Bronwen Jones
BANKERS and broadcasters were this week introduced to a little Xhosa mythology by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, at the multiple launch in Johannesburg of 40 new books.
He was not reading from one of the stories just published, but was using the example of the terrible Impundulo bird to explain the destructiveness of ignorance.
The deputy president said that the invisible fowl would kick victims in the chest until they vomited blood and eventually died. Controlled by practitioners of “juju”, Impundulo had a particular affection for people who had worked on the mines. For each senseless death by disease, the community wrought a senseless murder, killing the “culprit” or witch.
So, said Mbeki, the lack of “adult education can be a matter of life or death”.
Of the 40 titles produced by the Easy Reading for Adults (ERA) vernacular initiative, all dealt with life and many with death. And if there was a common thread, it seemed to be the struggle of tradition versus change, interwoven with the plight of the poor and women’s rights as they straddle African and Western value systems.
Some of the new authors wrote about the “juju” to which Mbeki is opposed. In Petrus Mabena’s IsiNdebele story UNomrhaso, he tells of the water spirit and protection given if one wears green wool around the wrists. Fred Bila’s Sepedi story Dikeledi also deals with the problem of witchcraft.
Boikemisetso is a poignant story by Wilheminah Kutumela: an illiterate woman avoids helping her sick son rather than admit to the clinic that she cannot fill in a form. But there is a happy ending when she, at last, has the courage to start attending literacy classes.
In Thapelo Selepe’s book Lekgoba la Masikutlo, the white boss admits to ill-treating his farm-workers when they challenge his authority. A little too cutely, they all sit down and solve their problems.
Some of the English summaries make dull reading — one can only hope the stories are less so. While the value of immunisation is vital and it is equally important to know how to use an autobank machine, there have to be more lively topics for fiction.
Like necklacing in the Northern Province … but Fred Bila’s Tsonga tale Mali ya Mudende recommends the criminals should be handed over to the police rather than burned. Some issues have a very local flavour!
It seems unlikely that the books are great literary works, but for the first time there are four readers in the four levels of literacy available to every (non-English) official language group in South Africa. More important still, the books are not translations but are original works, often by first- time authors.
Professor Mbulelo Mzamane, vice chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, believes that this recognition of South Africa’s language policy is a vital step. With more passion than Pavarotti, the outstretched arms and oratory of a preacher, he called on the country to launch a five-year campaign to renew a culture of learning.
To an audience of like-minded people the words were powerful. The explanation for poor productivity, he said, came down to the educational deprivation of decades; a calculated deprivation that deserved its own hearing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Other linguists urged that more recognition be given to the cultural and social value of language; to the expressions that record history even as it is made. And they urged, at a time of declining sales, the print media should put some more energy into attracting the readers it will need in the years to come.
While big publishers Heinemann, Kagiso, Via Afrika with Viva and Juta were involved in the 40-book project, the sad truth is that most would never have touched languages like Tshivenda of Xitsonga without the assistance of a hearty subsidy through the Kagiso Trust. But now that the books exist, they may just be the catalyst needed to generate more.
ERA’s Beulah Thumbadoo is proud that the previous dearth of mother-tongue material for adults has been tackled.
“We have stimulated new writing rather than the easier option of translating proven material. But we nonetheless had grave doubts over the language authenticity in some titles.” She insists that ERA “will not sacrifice quality to timeframes and squander funding on poor publications. We have launched the bulk of the books now, but some can still be improved.”
The printing presses are already turning, churning out the 120 000 copies of the new books. And ERA and associated organisations will go on fighting and righting the wrong in a society in which millions of people still cannot read.