African Languages and Literature

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Research articles (Dept of African Lang & Lit) [12]

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Post Africa(n) feminism?

Mekgwe, P. (Routledge (Taylor and francis), www.routledge.com, NaN, 2010)

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Abstract:

The growing body of literature authored by women in Africa and the African Diaspora over the past four decades has been accompanied by vigorous debates out of which has evolved a body of theories pertaining to African Feminism(s). Theoretical models such as ‘Third World Feminism’, ‘African Feminism’, ‘Womanism’, ‘Stiwanism’, ‘Afrikana Womanism’ and ‘Nego-feminism’, amongst others, have responded to the anomalies exhibited by mainstream feminism, particularly its inability to address the cultural specificities out of which ‘other’ feminisms are theorised. The focus of this article has arisen out of the realisation that while such theories are invaluable to the development of feminist discourse, they have tended to focus predominantly on the politics of naming associated with the term ‘feminism’.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10311/997

Files in this item: 1

Mekgwe_TT_2010.pdf (311.8Kb)

“All that is fine in the human condition”: crafting words, creating Ma-Ramotswe

Mekgwe, P.; Smith, A.M. (Indiana University Press, www.iupress.indiana.edu, NaN, 2006)

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Abstract:

Acclaimed Edinburgh-based author Alexander McCall Smith is a professor of Medical Law and a prolific fiction writer. He has written over fifty books. It is, however, with the fictional character Ma-Ramotswe that his name is most readily associated. Ma-Ramotswe is the protagonist in McCall Smith’s Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series, which comprises six novels to date. The seventh and last in the series, Blue Shoes and Happiness, is to be released in 2006. The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series is widely read in thirty-two languages across the world. The novels are set in Botswana, where McCall Smith was previously in the Department of Law at the University of Botswana. The author retains a strong relationship with the country and its people. In July 2004, Alexander McCall Smith visited Gaborone, Botswana, to begin work on adapting The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series into a film. In this interview with Pinkie Mekgwe, McCall Smith talks about the importance of creating a character who represents “all that is fine in the human condition” in an era and geopolitical space where nihilism reigns. The author opens up on his life, work, awards, and future possibilities.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10311/968

Files in this item: 1

Mekgwe_RAL_2006.pdf (1.127Mb)

Understanding the rural-urban dichotomy in Mositi Torontle's the victims and Unity Dow's far and beyon'

Rasebotsa, N.L.; Lederer, M.S. (Indiana University Press, www.iupress.indiana.edu, NaN, 2010)

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Abstract:

This paper examines how place is represented in two Botswana novels, Far and Beyon’ by Unity Dow and The Victims by Mositi Torontle. Conventional notions of rural as the “authentic” experience that is threatened by moral breakdown in modern towns do not fit the experiences that these two novels describe. Instead, place reveals attitudes that influence identity formation, and it does so by foregrounding the importance of human relationships. Thus, the important point is to restore and maintain a person’s sense of belonging to a family and extended community, regardless of whether those communities are rural or urban. Breakdown threatens people when they do not know to whom they belong, regardless of where they live.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10311/926

Files in this item: 1

Rasebotsa_RAL_2010.pdf (1.231Mb)

English pronouns in the writing of some Batswana students

Alimi, M.M. (University of Botswana, Department of English, http://www.ub.bw, NaN, 2008)

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Abstract:

This paper examines the morphological and syntactic differences between English and Setswana pronouns, and how these differences manifest in students usage of English learners may be assisted to become more proficient in using English pronouns. An analysis of 542 essays written by second and fourth year students of the Department of English reveal the following categories of pronoun errors: the intrusion of an independent subject pronoun between a subject and its verb, the conflation of the standard expression the one...the other into the other...the other, inter substitution of they/there/their, lack of gender and case distictions, use of pronouns without antecedents and pronoun referent agreement errors. In terms of the sources of these errors, the paper shows that the first six types of errors seem to relate directly or indirectly to the morphological and syntactic structures of Setswana pronouns while the last type is largely intralingual. The paper recommends that policy, tests and exams in country. It also suggests that teachers should raise their awareness of Botswama English in order to be able to distinguish between learners usage that are unpredictable and those that have become systematic localisms, and delegate more learning resposibility to the learners themselves.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10311/865

Files in this item: 1

Alimi_MJLL_2008.pdf (3.634Mb)

Intersuffixing in Setswana: the case of the perfective -ile, the applicative -ela, and the causative -isa

Chebanne, A. (University of Botswana, Office of Research and Development, http://www.ub.bw, NaN, 1996)

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Abstract:

Our motivation and inspiration to undertake this aspect of the phonology of Setswana is derived from research in Setswana phonology by Creissels (Notes, 1991-1992) and from the Bantu languages phonology by Bastin (1983). The reanalysis of the phenomenon that we earlier treated under what the two linguists describe generally as "imbrication"l (cf. Chebanne, 1993, ACAL 24), and which means an affixal imbedding which transforms morphemes has yielded new mterpretations on the Setswana data. We are now inclined to call this phenomenon "intersuffixing", which refers here to the adjustment of positions and forms undergone by verbal suffixes according to morpho-phonological rules. The two terms, intersuffixing and imbrication, actually do not mutually exclude each other. Imbrication may result after certain suffixal permutations in the process of intersuffixing have occurred.

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/10311/863

Files in this item: 1

Chebanne_PBJAS_1996.pdf (415.4Kb)

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