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The persistence of the COVID-19-induced lockdowns resulted in increased parent-child encounters as parents worked from home while children learnt through remote platforms. This blurred the binaries of home/school as parents assumed the role of teachers by participating in children's schooling more formally. By focusing on the role of parents as teachers in heritage language tasks, this study discusses family language ideologies and how they are infused into the teaching and learning of Ndebele, a historically minoritised and marginalised language in Zimbabwe. Data is drawn from a linguistic ethnography of a Ndebele heritage language family residing in the city of Bulawayo. Data consists of audiorecorded Ndebele language lessons and parental interviews. By drawing on the concepts of Family Language Policy and Bourdieu's notion of 'legitimate language', the study exposes how children's heritage language tasks became important aspects of family's language transactions, contestations and negotiations. Parents build on their temporary teacher authority to assert their agency in reinforcing a Ndebele identity by endeavouring to teach Ndebele to their children through a 'Ndebele lens'. Children's stances towards parents' monolingual practices and ideologies reveal their resistant agency. Their appeals for explanations and translations of some Ndebele words and expressions into English reproduce school language practices and ideologies that project English as the legitimate language. Parents' insistence on monolingual practices and children's language negotiations also reproduces the tensions that exist between English and indigenous languages at school and in the community at large. The study concludes that despite these tensions, these heritage language tasks present opportunities for productive language concordant parent-child encounters that reinforce children's linguistic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the degree to which belonging to "Southern Ndebele"' identity is expressed through material culture, such as beadwork, wall paintings, architecture and distinctive ways of dressing. Seeing material culture as a signifier and proclamation of Ndebele identity has attracted media attention and generated valuable insight about the expression of belonging to Ndebele identity in South Africa. However, drawing inferences about identity from material culture can obscure details and nuances about identity and belonging and the complex manner in which they relate to material culture. This article argues that the inherently complex and unstable nature of ethnic identities has to be considered when analysing and detecting shifts in material culture and its use as an identity marker in Ndebele communities. Drawing on the long history of association between Ndebele identity and material culture, this paper exposes the dynamics, complexities and nuances about identity and belonging to push beyond narrow interpretations of material culture as markers and expression of Ndebeleness. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the KwaMhlanga region, the paper explores the material production of Ndebeleness within the context of crafting a South African nation in order to illuminate the complexities of formulations of meaning and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing research on the inclusion and exclusion of people with disabilities in African spaces, which are perpetuated by religious and cultural fear. Decision to shun or embrace people is defined by the politics of the body and influenced by the religion and culture of fear. In politics of the body, women are discriminated against because their bodies are often controlled and put under surveillance. Women with disabilities experience this discrimination more than their able-bodied counterparts and men with disabilities. Written from the perspective of the ethic of ubuntu, this article examines the fear of disability among the Ndebele of Matetsi in Zimbabwe, as well as how the politics of the body are used by women with disabilities to denounce this fear. These women described how they used (in childhood) and (adulthood) and still use their bodies to call for inclusion in their communities. The article employs findings from the politics of the body emerging from the narratives of women with disabilities to propose an African women's theology of disability. Contribution: The article problematises fear of disability as a cause of discrimination and exclusion of differently abled people particularly women with. It therefore proposes an African women's theology of disability that is informed by the interdisciplinary approach of Ubuntu promoting the inclusion of all people including women with disabilities into the web of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Zimbabwe, ethnicity has long informed the ways people make sense of their membership to the nation. Sport has since the turn of the century emerged as one of the major sites for the performance of 'patriotic' and subversive notions of 'unity in diversity'. This article explores the significance of nicknaming and name-calling by Highlanders Football Club fans on virtual spaces, in illuminating the ethnic threat to dominant conceptions of nation in post-2000 Zimbabwe. The study argues that as psycho-social and cultural constructs, football team nicknames reveal deeper states of ethnic attitudes which indicate the politics of complex ethnic sentiments that destabilise popular notions of belonging to a nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 19th century, colonial powers sought to destroy the Mthwakazi or Ndebele state in what is now Matabeleland in the south west region of Zimbabwe, to subdue and dominate its people. The people of Matabeleland suffered heavy losses of cattle and land. Paradoxically, these injustices did not end with the collapse of colonialism. Since independence in 1980, the people of Matabeleland have been victims of political violence, which has left thousands dead and many without a livelihood. Nothing came of the promised reconciliation, justice, peace, national cohesion, progress and prosperity in the post-colonial Zimbabwe. To date the region of Matabeleland still suffers from political, cultural and socio-economic disadvantages that call for a prophetic practical pastoral ministry of care. A critical exploration of the way in which the history of the region was documented exposes it as a victim of the legacy of injustice and political violence. This has had the effect of undermining progress and peace not only in Matabeleland, but also in the entire country. There is a lack of national cohesion, and the consequence is the absence of a common national vision. Notwithstanding the general prevalence of political and socio-economic dire straits affecting the whole country, Matabeleland presents a unique case study. The Roman Catholic Church which has been present in the country since colonial times has been actively engaged in the political and socio-economic realities of the country. In view of this, this article investigates the role the Church can play in the healing of a broken nation, with a preferential focus on Matabeleland. It proposes a prophetic practical pastoral ministry of care in order not only to heal the afflicted but also that they may find solidarity and fellowship as citizens. Such a role should further encompass reconciliation, rebuilding the people's confidence and advocacy for their political, cultural and socio-economic development and progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2018, the Bulawayo High Court ruled against the installation of an Ndebele King in Zimbabwe. The Ndebele throne was left vacant when the second and last king, Lobengula Khumalo, disappeared in 1893 during the armed struggle against the British imperial forces. Prince Bulelani Lobengula Khumalo, the heir apparent to the throne, was supposed to be crowned as the Ndebele King on 3 March 2018 at Barboufields Stadium in Bulawayo. However, the Court declared the installation unconstitutional, and the police blocked the coronation ceremony. Drawing upon decoloniality and Mamdani's citizen and subject as theoretical lens, and on critical discourse analysis, this article examines the online discourses that emerged on the Chronicle and Bulawayo24.com news websites. It is concluded that these Ndebele kingship debates are contributing to various understandings on ethnicity, nationhood and citizenship. Moreover, decolonial sentiments are evoked as online discussants justify the installation of an Ndebele king. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we seek to give a missiological critique of the inculturation of marriage rituals in the National Baptist Convention (NBC) of Zimbabwe. We examine and explore the inculturation that could help expedite greater engagement between the NBC of Zimbabwe and the Shona and Ndebele cultures in Midlands and Matabeleland regions. The challenges facing the inculturation of marriage rituals are examined. We use missiological research methodologies that include the seven-point praxis matrix propounded by Kritzinger. The praxis matrix is used as a grid of missiological questions in qualitative paradigms. A case study design and sample of fifteen research respondents from six of the thirteen denominations are used. The sample includes the National Executive members, pastors, elders, deacons, church committee members and lay member. Interviews and observations are the instruments. The findings reveal that Convention members regard inculturation of marriage rituals important. They inculturated payment of bride price, ululating, dancing, and marrying someone whose background is known since they are biblical. Polygamy, divination and ancestor veneration is rejected. Kusungira ritual and conducting marriage rituals in November is controversial. Inculturation is hindered by fear of syncretism, clash of doctrines, expensive and oppressive and many ethnic groups in the Convention. It is recommended that the Convention encourages payment of bride price and carefully handles controversies surrounding marriage rituals. The preaching and teaching against views that perpetuate patriarchy subordination of women by men men in the society and the fusion of the church and traditional wedding ceremonies should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the intersection of collective memory and Ndebele ethno-nationalism manifesting on three Zimbabwean news websites. Focusing on Newzimbabwe.com, Bulawayo24.com and Umthwakazireview.com, this article explores how Ndebele memories are recollected, mediated and transmitted in ways that shape and solidify a sense of what some writers term a hiraeth, or a longing for a homeland. Anchored upon an assumption that the media are not only sites of memory construction, but also play a key role in the formation and consolidation of national identities, this study examines the discourses on Ndebele nationhood that contest and repudiate the hegemonic Zimbabwean nationalism. This article draws upon the constructionist understanding of nations and collective memories as social constructs. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed as a qualitative method of analysing media texts that are drawn from the three news websites. Findings indicate that the discourses on Ndebele nationalism that are conjured up and reproduced in cyberspace are diverse, complex and contested. First, memories of pre-colonial Ndebele historical figures and warrior exploits are retold in ways that show a yearning for an independent Ndebele "nation." Second, the traumatic memories of the Gukurahundi genocide of the 1980s are recounted in ways that promote Ndebele secessionist politics. Lastly, this article exposes the tensions and ambiguities within the imagination of an Ndebele "nation," as there is a struggle between essentialist/primordial understandings of Ndebele nationhood, and discourses that celebrate Ndebeleness as diverse and multifaceted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of new media has transformed the processes of remembering past events. Although studies by Mpofu, and Mhlanga and Mpofu discuss the counter-hegemonic role of the Internet in enabling Ndebele communities to recount their traumatic memories of Gukurahundi none of these works have probed how survivor testimonies are reconstructed and disseminated through new media. Given the rapid developments in media technologies, and the suppression of Gukurahundi memories by the Zimbabwean government, it is important to explore how the survivors of this genocide are employing new media to publicly recall and share their experiences. Using the concept of ‘media witnessing’ as an analytical lens and critical discourse analysis as a method of analysis, this article examines how written and audio-visual survivor testimonies of those who lived through the Gukurahundi massacres are reproduced, mediated and circulated on Bulawayo24.com news website and YouTube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matches between Zimbabwean Premier Soccer League teams Dynamos FC and Highlanders FC are popular but controversial. In 2004, Robson Sharuko, senior sports editor of The Herald newspaper, dubbed this game the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’. The fixture usually explodes into ugly scenes of violence. Such incidents hardly evade the eyes of the mass media. However, growing scholarship on Zimbabwean football has under-theorized this violence. The essay deploys the framing theory and Foucauldian discourse to analyse the framing of selected episodes of violence at the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’ by two state-controlled newspapers - The Herald and the Chronicle, which fall under the Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) stable. The study shows that contrary to the common perception that The Herald and the Chronicle provide monolithic accounts on events, they furnish heterogeneous narratives on violence at this fixture. This heterogeneity is influenced by ethnic tensions between two dominant ethnic groups in Zimbabwe - the Shona and the Ndebele. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a lesson plan for art education that teaches students about visual representations of common identities. Topics examined through the plan include the Ndebele people of South Africa, mural painting and team spirit.

This article on othering draws on the narratives of Zimbabwean migrants from the country's two major ethnic groups, Shona and Ndebele, living in South Africa. Although Zimbabwean migrants are among the most disliked foreigners, migrants were othered differently based on ethnicity in South Africa. Ndebeles, who speak a language that is closely related to isiZulu and many of whom trace their ancestry to South Africa, generally fared better than Shonas. Zimbabwean migrants are not a homogeneous group, and the results suggest the need for a more nuanced approach in the analysis of their experiences in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article looks at the competing rural cultures in Southwestern Zimbabwe. Topics include the comparison between the Amandebele and Brethren Christ Church (BICC) missionaries' perspectives on the environment, press coverage of several environmental issues including climate change, air pollution and deforestation, and the protection of trees, animals and riparian water rights, totems and taboos.

This paper sets out to discuss how the Shona and Ndebele people of Zimbabwe make use of animal imagery to refer to human behaviour and habits in various situations. In this context, animal traits are drawn from both domestic and wild animals. A discussion of such a conception of human behaviour shall demonstrate that although animalisation largely seeks to denigrate and dehumanise, it is also used to acknowledge positive human qualities. This paper also highlights the following Shona and Ndebele cultural sites where animal imagery is prevalent:Muchohwe/Izichothozo(insult games) and totemic references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hegemonic state grand narratives are often absolutist in ways in which they insist on particular ways of viewing the past, present and the trajectory to the future. They canalize society's attention to certain ways of remembering, forgetting and viewing the socio-political, economic, cultural and ethnic relations in ways that legitimate the state as quintessential. Zimbabwean history, in its patriotic sense, is appropriated by the state in order to inscribe technologies of domination and tyranny in politics and ethnicity. In this research we argue that contesting narratives like Running with Mother use memory and re-memory to establish patterns of marginalisation, violence and hegemony used by the ZANU-PF government. Mlalazi's narrative uses memory of the Gukurahundi violence in order to confront ethnic and political injustices in the past and present and, in this way, seek justice and healing in the public sphere. We argue that ZANU-PF politics since 1980 has been totalitarian and geared towards the elimination of ZAPU and the Ndebele through various exclusions and coercive acts whose consequences have left the Ndebele confronted with the question of: Who are we (the minority) and what are the opportunities in an increasingly 'Shonaised' (ZANUFIED?) Zimbabwe? We conclude by arguing that violence was used by the ruling party on the Ndebele not to create an inclusive society but to establish ethnic domination and tyranny which is still manifest to this day. The act of remembering the violence therefore, becomes a site for psycho-social therapy in a situation where the dehumanization is unacknowledged, diminished or perpetuated in other guises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article draws on the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as well as Van Eemeren and Grootendorst's (2004) systematic theory of argumentation to analyse the discourses around ethnicity in Zimbabwe, as articulated through reader comments to an article that appeared on an online news site,New Zimbabwe.com. The nature of the comments points to polarised interethnic relations between the Shona and the Ndebele, as evidenced by the differential interpretations of history and social justice. The interactive features of online newspapers present an important arena for public deliberation on matters of interethnic relations in Zimbabwe. Although the anonymity afforded by the internet has been criticised for the proliferation of online misogyny in some contexts, the analysis of readers’ comments on theNew Zimbabwe.comwebsite shows that the platform has to be recognised as an invaluable tool for a participatory form of democratic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the reciprocal extension in the Ndebele language (S.44, ISO 639-3 nde; not to be confused with South African Ndebele, S.407, ISO 639-3nbl) using the apparatus of the Lexical Functional Grammar's Lexical Mapping Theory. The reciprocal in Ndebele, like in most Bantu languages, is clearly marked by the verbal suffix an-. Its typical properties are that the subject NP must be plural or alternatively must be a coordinate structure and that it is an argument changing verbal extension. This article will demonstrate that in Ndebele the reciprocal verb can take the direct object. It will further show that the reciprocal in Ndebele can co-occur with the passive and finally the paper will show that the notion of transitivity is not so straightforward both at syntactic and semantic levels when viewed in the context of certain reciprocal constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the practices of the Commission on Traditional Leadership: Disputes and Claims, set up under the Framework Act of 2003 to 'cleanse' the institution of traditional leadership by ridding it of the illegitimate traditional leaders installed during the colonial and homeland eras. Close analysis of the Commission's hearings and determinations with regard to kingship claims by the Western Mpondo and Mpumalanga Ndebele shows that the Commission violated not only the historical past but even the limited constraints of binding legislation, in order to impose its own preferences in the name of custom. The experience of the Commission therefore highlights one of the most fundamental deficiencies in the Framework Act, namely insisting on the guiding role of 'custom' while failing to define the meaning of the term and its implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This response to Vambe's paper is partly inspired by Macaphulana (“New Zimbabwe” 25 February, 2013), a newspaper columnist who refers to Vambe's article as ‘scholarship of grudge’ (2012). Macaphulana is angered by what he perceives as shocking scholarship that characterises Vambe's article. However, Macaphulana is wrong to attribute this to some grudge that Vambe may have against the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. For reasons best known to himself, Vambe simply fails to abide by ethical and moral biddings that should be a feature of all academic endeavours. While the writer's apparent intention is to capture the ‘voices and perceptions [of] ordinary people’, the entire article fails to document evidence to this effect. From a methodological and theoretical point of view, Vambe's findings raise disturbing questions. In the light of the above comments, this response will address the theoretical and methodological issues and ideological, ethical and moral problems raised by Vambe's article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional institutions like the family, village, clan or community had ways of preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts in ways that were complex, reasonable and comprehensive. To that end, we argue that there is nothing new about modern, new methods of peace and conflict resolution. We seek to interrogate the Ndebele proverbs in order to unpack the peace and conflict management strategies that were deployed in order to create, maintain, and sustain peaceful coexistence in the community. The article argues that the modern societies can still learn a lot from the wisdom contained in the selected proverbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to analyse the dynamics of politics of ethnocracy in Zimbabwe. Ethnocracy developed as an indictment on civic and inclusive nationalism. The contest between forces of ethnocracy and those of inclusive nationalism permeated the struggles for liberation, reducing them to a complex terrain of mobilisation of ethnicity and regionalism, displacing all pretensions and rhetoric of national unity. At birth in 1980, Zimbabwe was permeated by a deep Shona ethnic orientation, partly due to the fact that ZANU-PF was, for all intents and purposes, a Shona-dominated political formation since its emergence in 1963. But the question of subjectivity has remained under-researched if not repressed by those in power, who practise ethnocracy and benefit from it. The article posits that Zimbabwe as a postcolonial ‘nation-state’ developed along the lines of an ethnocracy rather than a unitary nation. It situates the debate of subjectivity within the broader politico-philosophical and theoretical interventions of Ernesto Laclau and Stuart Hall that modified the traditional sociological view premised on unified and stable identities. This article emphasises dislocations, displacements, discontinuities, fragmentations, contradictions, ruptures and pluralities as the hallmarks of the construction and reconstruction of identities. By the late 1990s, ethnocracy, which had since the 1960s been read as a bimodal phenomenon pitting the majority Shona against the minority Ndebele, became even more complex with the ‘pan-Shona’ ethnic unity imploding, giving birth to clan-based factionalism within ZANU-PF, as well as fracturing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change into two factions in 2005. The reality today is that every political actor and political formation has to devise ways of managing ethnicity through the official institutionalisation of ethnicity at party and government level, if the nation is to survive and political stability is to be attained. Other political actors – particularly from minority groups – have responded by peddling politics of federalism, irredentism, the devolution of power and even secession, as a solution to the problem of ethnocracy. Yet, others still believe that a democratic therapy is capable of purifying the territorial nationalism of ethnocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses cultural and historical evidence from the Shona and Ndebele experiential context. The Shona and the Ndebele constitute the two largest demographic groups in Zimbabwe. The motivation for the analysis is to contest the assumed universal validity of the feminist gendering of space into private female and public male. Gathering, explaining and interrogating this evidence from an Africana Womanist perspective, it argues that African women's performance space has not been curtailed by limited interpretations of space into private and public. In fact they have been very active in ensuring community survival. Even the often misinterpreted home as a private space, is in fact a strategic arena for the expression of women agency. Thus, the gendered dichotomization of space is not consistent with the dynamics of the African worm view in which balance and harmony constitute the modus operandi for every day social action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the social dynamics of the mid-twentieth century that influenced the body of tradition championed by members of the royal family of Kekana Ndebele at Mošate, Limpopo Province South Africa. The material remains of the 1854 siege of the Kekana Ndebele under chief Mugombane I, provided a means of detecting old political alliances and contributed towards understanding variances in the narrative topography constructed by two senior members of the Royal Council, who related the history of the recovery of Mugombane II during the 1980s. While each adopted the same narrative technique to embellish the political influence of the old chiefdom, each mapped out a different set of relationships. The symbolic import of these different geographic interpretations begins to emerge when considered against the highly fractious local and regional politics of the 1960s and '70s. This article traces the history of the oral narrative and the two storytellers to reveal the political bent and intention of each author. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the use of mediation in resolving conflicts in the traditional Ndebele society in Zimbabwe. It cites some of the sources of conflict in Ndebele society including interests, marriage and generation gap. The concept and forms of mediation are explored. A traditional Ndebele crisis model is also illustrated.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, sending remittances from South Africa posed major challenges for Ndebele migrants. As a result households receiving remittances only did so at irregular intervals. With increased diasporisation into South Africa, it was to be expected that new channels would open up. This article explores what is known as the malayisha system, its role and significance as an informal channel of remittances into Ndebele society. It argues that the system bridged the geographical gap between Matabeleland and Johannesburg, averting food insecurity and poverty for semi-proletarian households in Matabeleland. By facilitating the movement of goods and people between Matabeleland and South Africa, the system became instrumental in the quest of households to reconstruct their livelihoods after the destruction of their rural–urban-based livelihoods in Zimbabwe due to perennial droughts and ESAP. As a result, the services of omalayisha are highly sought-after, by both the migrant community in South Africa and households in Matabeleland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to examine the space allocated to women in the Ndebele society using proverbs and idioms as a frame of reference. Proverbs and idioms as part of oral literature constitute a major means of defining women in a traditional set up. A people's language constitutes their worldview, how they conceive and perceive the web of relations between sexes; what they view as natural and immutable in their ordering of the world. Ndebele proverbs and idioms mirror a particular culture and tradition that imbues a spirit of submissiveness, perseverance and domesticity on women. This article argues that women are given the status of the Other in Ndebele society. Proverbs and idioms articulate the culturally scripted roles of women since this discourse defines gender relations. The language contained therein perpetuates the marginalization of women and relegates them to functional objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the challenges encountered by Ndebele ordinary and advanced students studying Zulu literature texts. The comparison of Zulu vocabulary from prescribed Zulu texts to Ndebele vocabulary and the similarities and differences between Zulu and Ndebele proverbs are tackled. The identification of problematic vocabulary from Zulu literature texts that pause difficulties to Ndebele readers is also discussed.

The article discusses the concept of Ndebele ethnocentric retronym which serves as an example of the demeaning nature of colonialism. The possibility of the elements that come into a culture either through technology or from other cultures to be named using the process of retro naming is tackled. The distortions of African environments and technology have seen the Ndebele retro name African ecology and technology using European secondary stems.

This article argues that there is a legal and political basis for attending to concerns of ethnic minorities in postcolonial transitions. If left unattended, this issue may prompt members of minority groups to resort to preservative measures, including violence to the detriment of the security which is a fundamental objective of the transition. This reaction is often generated by an axiomatic fear of assimilation. The case of the Ndebele of Zimbabwe illustrates this. The article's position is confirmed by post-colonial state practice that implements minority rights and accords affected groups a right to self-determination or autonomy in tandem with liberal democratic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to validate the Africana Womanist literary theory as an intellectual paradigm grounded in knowledge and values derived from the African people's cultural experiences. It achieves this by analyzing cultural discourse from the continent, drawing particular attention to Shona and Ndebele proverbs and sayings. The Shona and Ndebele proverbs and sayings analyzed in the article candidly express perspectives on mothering/motherhood, which is one of the 18 descriptors advanced by Hudson-Weems in her explication of Africana Womanism (1993 and 2004). Against this background, the article contends that Africana Womanism is built around and informed by African survival technologies evolved over many centuries by Africanans themselves. The article's argument, then, is articulated within the confines of the realization that theories are expressions of culturally derived knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the significance and role of taboos in Ndebele society with specific focus on pregnant women. It seeks to reconstruct and evaluate motherhood in African societies and Ndebele community in particular by arguing that through taboos, a woman's procreative role is valued and appreciated. It is through taboos that the relationship between an African woman, her family, community and ecology is defined. The relationship is that of reciprocity and mutual respect as women are cherished, treasured, and held in high esteem because of their procreative role. Taboos reveal that women are extremely valuable, that they are a blessing to the community because of the unique role of childbearing; a significant role that can only be performed by women. At the same time, because African women are familyand community-centred it is their obligation to demonstrate responsibility as child bearers by conforming to these taboos. The taboos are seen as sanctions put in place by society as a form of social control and as a way of enforcing and upholding its norms and values. What is clearly stated in prenatal taboos is society's attitude towards the procreative role of women right from the moment they conceive up to the time they give birth. It is also argued that the concept of taboo in a society is religious and culture specific and, therefore, taboos should be analysed in the context of that particular people's culture and philosophy of life. Failure to do so may result in misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misrepresentation of this cultural aspect. The taboos have a manifest and hidden function in a society. This article also attempts to show that taboos as indigenous knowledge systems are not confined to the traditional era, but that the values enshrined in them are relevant to the contemporary cultures. It is the values in taboo customs that can help modern society deal with issues relating to maternal and child mortality rate as one of the millennium development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the advancement of critical arguments aimed at enhancing African people’s chances of survival through a conscientious exegesis of selected Shona and Ndebele proverbial instruments. Based on the teachings of Afrocentricity, it trains the African intellectual eye to rediscover life-affirming and life-furthering discursive agendas that find expression in African people’s traditions. It is through such a reconnection and recollection that African people possibly become increasingly aware that they are part of a tradition that is informed by, and in fact built around, the philosophies of transcendence and agency as the sine qua non and modus operandi of meaningful existence. Both agency and transcendence are inextricably linked to African people’s endeavors to diversify channels and options in life, because such consequent diversification is an inescapable condition for rehumanization and survival. Such proverbial thought should also provide a theory of life that guides both creativity and literary practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nambya is an officially recognized indigenous minority language that is spoken by about 100 thousand Zimbabweans in some Ndebele dominated areas within the Matabeleland North province of Zimbabwe. In this context, this research is motivated by the fact that Nambya grammar has not received significant attention from linguists, despite the fact that linguistic theory is bound to significantly benefit from the exploration of the idiosyncratic features of this language. Furthermore, this research observes that Nambya is an endangered language due to lack of significant promotion and documentation. In order to kick-start in-depth research on this rather neglected language this article, for the first time ever, presents a qualitative analysis of some phonological processes involving vowels in Nambya, since it is now generally accepted, unless in hopeless obscurantist circles, that phonology is the indispensable foundation of all linguistic study. In this regard, this exploratory and explanatory enterprise describes Nambya phonological processes involving vowels such as vowel harmony, glide formation, vowel elision, and vowel coalescence. This study categorizes these phonological processes as assimilation and hiatus resolution strategies. This investigation also maintains that the structuralist analysis that is presented here tells us more about the Nambya language than simply relating selected data to fashionable theories. In addition, from a cross-Bantu perspective, this study shows that Nambya shares many of its segmental features with closely related Southern Bantu languages such as Shona, Cinsenga and IsiZulu, among others. Finally, this study is expected to provide an impetus for further descriptive and theoretical exploration of these processes and other aspects of Nambya grammar. This is important considering the fact that the United Nations (UN) is currently advocating the promotion of all world languages for the betterment of their speakers. This recommendation concurs with the Pan African ideals espoused by the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)'s Language and Cultural Charters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First World rationale for nature conservation is usually the aesthetic and recreational experiences and opportunities that nature provides and its scientific importance, but rural populations in Africa tend to focus on the utilisation of natural resources. This paper argues that management decisions regarding the conservation and utilisation of natural resources are inseparable from a people's world view and value system, because values inform people's ideas about useful or valuable resources, appropriate behaviour and their priorities regarding issues such as grazing, hunting versus poaching, job creation, tourism, and access to sacred sites and natural resources. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the perceptions of wildlife conservation among the North Ndebele in Limpopo Province to create a climate in which the community can become involved in issues regarding policy matters and the management of the Masebe Nature Reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the roots of memory of former Ndebele labour tenants, and how these memories manifest in landscape, object and event. Recognising the role of history that bound most of the Ndundza community into labour tenancy, the author unpacks the manner in which they articulate the past through their physical and intangible environments. A range of factors influence the quality of memory, as is illustrated through the narratives of some of these labour tenants. The Ndebele also display unique ways of remembering past chronologies and they are able to weave these into both everyday and traumatic events. The application of memory becomes contested in current land claims, and memory might be sacrificed in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In 1854 Chief Mugombane and members of his Kekana Ndebele chiefdom took refuge in what is now known as Historic Cave, in the Makapan Valley, South Africa. The chiefdom retreated into the cave following an attack on a party of Trekboers. The subsequent siege of the cave, which lasted just under a month, ended in the death and surrender of its occupants and their dispersal among the Trekboers and their African auxiliaries. However, the number of people and the composition of the group that hid in the cave, as well as factors that led to the demise of the Kekana became blurred in the various renderings of the historical event. During the 1980s researchers began to cast doubt on the original Trekboer documents and the magnitude of the event when it became apparent that the Kekana oral histories remained silent on the matter. Between 2001 and 2007 the material remains of the siege were excavated to provide new data from which to judge the scale and impact of the siege event. Human remains, the primary focus of this paper, afford this perspective. This paper provides the result of the analysis of the human remains excavated from the cave, as well as an account of those remains that have been recorded or are housed in collections. The study of two naturally mummified individuals removed from the caves and stored in collections is also presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

At the beginning of 2000, African leaders began to talk of 'African solutions to African problems' as the way forward for the continent in the new millennium. In line with this thinking, then President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa began to articulate and popularize the African Renaissance as the guiding philosophy for African development. According to this philosophy, Africa's economic and political salvation was to come from the mobilization and deployment of positive aspects of African culture and history. It is in this context that this article engages with precolonial forms of governance in Africa with a view to countering those ahistorical perspectives that unduly blamed precolonial African traditions and cultures for bequeathing a politics of disorder on the post-colonial state, together with those that romanticize precolonial forms of governance as a golden age of pristine democracy and consensual politics. This article offers a rebuttal to the emerging 'African exceptionalism' thesis. The central argument is that one cannot generalize about precolonial African systems of governance as they were not only diverse but also complex, allowing good and bad forms of governance to co-exist uneasily and tendentiously across space and time. Based on a case study of the nineteenth century Ndebele, of what is is now Zimbabwe, the article describes the complexity and diversity in governance and its combination of 'good' and 'bad' elements to counterpose it to presentday stereotypes, as held, first, by certain Western political scientists, and secondly, certain rulers of postcolonial states that try to justify dictatorship and violation of their people's rights on the basis of precolonial African traditions, cultures and histories. The Ndebele case study demonstrates that human rights and democracy were organically built into African precolonial systems of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current intellectual stampede over issues of governance in Africa has given birth to ahistorical evaluations of the crises bedeviling the African continent. Pre-colonial traditions and cultures have been unduly blamed for bequeathing politics of disorder on the post-colonial state without being carefully studied separately. This article offers a rebuttal to the emerging 'African exceptionalism' thesis that blames pre-colonial traditions and cultures for the bad governance systems being witnessed in Africa. It is a nuanced and systematic interrogation and rethinking of the Ndebele system of governance in the nineteenth century. The article arrives at the conclusion that one cannot generalize about pre-colonial African systems of governance as they were not only diverse but also complex, allowing for good governance and bad governance to co-exist uneasily and tendentiously across space and time. As such the single-despot model preferred by many Eurocentric scholars is too simplistic to explain the complexities and diversities of African political systems. Even post-colonial despotic rulers cannot justify dictatorship and violation of their people's rights on the basis of pre-colonial African traditions, cultures and histories because human rights and democracy were organically built into pre-colonial African systems of governance as this case study of the Ndebele demonstrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues on the political leadership of Zimbabwe's President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. It states that Mugabe was imprisoned between 1960 and 1970, however, this political imprisonment encouraged him to gain political freedom for his peole under the leadership of Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia. It notes that his administration faced inter-ethnic mistrust and conflict after Ndebele was subjected to inhuman treatment. It adds that Mugabe's leadership caused socio-economic and political problems, affecting many people across the country.

This study explored Ndebele culture of Zimbabwe's views of giftedness. Using questionnaire narratives, data were collected from thirty Zimbabwean teachers and lecturers of Ndebele cultural background. The study established that Ndebele culture views giftedness as an unusually outstanding ability blessed in an individual from birth, which manifests in extraordinary performances and expertise including creativity and inspirational power. The hallmarks of Ndebele culture's views of giftedness are achieving exceptionally outstanding success, creativity, ability to solve problems and inspirational power. Indigenous views warrant attention since contemporary psychology now recognizes multiple views of giftedness. The study therefore recommends considering the implications of indigenous views in planning and implementing broad-based culturally sensitive gifted programs in Zimbabwe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that while there have been many changes in the social sphere of women in Ndebele society, the writers of creative works in siNdebele seem not to have accommodated these changes. As a result of this failure by literary artists, the concerns of women are not being addressed by siNdebele fiction written by both female and male writers. It is demonstrated how these artists have failed to address the concerns of women through their inability to acknowledge the changing roles introduced by colonialism. Both colonial and postcolonial fiction written in siNdebele is examined, with special emphasis on the works of three writers, Barbara Makhalisa, S.O. Mlilo, and Ndabezinhle S.Sigogo, who have been chosen because their works typify the weaknesses found in this dimension of siNdebele fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a preponderance of historical themes in Ndebele literature, particularly those pertaining to the formation of the Ndebele state, the succession crisis, and the fall of the Ndebele state. The appeal of historical themes stems from a widely held belief that the formal historical accounts have largely been written by outsiders, who, particularly in the colonial era, distorted the 'history' in order to justify the defeat of the Ndebele in terms of liberating the "lower-caste" groups that constituted the majority. This essay attempts to show those aspects of Ndebele history that have been fictionalized and to explain why authors are drawn to specific themes. It reveals some of the reasons that make Ndebele historical fiction more appealing to its target audience than documented history. It concludes that Ndebele writers have tried to respond to the negative portrayal of the Ndebele past by highlighting the challenges that affect the community. In doing this, they have contributed to shaping the aspirations and ideals of the Ndebele-speaking people of Zimbabwe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]