The politics of language and the underdevelopment of African language press in Zimbabwe

Introduction

This chapter is an exposition of the interplay between the politics of language and the underdevelopment of African language press in Zimbabwe, from the colonial period to post-independence. The purpose is pursued by analysing the impact of colonial and post-independence administrative language policy and practices on the acknowledged underdevelopment of African language press in then Rhodesia and present-day Zimbabwe. The study demonstrates the manifestation of language politics and its impact on the structure, management, performance and sustainability of African language newspapers in this country.

Mpofu and Salawu (2018a) maintain that present research in the areas of language and media exhibits a lack of interdisciplinarity that uncovers the fundamental and wide-ranging forces that shape African language media. Thus, a disjuncture between language and media studies is noted since the two fields tend to be treated as unconnected and with trifling overlap (Mpofu and Mutasa 2014). As a result, linguists have largely studied African language newspapers by focusing on linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects at the cost of examining historical, economic and political factors that shape language choices and use in the press, and broadly the limited use of African languages in the press (see Mapara and Nyota 2007; Chirimuuta 2017).

On the other hand, media academics have focused on the historical development of the press from colonial to post-independence Zimbabwe (see Saunders 1999; Mukasa 2003), the journalistic styles and political economy of African language press (see Mabweazara 2006, 2007), and the press and démocratisation issues (see Moyo 2003; Mukasa 2003). Evidently, the outlined bodies of scholarship on language and media do not grapple with the politics of language exhibited by language composition in the press, or the national language policy and practices that influence the structure, underdevelopment and instability of African language press in Zimbabwe.

Therefore, this chapter is a response to the above-mentioned knowledge gap, since it probes the impact of language politics on the state, and the underdevelopment and unsustainability' of African language newspapers in Zimbabwe. The intersection of politics of language and the underdevelopment of the African language press has been under-studied. Yet, existing literature recognises the interface of language with economics, politics and technology, among others factors (see Spolsky 2004; Ricento 2006). This study assumes that language configuration in the press, in general, and in African language press, in particular, cannot be taken for granted because language reflects and has an impact on power structures; in essence, language use is part of symbolic politics (Pelinka 2007).

Existing scholarship shows that Zimbabwe is characteristically a multilingual nation that comprises several languages, including Ndebele, Tonga of Mudzi, Nambya, Tswana, Shangani, Sotho, Dombe, Xhosa, Venda, Tonga, Tshwawo, Katanga, Chibarwe, Sena, Dorna, Chikunda, Chewa and Shona (Ndhlovu 2006). However, there is complex and protracted competition between English and African languages from colonial Rhodesia to present-day Zimbabwe (Magwa 2015). There is also significant competition between dominant African languages -Shona and Ndebele - and minority languages (Nyika 2008; Ndhlovu 2009). Lastly, there is contestation within the Shona and Ndebele groups as colonial inventions that comprise dissimilar and competing language groups (Mpofu and Salawu 2019). In a nutshell, the politics of language in Zimbabwe is characterised by language competition, hegemony, marginalisation and exclusion.

Against this background, the study shows how language ideologies and practices in colonial and post-independence press, and the historical development, structure and management of African language press, are a creation of colonial and post-independence politics of language. Thus, the study investigates the sustainability of African language press in the context of historical, institutionalised and prevailing dynamics of language politics. The chapter is a significant contribution to the meagre scholarship on the impact of language politics on the underdevelopment, management and sustainability of African language press, and on African language media in general. This qualitative and interpretive study is principally a review article that is largely based on existing conceptual and empirical work in the areas of language and media. The chapter synthesises literature on colonial and post-independence language policy and practices with research on the structure and underdevelopment of the press in colonial and post-independence Zimbabwe.

Language questions in the press and the politics of language

Exposing language imbalances and addressing the language issue in the press, and subsequently analysing the structure, management and sustainability of African language press in present-day Zimbabwe, can be enhanced by mapping out the beginnings of the press and its growth from the colonial period to postindependence. Thus, to demonstrate the interplay between the politics of language and the underdevelopment of African language press, it is important to explore colonial and post-independence language policy, ideologies and practices. This background raises the point that the problems in the structure, management and sustainability of the African press are to some extent a reflection of

Zimbabwe’s colonial and post-independence language politics and ideologies that favour English at the expense of African languages and marginalise other African languages in favour of Shona and Ndebele.