'Zimbolicious' - the creative potential of linguistic innovation: The case of shona-english in Zimbabwe

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 683-697

  Veit Wild, Flora ^a  

^a HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ART; ETHNIC MINORITY; INNOVATION; INTERNET; LANGUAGE; MEDIA ROLE; MUSIC;

ZIMBABWE;

IGNATIUS;

EID: 75649126954     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070903101896     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. The word 'Zimbo' came into being mainly as an epithet for Zimbaweans living abroad.
2. I found this quotation on a page of 'itsbho.com - the Home of Zimbabwean Entertainment', first accessed on 31 October 2005.
3. however, the term is generally understood as an epithet for a beautiful girl/woman. This page is not accessible anymore, but there are other pages where the term is used, as well as a 'Zimbolicious Forum Index' available at http://zimbolicious.19.forumer.com/, retrieved on 27 January 2008.
4. There even exists a song entitled 'Zimbolicious' by Zimbabwean musician Prince Tendai Mupfurutsa. His music video by this name was nominated for the National Arts Merits Awards (NAMA) of Zimbabwe in 2007.
5. see 'itsbho.com', http://www.itsbho.com/modules.php?name=Newsandfile=articleandsid=598, retrieved on 27 January 2008.
6. I.M. Muila, 'Isicamtho', first published in Botsotso, 1997, available at http://www.cccp-online.org/archive/cccp12/page_28.html, retrieved on 28 November 2006.
7. L. Molamu, Tsotsitaal: A Dictionary of the Language of Sophiatown (Pretoria, University of South Africa, 2004).
8. Muila, 'Isicamtho'.
9. In I.M. Muila, Gova: Poems, Drawings, Voice Recording (Johannesburg, Botsotso Publishing, 2004), p. 7.
10. While Muila does not distinguish here between tsotsitaal and isicamtho, one has to note that they represent two different types of slang. Whereas tsotsitaal is based on Afrikaans as matrix language (see below), isicamtho is based on Zulu (see R. Kiessling and M. Mous, 'Urban Youth Languages in Africa', Anthropological Linguistics, 46, 3 (Fall 2004), pp. 303-41).
11. See in particular J. Nyairo, '"Modify": Jua Kali as Metaphor for Africa's Urban Ethnicities and Cultures', in J. Ogude and J. Nyairo (eds), Urban Legends, Colonial Myths: Popular Culture and Literature in East Africa (Trenton, N. J., Africa World Press, 2007), pp. 125-51, as well as other essays in this collection.
12. also A. Mbembe and S. Nuttall (eds), Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Public Culture, 16, 3 (2004).
13. S. Makoni, 'From Misinvention to Disinvention of Language: Multilingualism and the South African Constitution', in S. Makoni, G. Smitherman, A. Ball and A.K. Spears (eds), Black Linguistics: Language, Society, and Politics in Africa and the Americas (London, Routledge, 2003), pp. 131-52.
14. See Chapter 9, 'Antilanguages', in M. Malliday, Languages as a Social Semiotic (London, Edward Arnold, 1978), pp. 164-82.
15. S. Alim, '"We Are the Streets": African American Language and the Strategic Construction of a Street Conscious Identity', pp. 44-45.
16. in Makoni et al., Black Linguistics, pp. 40-59.
17. For example R. Finlayson, K. Calteaux and C. Myers-Scotton, 'Orderly Mixing and Accommodation in South African Codeswitching', Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2, 3 (1998), pp. 395-420.
18. P. Horn, '"Globalisierung": Kultur, Kulturmischungen und Kulturwissenschaften in Südafrika', Institut zur Erforschung und Förderung sterreichischer und internationaler Literaturprozesse (1999), available at http://www.inst.at/studies/s_0501_d.htm, retrieved on 28 November 2006.
19. N.M. Kamwangamalu, 'We-Codes, They-Codes, and the Codes-in-Between: Identities of English and Codeswitching in Post-Apartheid South Africa', in N.M. Kamwangamalu (ed.), Aspects of Multilingualism in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Special Issue of Multilingua (Berlin, Mouton, 1998).
20. R.H. Kaschula, 'Cross-Cultural Communication in a North-Eastern Cape Farming Community', South African Journal of African Languages (hereafter referred to as SAJAL), 9, 3 (1989), pp. 100-4.
21. R. Mesthrie (ed.), Language in South Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2002).
22. L. Molamu, 'Wietie: The Emergence and Development of Tsotsitaal in South Africa', Alternation: International Journal for the Study of Southern African Literature and Languages, 2, 2 (1995), pp. 139-58.
23. Molamu, Tsotsitaal; C.T. Msimang, 'Impact of Zulu on Tsotsitaal', SAJAL, 7, 3 (1987), pp. 82-6.
24. S. Slabbert, 'A Re-Evalutaion of Tsotsitaal', SAJAL, 12, 1 (1994), pp. 31-41.
25. S. Slabbert and R. Finlayson, '"I'm a Cleva!": The Linguistic Makeup of Identity in a South African Urban Environment', International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 114 (2000), pp. 119-35.
26. G. Younge, Art of the South African Townships (London, Thames and Hudson, 1988).
27. There are two different ways in which two languages can switch or mix. In the inter-sententional form the speaker changes from one language to the other between one sentence and the next; in this case the grammatical structures of both languages remain intact. In the intra sententional form the speaker changes within one sentence, which entails a real blending of ML and EL as described above. While some linguists call both forms code-switching, others define the inter-sententional form as code-switching and the intra-sententional form as code-mixing. For reasons of simplicity I will use both terms synonymously.
28. See P. Muysken, Bilingual Speech: A Typology of Code-Mixing (Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2000).
29. As the standardised Shona has been derived from six different dialects spoken in different areas of Zimbabwe, one can also notice a code-switching between these dialects as a form of intra-language.
30. According to the Education Act of 1987 English has to be used for official functions; the national languages, i.e. Shona and Ndebele, serve to carry the culture.
31. See A. Viriri, 'Language Planning in Zimbabwe: The Conversation and Management of Indigenous Languages as Intangible Heritage', http://www.international.icomos.org/victoriafalls2003/papers/C1-5%20-%20Vririri.pdf, retrieved on 9 May 2008.
32. 'We have in Zimbabwe an unbalanced bicultural and bilingual situation in which the H or high status language is the official language of the former colonial power, while the indigenous languages are the L or low status language.
33. H. Chimhundu, 'The Status of African Languages in Zimbabwe', in SAPEM, Literary Series [Harare, 1993].
34. quoted in Viriri, 'Language Planning in Zimbabwe'.
35. 'We sometimes label the language of larger social groups a social dialect, with differences in pronunciation and usage based on social class, ethnic factors, contact with other languages, gender or age'.
36. D. Baron, 'Sez Who? Language & Society', http://www.pbs.org/speak/words/sezwho/socialsetting/, retrieved on 9 May 2008.
37. see also A. Hudson, Sociolinguistics (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986).
38. In contrast to Shona slang, which borrows mostly from English, Ndebele slang is strongly influenced by South African languages including tsotsitaal.
39. See M. Mthuthu, 'Ghetto lingo rules, OK!. Slang Finds its Way into Everyday Communication', Weekend Mirror (2001), available at http://www.africaonline.co.zw/mirror/stage/archive/010817/weekend14314.html, retrieved on 15 March 2006.
40. P. Mashiri, 'Shona-English Code-Mixing in the Speech of Students at the University of Zimbabwe', South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 20, 4 (2002), pp. 245-62.
41. A. Mawadza, 'Harare Shona Slang: A Linguistic Study', Zambezia: The Journal of Humanities of the University of Zimbabwe, 27, 1 (2000), pp. 93-101.
42. M. Mlambo, 'The Anglicization of Shona', Journal of the American Society of Geolinguistics, 27 (2001), pp. 76-86.
43. E. Ngara, 'Language Influence and Culture: Comments on the Impact of English on Shona', Diogenes, 161 (1993), pp. 27-34.
44. E. Ngara, Bilingualism, Language Contact and Language Planning: Proposals for Language Use and Language Teaching in Zimbabwe (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1982).
45. The leading specialist on code-switching, C. Myers-Scotton, based some of her findings on data from Zimbabwe: see C. Myers-Scotton, Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structure in Codeswitching (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993)
46. C. Myers-Scotton, Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993).
47. See N.E. Mberi, 'Metaphors in Shona: A Cognitive Approach', Zambezia, 30, 1 (2003), pp. 72-88.
48. A. Raji-Oyelade, 'Postproverbials in Yoruba Culture: A Playful Blasphemy', Research in African Literatures, 30, 1 (1999), pp. 74-82.
49. Interestingly we find here a doubling of the plural, as in addition to the Shona plural marker ma- the English plural marker 's' is used.
50. Musalad is the singular of masalad.
51. W. Chuma, 'On the Arts: Zimbabwe Youth Art Mimicking American Culture, Minus the Context', Post-Gazette, 4 August 2002, available at http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/20020804onarts0804fnp6.asp, retrieved on 29 November 2006.
52. Also noticeable is the linguistic innovation that goes hand in hand with such 'language gluing': despite the fact that Standard Shona does not have the sound 'l', we have the word 'emailana'.
53. R.H. Kaschula and I. de Vries, 'Indigenous Languages and the Internet: With LitNet as a Case Study', LitNet (July 2000), available at http://www.oulitnet.co.za/taaldebat/netlan.asp, retrieved on 29 November 2006.
54. R.H. Kaschula, 'Myth and Reality in the New South Africa: Contemporary Oral Literature', LitNet, available at http://www.oulitnet.co.za/seminarroom/myth.asp, retrieved on 29 November 2006.
55. 'Discussion Forum at http://shonalyrics.cozw/forum/view, last accessed on 20 October 2005.
56. Where not otherwise indicated, all translations are mine with the assistance of Maxwell Sibanda.
57. Ragga is a subgenre of Reggae first popular in Jamaica.
58. There was a heated debate about the political content of songs being played on Zimbabwean radio during the parliamentary elections in 2005.
59. See M. Sibanda, 'A Song for Zimbabwe' (unpublished, 2005) and M. Sibanda, 'Music Central Tool in Zimbabwe Election', Freemuse: Freedom of Musical Expression, 29 March 2005, available at http://www.freemuse.org/sw8620.asp, retrieved on 29 November 2006.
60. 'Urban Groovers Turn to Explicit, Humorous Lyrics', The Herald, 24 March 2005.
61. H. Chimhundu, 'Sexuality and Socialization', in G. Furniss and L. Gunner (eds), Power, Marginality and African Oral Literature (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 147-61.
62. For expressions containing stereotyped sex and gender roles in tsotsitaal, see Molamu, 'Wietie'.
63. For sexism in Hararean slang see P. Mashiri, 'Street Remarks, Address Rights and the Urban Female: Socio-Linguistic Politics of Gender in Harare', Zambezia, 27, 3 (2000), pp. 55-70.
64. According to H. Chimhundu, these attitudes are inherent in Bantu languages (Chimhundu, 'Sexuality and Socialization').
65. This is the word used by 'ari_joni' in the quotation above in its plural form (zvimoko). It is mostly used for 'girl' in the sense of 'girl-friend'.
66. The song is part of the album 'Kupinda Newe' by Nasty Trix, Baseline Studios, Harare, 2005.
67. The lines of the chorus quoted here are taken from the article 'Urban Groovers Turn to Explicit, Humorous Lyrics', The Herald, 24 March 2005.
68. 'Urban Groovers Turn to Explicit, Humorous Lyrics', The Herald.
69. T. Maduna, 'Zimbabwe: Girls Rise Up and Sing about Abuse', Kubatana.net (2 November 2005), available at http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/artcul/051102kub.asp?sector1/4ARTCULandrange_start=1, retrieved on 1 December 2006.
70. Chimhundu, 'Sexuality and Socialization', p. 150.
71. D. Chifunyise, 'Tauya naye', available at https://www.zimsounds.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=153andview=lyricsandtid=3andaid=13, retrieved on 1 December 2006.
72. Part of his album 'Chimurenga Explosion' (2000). Lyrics at http://www.geocities.com/shonalyrics/lyrics/mukanya.html#Disaster, retrieved on 7 December 2006.
73. S. Nyamhangambiri, 'Urban Grooves Blacklisted by State Radio', Freemuse: Freedom of Musical Expression, 24 October 2007, http://www.freemuse.org/sw22434.asp, retrieved on 9 May 2008.
74. M. Sibanda, 'Zimbabwe before the Elections: Airplay is Only for the "Patriots"', Freemuse: Freedom of Musical Expression, 10 March 2008, http://www.freemuse.org/sw25850.asp, retrieved on 9 May 2008.
75. See E. Gordon and M. Williams, 'Raids on the Articulate: Code-Switching, Style-Shifting, and Post-Colonial Writing', Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 33, 2 (1998), pp. 75-96.
76. Musengezi quoted in F. Veit-Wild, Teachers, Preachers, Non-Believers: A Social History of Zimbabwean Literature (London, Hans Zell, 1992), pp. 304-5.
77. Interview with the author, September 2006. She subsequently brought it out as self-publication (Harare, Storytime Promotions, 2006).
78. A.C. Moyo, Pane Nyaya (Harare, Priority Projects Publishing, 2004).
79. I. Mabasa, Mapenzi (Harare, College Press, 1999).
80. The novel won the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association Award of 1999 and became a secondary school set book at Advanced level in Zimbabwe.
81. See Veit-Wild, Teachers, Preachers, Non-Believers.
82. M. Chirere, 'Ignatius Mabasa's Mapenzi and Innovation in the Shona Novel', in A. Oed and U. Reuster-Jahn (eds), Beyond the Language Issue: The Production, Mediation and Reception of Creative Writing in African Languages (Cologne, Rüdiger Köppe, forthcoming).
83. Page numbers in brackets refer to Mabasa, Mapenzi.
84. Chirere, 'Ignatius Mabasa's Mapenzi and the Innovation of the Shona Novel'.
85. In a personal note to the author, 27 October 2005.
86. Quoted in Chirere, 'Ignatius Mabasa's Mapenzi and the Innovation of the Shona Novel'.