interview in The Post newspaper, Nicholas Katanekwa, a Zambian historian, with a newly published book “The Pre-History of the 73 Bantu Languages of Zambia” makes the point that while languages need to be taught in their respective areas so that they survive; he also suggests that two to four languages could be used, especially in urban areas, giving a choice to parents, instead of imposing just the one.

However, one of the more pleasing aspects to the new Education Curriculum Framework is that Zambian Languages are offered as core subjects to be studied by all learners whether Academic or Technical students. In all curricula they are given around 10% of teaching time. Other language options other than compulsory English which gets around 15% are Chinese, French and Portuguese; they too receive around 10% of the timetable.

Of interest too and not unrelated, is the recent and welcome development in the rise of Gaelic Medium Education, (Foghlam tro Mheadhan na Gàidhlig) across Scotland. This is seen as one of the most effective ways of achieving fluency in Gaelic where children from Gaelic speaking homes and non-Gaelic speaking homes attend Gaelic Medium Education. There are similar education projects in other Celtic language speaking countries; Ireland has its Gaelscoil and the Isle of Man its Bunscoill Ghaelgagh. It is probably at its most developed and sophisticated in Wales. In fact, our daughter-in-law is a product of Welsh medium education and is happily bi-lingual in both personal and professional domains. A similar system has yet to be tried in its entirety in Zambia.

Children in Gaelic Medium Education learn all areas of curriculum through Gaelic until the end of Primary 3. They are totally immersed in Gaelic. The teacher will carefully plan activities that support language learning. Around the end of Primary 3 some English is introduced into the learning but the language of the classroom is always Gaelic.

Research from the University of Edinburgh has shown that children tend to progress quickly in English reading as they have been learning reading skills in Gaelic which they can transfer into another language. By the time they leave Primary School they generally tend to be at the same level in English as children who go through English medium education and they are also fairly fluent in Gaelic literacy. History also shows that the insistence on teaching children in a language which is entirely foreign to them results in very little progress with regards to establishing literacy in the English language.

The introduction of the mother-tongue into the classroom is welcome but the manner in which the language is taught, is also vital, otherwise, ironically as happened with Gaelic, the teaching of the mother-tongue can contribute to the decline of the language, when it is taught not as the mother-tongue of the pupils, via the medium of the language itself, but as an academic subject to be studied only through the English language with ever decreasing numbers of students studying the language. This form of teaching is disastrous not only for traditional languages but also for children’s education.

So what has led to all this debate and differing opinions? According to this month’s Bulletin & Record Magazine, a survey monitoring 15 African countries’ results in standardised numeracy and literacy tests found Zambia at the bottom. The increased use of the home-language in the early years is part of the Government’s response to this.

Zambian children were being doubly disadvantaged in having to learn English and simultaneously receive instruction through it and grasp the ideas and concepts being taught. Not understanding what was being said and taught led to low achievement and high failure rates. Many teachers did the sensible thing and used the vernacular to help consolidate what was being taught.

The present English Language policy is almost 50 years old and was introduced shortly after independence to provide a “neutral” language to curb any possible ethno-linguistic strife. Other reasons were that there was a shortage of teachers in the local languages, English had been used in the past as a medium of instruction and it was an international language.

An old Gaelic adage says, a land without a language is a land without a soul.  The problem is Zambia has 7 languages and over 70 dialects - a multilingual land with a polygenetic soul!

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

School Reports - New Zambian Education Curriculum Framework

We are now well into the new school term and we are coming to terms with the new Zambian Education Curriculum Framework, the most significant educational reform for over a decade. It covers all levels of education from pre-school education to tertiary education; including child, adult and life-long learning. The main aim is to equip Zambians with skills, knowledge and values to contribute meaningfully to the development of society and the economy. Zambian education is about the holistic development of individuals to promote the social and economic good of the nation. The new framework was arrived at through a long process of consultation and participation by stake-holders. The previous system, not without some justification, was criticised as too theoretically based with little practical emphasis and was designed to produce an elite corps of graduates that did little for future entrepreneurs, the establishment of small businesses or to stimulate self-employment and job creation.

Other major changes are the importance of play in early-learning and the use of the vernacular languages for instruction in the early years; English now being used only after Primary Grade 4.

Junior Secondary Schools (Grades 8 & 9) now offer both an Academic and a Technical Career Pathway. The former technical subjects have been integrated to become Design and Technology; Book Keeping, Commerce and Office Practice now become Business Studies and Civics, History and Geography become Social Studies. In the academic stream Business Studies, English, IT, Science, Social Studies, Maths, RE and Zambian Languages are compulsory. Optional subjects include French, Chinese and Portuguese.

The Vocational and Technical options are Agriculture, Technology, Performing and Creative Arts, PE and Sport, Home Economics and Hospitality. Class contact time for both pathways will now be 32 hours 40 minutes.

Extra-curricular activities still include Clubs, Sports, Preventative Maintenance and Production Units.

At Senior Secondary (Grade 10-12) again both academic and technical streams are involved but only two options are permitted over the Compulsory Subjects. The options for the Academic Pathway are Social Sciences Natural Sciences and Business Studies

The Technical pathway offers the same as at Junior Secondary Level.

2013 Grade 7, 9 & 12 Examination Results

The Zambian Education System still uses National Examinations as a filter to prevent the next level being over subscribed. It has very little to do with overall ability that decides whether you progress to the next stage but the number of places available and the ability of the family to pay the school fees and other associated costs. In Primary Schools there are no ‘fees’ but a PTA levy is imposed.

Below are the results from 2013 Grade 7 Examinations; the figures were published in the Daily Mail. They are compared with the 2012 results:

GRADE 7 2012	GRADE 7 2013
304,429            Candidates	312,443            Candidates
284,603             Selected for G8	279,186             Selected for G8
19,826               Unselected	33,257               Unselected
93.49%             Pass Rate	89.36%              Progression Rate

The most obvious question from this table is what happens to the 33,257 pupils not selected for Grade 8? For most of these children, apart from a few ‘repeaters’ their schooling has now finished at G7 and they leave with no formal qualifications. This is why we are desperate to build another 1x3 classroom block to accommodate more Junior Secondary pupils at UCZ Mwandi Secondary School

The Results for the 2013 Grade 9 come from the Times of Zambia.

Candidates sitting at G9 in 2013	285,638
Candidates passing to G10	110,739
Candidates failing	174,899
Boys passing	57,327
Girls passing	33,412
Progression Rate	37.1%

The Western Province came third with a 43.73% progression rate. North Western came first with 63% and Southern last at 30.86% . Western too had an above average number of pupils with a full certificate. The national average was 54.84%. The other noteworthy but unsurprising feature was that the private sector performed best followed by the grant-aided schools (mainly Church and Mission Schools), then Community Schools and finally the Government schools performing below the mean. However, an encouraging feature was that the progression rate for girls at 37.51% was slightly higher than the boys at 36.72%

A review of the Grade 12 results appears in the Daily Mail of 6 February and again there has been criticism of poor performance and the functional illiteracy of many school leavers.

Candidates entered at G12 2013	106,956
Boys	61,021
Girls	45,935
Full Certificates	63,104
General Certificate of Education	39,926
Failed	1,779

63,104 pupils out of 104,809 sitting the 2013 Grade 12 examination obtained full school certificates a 2% increase on last year. 39,926 candidates obtained General Certificate of Education (GCE) a 1% increase on the previous year. The best performing schools were the grant-aided followed by the private sector and then the state schools.

Muchinga Province had the best pass rate at 69% with Western coming in second-last at 53%.

Food to the Hungry

There has been much focus recently in Scotland on the growing role of Foodbanks in distributing food to needy people struggling to feed themselves and their families. Here in Zambia too, there is a concern that rising food prices are threatening to put even essential foods out of the reach of the majority of Zambians.

43 percent of the Zambian population are classed as extremely poor and 60 percent are classed as poor. Almost 50% (48.5%) of Zambian children are undernourished. Recent price rises and fluctuations have brought a 25kg bag of mealie meal, the local staple food, to stand at K65 for Breakfast (refined meal) (US$13, E9 or GBP8) and K55(US$11, E8 or GBP7) for the coarser meal called 'Roller'. These are Mwandi Village prices. The global market is given the blame as there has been an increased demand for food from developing economies in Asia and South America. Food security is a world wide-issue.

Here in Zambia a number of factors have affected prices. Firstly was the removal of state subsidies on fuel and maize; natural and climatic factors such as unpredictable weather patterns led to a number of poor harvests recently, this resulted in poor nutrition with fewer people producing less. The consequent stunting and failure to thrive means that malnourished children and adults do not reach their full potential.

At UCZ Mwandi Mission Hospital  people are often sick because of bad nutrition. We are fortunate that we can help those with a body mass index of less than 18.5 with the Church of Scotland sponsored HIV Nutrition Programme. Around 50 clients per month are given nutritional supplements. In the first 9 months of 2013, 5444 clients attended our Outreach and Static Clinics. Of those 418 were enrolled on the Nutrition Programme working out at around 8%.

The Agricultural Programme tries to show that the food sector can be diversified by promoting fish farming, poultry and livestock and be less fixated on cash crops such as maize, wheat and cotton.

The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in reviewing 2013, stated that the high cost of living was mainly due to high food prices. As a faith based organisation, it stressed the need to see the poor access their basic needs and rights, such as the right to food. This is vital if there is to be improved living conditions and a reduction in poverty. It commended the prioritization of employment creation in the national budget and the harmonisation exercise that saw an increase in many of the poorer Government workers’ salaries.

So what does a family of 5 now need in Zambia for an average food basket, remembering that the price for Lusaka stood at K3470 (US$643) in January 2013?

In the month of December, the cost of basic food items and non-food essential items such as soap, washing detergents, water, electricity housing for a family of five in selected Districts stood at around K3500.This figure did not include additional costs such as education and transport, among other items.

BASIC NEEDS BASKET DECEMBER 2013

DISTRICT	PRICE
LUSAKA	K3539  =  US$655
SOLWEZI	K3040
LIVINGSTONE	K2709
KABWE	K2529
KITWE	K2318
LUANSHYA	K2317
KASAMA	K2308
MONZE	K2222
CHIPATA	K2197  =  US$407

 

Local languages - is Lozi closer to tswana or Southern Sotho?

An interesting question asked by Tsepiso from Lesotho. Looked at historically we can see in Guthrie’s List and Taxonomy that Silozi appears as K21 and Tswana and Sotho as S31 and S32. It is now generally agreed that Silozi was wrongly classified. From the diagram it would appear that Tswana and Sotho are closer. This is further confirmed if you look at the Sotho Group Family tree. South Sotho, North Sotho and Tswana are shown to be ‘siblings’ at the same level on the family tree.

However, as regards modern Silozi, it has its roots in Southern Sotho. Most of Sebitwane’s people the Makololo were Basuto and spoke Sesuto but they were also a collection of defeated remnants  bound together by a fear of Chaka. They headed in roughly a North Westerly direction through the Transvaal, Botswana, Zimbabwe to Zambia. Other linguistic elements influenced their speech on their journey of 2000km between 1826 and 1840. As they travelled they were joined by other Bechwana peoples, so some Sechwana was mixed with the Sesuto. This new language was called Sekololo. This name came it is said from the verb kuikolola, to shave one’s head.

After being defeated by the Tonga and Ila they moved and settled at Linyanti in the Chobe/Caprivi area. They then moved North and also settled amongst the Aluyi. In 1864 the Aluyi rose against the incomers. The men were killed but the women absorbed. The language absorbed new words from Siluyana and some of the Sesuto phonetics ‘softened’.

The Sesutho elements were further reinforced with the coming of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society sent to Bulozi from Lesotho and comprising of European and mother-tongue Sesutho speakers. They used Sesutho for their missionary work and printed books for the first 30 years. In 1913 they formally abandoned Sesotho in favour of Silozi, a fusion of Siluyana and Sikololo. It is reported that the proportion of Seotho to Siluyana vocabulary in Silozi is 75% - 25%. Grammatically, however, it is nevertheless quite close to other Zambian languages. Rather than a sister to South Sotho I think Silozi is more of a daughter with Setswana being an Aunt. That is my take as an interested amateur. I’m sure Tsepiso (Sepiso in Silozi  English:Promise) and I will be pleased to hear from anyone else interested in this.

Below for some comparison are the Sotho, Lozi and Tswana anthems and the Lord’s prayer.

Lesotho fatse la bo-ntat’a rona                       Bulozi fasi la Bondat’a luna

Har’a mafatse leletle ke lona.                          Hal’a mafasi le linde ki lona

Ke moo re hlahileng                                        Ki mo lu pepezwi

Ke moo re holileng                                          Ki mo lu hulezi

Reale rata                                                        Mi lwa li lata

Molimo ak’u boloke Lesotho                          Jesu, kale, u felisize lindwa

U felise lintao le matsoenyeho                        Felisa cwalo lunya, maswenyeho

Oho, fatse lena                                                Oho lifasi le

La bo-ntat’a rona                                            La Bondat’a luna

Le be le khotso                                                Li be ni kozo

Fatshe leno la rona

Ke mpho ya Modimo,

Ke boswa jwa borraetsho;

A le nne ka kagiso.

Chorus:

Tsogang, tsogang! banna, tsogang!

Emang, basadi, emang, tlhagafalang!

Re kopane le go direla

Lefatshe la rona.

Ina lentle la tumo

La chaba ya Botswana,

Ka kutlwano le kagisano,

E bopagantswe mmogo.

Thapelo ea Morena

Ntata rona ya mahodimong,
lebitso la hao a la ke le kgethehe;
ho tle mmuso wa hao; thato ya hao e etswe lefatsheng,
jwalokaha e etswa lehodimong;
o re fe kajeno bohobe ba rona ba tsatsi le leng le le leng;
o re tshwarele melato ya rona,
jwalokaha re tshwarela ba nang le melato ho rona;
o se ke wa re isa molekong;
o mpe o re lwele ho e mobe;
[hobane mmuso ke wa hao, le matla, le kganya ka ho se feleng.
Amen!]       

Thapelo ya Morena

 

Rara wa rona yo o kwa legodimong

leina la gago a le itshepisiwe;

puso ya gago a e tle;

thato ya gago a e dirwe mo lefatsheng

jaaka kwa legodimong.

O re fe gompieno bogobe jwa rona jwa malatsi;

o re itshwarele dibe tsa rona

jaaka le rona re itshwarela ba ba re leofetsheng;

o se ka wa re isa mo thaelong

mme o re golole mo bosuleng.

Gonne bogosi ke jwa gao, le thata, le kgalalelo, ka bosenabokhutlo. Amen.)

 Amen!    

Tapelo ya Mulena

 

Ndat’aluna yakwahalimu

Libizo lahao libe lelikenile

Kutahe mubuso wahao

Tato yahao ieziwe mwafasi sina ha ieziwe kwa lihalimu

Ulufe kacenu buhobe bwaluna, mo ulufelanga kazazi ni zazi

Uluswalele milatu yalunamu luswalelelea ni luna babalufoselize

Usikawalukenya mwa muliko kono  ululamulele ku yamaswe

Kakuli mubuso ki wahao ni mata, ni kanya kamita ni mita Amen