The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Post Correspondent
May be two or three months ago, I did not lash at….I politely lambasted the adulteration of the Ndau language by news on some radio stations purporting to be broadcasting Ndau news bulletin. I did not mince my words though, about how non-Ndau speaking people are asked to read news in Ndau and make a dog’s breakfast of the effort.
I applauded government, as I have done all along, about its decision to recognise Ndau as an autonomous and fully fledged language together with several other indigenous languages.
Diamond FM Radio is on point in every sense. It has formally launched news bulletin in real Ndau, the news reader, one Yolanda Simango getting the correct pronunciation and intonation in perfect Ndau.
Makorokoto…Amhlope! Well done Yolanda! And thumbs up to the news director on Diamond FM, Mr Nathaniel Mlambo, for getting it right the first time! News in Ndau! Easier said than done!
I do closely assist Dr Muzi Mlambo…Project Coordinator of Chindau Chemene Project (UZ…Department of Linguistics) to write material for Ndau learning in schools. It is not easy. But it is both fun and a job that must be done and done perfectly. The Ndau news on Diamond FM brings out the correct flavour of Ndau and enhances the idea that led to the mooting of the Ndau bulletin.
Some people and they are not few, who regard Ndau as a primitive and funny language that is not better for anything except drama and laughter are sulking, tongue in cheek…perhaps egg on the face too.
Ndau speaking Zimbabwe expect serious business from Ndau people to sit and write books, formulate standard Ndau orthography…carry out researches on beliefs, customs and traditions of the Ndau people; their food, their culture-based games and sporting, but most importantly their cultural values, thoughts and philosophies about life.
I always say people do not become who they are because of the language they speak alone, but also indeed because of their beliefs, philosophies of life and their cultural values.
Obviously the radio and television are perfect platform to authenticate the depth and worth of the Ndau language.
Radio and television may take Ndau as a broadcasting joke…something to laugh about and create fun around. I hardly have a reason to think that is what is happening. That would be a dangerous and foolish mistake to make. In the context of education and the new or updated curriculum, this is a serious scholastic task intended to bring Ndau back from the garbage bin…bring back Ndau into schools, and not adulterated versions of it…Diasporan Ndau.
If genuine Ndau-speaking people do not applaud government for acknowledging Ndau as a full autonomous language and do what a full people’s language must do, no one will do it for them.
Beware of impostors in the matrix of legitimizing vernacular or indigenous languages. Ndau already has its share of impostors, charlatans or con-artists; but for now we want to thank and congratulate Diamond FM Radio, Nathaniel Mlambo, the news director and Yolanda Simango, the perfect Ndau news reader for a job well done.
