Members of Parliament are pushing for the effective development and promotion of local languages, an initiative they say would help in preserving the country’s culture.
The MPs were speaking on “This Morning on Asakhe,” an X Space morning show hosted by CITE.
Makhandeni-Luveve Constituency MP, Descent Bajila, who recently raised the motion of upholding local languages in the august House, reiterated the importance of developing local languages to a stage where technical subjects in schools are taught in Indigenous languages for better understanding.
“Preserving our languages is a definition of preserving who we are. Everyone expects their language to be preserved and promoted equally like every other official language. For learning purposes, it has been proven that people learn better when they are taught in their local languages. It is also about us being able to get to a stage where we teach science, technology, and economics in local languages. We must have indigenous words for these technical terms,” he stated.
“This will also help us politically because it will reduce tensions where people are divided over the languages they speak. Language development always happens together with language promotion.”
Bajila reiterated the importance of learning all languages so that people can converse in different languages at the same time, without necessarily switching to other languages to understand each other.
“We want to reach a situation where if I talk to someone in Venda, they can hear what I am saying and respond to me in Shona, and I hear what they are saying without necessarily having to switch codes. We want a society that is harmonized to that extent,” he said.
“We need to accept that English, Shona, and Ndebele have been extensively taught. Let’s introduce a third language in schools. The formula could be district-based, where parents and stakeholders can be consulted. In areas where there are only two indigenous languages, we can consult to find out which of the available 16 languages they would want to learn in schools. We need to push in that direction to grow the marginalized languages.”
MP for Kadoma, Gift Mambipiri, weighed in on the importance of promoting local languages.
Mambipiri said that since the adoption of the Constitution in 2013, very little has been done to promote the other 13 languages outside English, Ndebele, and Shona, hence the need to begin taking strategic steps to promote local languages.
“If I speak in Chewa, are there people around me who will understand me? From a social perspective, in churches, for example, some people choose to worship in their mother tongue over English. I am Catholic myself, and in most cases, people prefer to attend masses conducted in vernacular,” he said.
“Local languages must also be upheld in schools. We need to reach a situation where schools teach various concepts in local languages. Look at other countries such as France and Germany. They understand that for one to fully grasp a concept, it is important to teach it in their local language.”
