African languages - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

Costa Titch: the rising white South African rap star who embraced black hip-hop culture

RISING 28-year-old South African dancer and rapper Costa Titch (born Costa Tsobanoglou) died after collapsing on stage on 11 March while performing in Johannesburg. Costa Titch entered the entertainment world as a dancer with Cassper Nyovest, another South African hip-hop megastar, before trying his luck as a rapper, often dabbling in the country’s amapiano dance music genre. He had a huge hit with his track Big Flexa and was destined to shine bright on the country’s music scene. Author SANYA OSHA, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town Being white, Nelspruit-born Costa Titch brought new…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

9 new African languages added to Google translate offline support

NEWS

BIRD STORY AGENCY GOOGLE recently announced the expansion of its offline translation by adding 33 new languages, including nine African languages, to the Google Translate app on iOS and Android. This now brings the total number of African languages supported by Google to 12. Arabic, Swahili and Afrikaans have been supported by the Google Translate offline translation tool since 2018 when Google launched the functionality. Nigerian languages Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba and southern African languages, Sesotho, Xhosa, Zulu and Shona, are part of the newly added languages. Additionally, Kinyarwanda, spoken in Rwanda and other parts of East Africa and Chichewa,…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

Bilingual education can work in South African schools: here’s how

EDUCATION

FROM the fourth year of schooling, the majority of South African schools teach all subjects in English only. The devastating learning consequences of this for children who speak African languages at home have been compellingly captured in the documentary film Sink or Swim. These consequences include a lack of conceptual understanding and little identification with the content. In South Africa, there are 12 official languages, including South African sign language. The constitution allows that any of these languages may be used as a medium of instruction in schools. But only English, and in a minority of schools Afrikaans, is used…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Justice Maya’s support for African languages in South Africa’s courts is a positive sign

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE only nominee for the position of South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice, Justice Mandisa Maya, has once again put the spotlight on indigenous languages and the justice system. She is the Judge President of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Authors ZAKEERA DOCRAT, Postdoctoral research fellow (Forensic Linguistics/ Language and Law), University of the Western Cape RUSSELL H. KASCHULA, Professor of African Language Studies, University of the Western Cape South Africa’s post-apartheid legal profession, through legislation and policy, adopted an English-only approach. English was further elevated when the heads of the courts adopted it as the only official language of record…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages

LITERATURE

THE 6th edition of The Mabati Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature, suspended last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is back. Founded in 2014, the prize recognises writing in African languages and encourages translation from, between and into African languages. Kiswahili is widely spoken across the east coast of Africa. This year’s prize also offers a special award designed to promote and popularise a Kiswahili vocabulary for technology and digital rights. We spoke to the prize founders – literary academic Lizzy Attree, also of Short Story Day Africa, and literature professor and celebrated author Mukoma Wa Ngugi – on…