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Category: Batswana

Tribute to the LEGENDE-ary “Bosso”, Jabulani Tsambo

Tribute to the LEGENDE-ary “Bosso”, Jabulani Tsambo

Today, we pay tribute to perhaps the one person who did the most for the promotion and dissemination of the Setswana language throughout the world than all his precursors and other actors in the foreseeable future. Today, the 24th of October 2024 marks the sixth anniversary of the untimely demise of the LEGENDE-ary “Bosso”, Jabulani Tsambo – better known by his stage name Hip Hop Pantsula or just HHP. I would borrow from his track Bosso and say “Bosso ke…

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TŠHEMA TŠHEMA

TŠHEMA TŠHEMA

The recently launched Botswana government initiative, aimed at the economic empowerment of the informal sector is rapidly gaining both momentum and public approval. It is one from a barrage (or “mokgokolosa”, as President MEK Masisi prefers) of programmes aimed at improving the lives of Batswana. One thing that really bothers me about it though is the spelling: Chema Chema! For a long time, efforts have been made to emphasise that the Setswana alphabet does not include the letter ‘C’, and…

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Setswana – Mother of many Mother Languages

Setswana – Mother of many Mother Languages

Today, February 21, is International Mother Language Day. So what better day than this to discuss our own vernacular? Setswana is the “mother tongue” (if is still considered politically correct to say mother tongue), of about eight million people living primarily in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, where it enjoys the status of being a national, official, or recognised minority language. The geographic spread of the language is perhaps the widest in the SADC region after Kiswahili – ranging…

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The Day of the African Child

The Day of the African Child

47 years after that fateful day in June of 1976, the imaging of the Day of the African Child is still primarily Sam Nzima’s photos of the mortally wounded Hector Pieterson in the arms of an older child, Mbuyisa Makhubo, and running next to them with manifest anguish on her face, Hector’s older sister, Antoinette. Much as I hold a strong position that the fate of today’s African Child should be what the world focuses on, I will take a…

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Setswana Language History (part 2)

Setswana Language History (part 2)

Setswana Language History Part 2: The Written Language The evolution of Setswana orthography is itself a story worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, with plot twists and whodunits that would rival any Alfred Hitchcock mystery. It started with European missionaries, each not only struggling with learning the new African language from the point of view of their various vernaculars and Christian denominational perspectives. And then when it was all eventually falling into place and the native speakers were now on board, it emerged…

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Setswana Language History (part 1)

Setswana Language History (part 1)

Setswana Language History Part 1: The Spoken Language The history of the Setswana language itself goes way into prehistoric times, and nobody can say for certain what happened all those thousands of years ago, during the times of the proto-Bantu. However, we can focus on the history of the orthography of the language, as well as other evolutionary factors that have influenced Setswana to be what it is today. This first section deals with the preliterary history of the language,…

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