Africa: Use Indigenous Languages in Science
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

READING through the first dictionary of biomedical terms in Shona language titled "Duramazwi Reurapi Neutano" reaffirms the belief that Africans learn best in their own languages, the languages they know from their parents and from home despite the globalising influence of English. It is chiefly through books that we enjoy interaction with superior minds. In this Shona biomedical dictionary compiled by Dr Herbert Chimhundu, Nomalanga Mpofu, Esau Mangoya and Emmanuel Chabata of the African Languages Research Institute, the writers engage the imagination of the majority of people with an aim to help improve communication between the caregivers and the patient ... Even though there is a strong reliance on English medical terms, the majority of people in Africa still communicate their health problems in indigenous languages. This points to the need to promote and rehabilitate African languages through innovative and creative scientific dictionaries written in indigenous languages. The Shona biomedical dictionary offers scope and opportunities for reclaiming African languages as media of learning and academic expression ... "The present scenario that has acted as a barrier to communication between doctor and patient is that doctors train in English while the majority of the people they will be dealing with use indigenous languages," Dr Chimhundu and his team wrote in "Duramazwi Reurapi Neutano." ...

New siswati book launch
The Swazi Observer - Mbabane,Swaziland
CAMBRIDGE University Press, a leading publisher of educational books, will be launching a new series of Junior Secondary School books called Sisikisa NgeSiswati at Esibayeni Lodge next Tuesday. Guest speaker will be HM Stationery Director, who is also Swaziland Booksellers Association Chairman, Hezekiel Mabuza. Sisikisa NgeSiswati is the first series at the Junior Secondary level specifically written to meet the needs and requirements of the new SIGCSE (Swaziland International General Certificate of Secondary Education) curriculum, and comprises a pupil’s book and a teacher’s book for each of the three levels. Phineas Sibanda, Sales Manager, Cambridge University Press, Africa said the pupil’s book covered contemporary topics like nature, conservation, rights and abuse. The teacher’s book explains how the Swazi lessons at this level can be taught in class. Written and developed by Swazis, Sisikisa NgeSiswati is full of activities based on the Swazi culture ... The ministry of education has been in the forefront fighting for the promotion and preservation of the mother tongue in schools, a campaign spearheaded by Thoko Mabuza, Senior Inspector of Siswati. A few months ago, the country witnessed the launch of the first-ever Siswati dictionary dubbed Sichazamagama published by Macmillan Swaziland ...

Botswana: Educating Serite On Ethnicity
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
Sonny Serite you are highly stereotyped that Basarwa are not educated and that's why you doubt my identity as a Mosarwa. I am a Mosarwa, born in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Qoe, our tribal land which is 70km southeast of Tc'ale (corruptly spelt as Xade). I can understand that you are struggling against your ethnic stereotype about Basarwa, but you are lucky that I will educate you.

Cabinet decision on languages welcomed
Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa
The decision by the cabinet to approve the setting up of structures that would ensure that government department's documents are available in all the official languages was welcomed by several organisations on Wednesday. The cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for government departments to establish language units to implement the language policy framework. The framework makes provision for all government documents to be available in all 11 official languages.

Africa: Language, Liberation And Development
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
Is there a connection between language and the enslavement or liberty of a people and their capacity for development? What have been the experiences of African countries between political independence and 2006, the year of African languages? In this article, Prince Kum'a Ndumbe III elucidates these questions. He also describes the approaches of the AfricAvenir Foundation to raise consciousness about language and development ... The language we use enables us to articulate our ideas, feelings, faith, dreams and vision of the world. Language allows us to recount our everyday, to interrogate our past and plan our future. It enables us to articulate constructed thought. And thought is a vehicle of development - or regression ... The coloniser's language was imposed as the only officially recognised language. African languages were condemned to the domain of folklore as 'vernacular languages' or 'patois'. Thought, that continued to be articulated by individuals in their 'patois', was not recognised ... Thought expressed in indigenous African languages became marginalised. It was labelled primitive, barbarous, backward, incapable of intellect, incapable of communicating progress or development. Knowledge communicated in African languages was thus characterised as non-knowledge ... Africans themselves had passed through the filter of the colonial administration, schools or church seminaries. Indeed, they had no other sources of information other than the media, articulated in the language of the coloniser ... These same Africans would assume power in African countries after the independence movements of the 1960s and 1970s. They continued the application of the colonial project by imposing the former coloniser's language on the African people ...

Angola: Portuguese Language Centre Inaugurated in Luanda
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

A Portuguese Language Centre named "Uanhenga Xitu", linked to the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences (ISCED), was Monday inaugurated, here, in honour of the Angolan writer and National Assembly deputy, Mendes de Carvalho. The centre, located at Magistério Primário Institute has a reading and research room. It will be used by undergraduates, postgraduates, holders of masters, as well as students from Magistério Primário Institute, including other members of the society. It is an initiative of ISCED and Camões Portuguese Institute ... At the opening ceremony in which the Culture minister, Boaventura Cardoso, and the Portuguese Ambassador to Angola, Francisco Ribeiro Telles, were present, the honoured writer thanked Agostinho Neto University and the Camões Institute. According to Uanhenga Xitu, with this initiative, he feels more delighted to continue with his literary career to open minds and be present in the lives of various generations, from students to others who are interested.