Issue 2 (JSHSS Vol. 2)

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    Cacophony in unison: Translation strategies in achieving ‘singability’ in the Silozi and Citonga versions of the Zambian National Anthem
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Wakumelo, Mildred N.
    This paper examines the translation strategies that were employed in the translation of the Zambian national anthem from English into two Zambian languages, Silozi and Citonga. The paper employs a comparative approach in an attempt to show that, in the translation of the national anthem into the two languages,the translators used various strategies in order to achieve ‘singability’ in the translated versions. Some of these strategies have compromised the source meanings of the national anthem to the extent that even if the singers of the three versions are singing the same tune, the semantic content in the different versions of the national anthem is not always the same.
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    Rhetoric as epistemology of resistance
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Salazar, Philipe-Joseph
    There is deep, cultural divide between rhetoric studies in Continental Europe and in the United States, and this divide offers an opportunity to reflect on rhetoric as an epistemology of power politics. When I delivered the 12th Kenneth Burke Lecture in Rhetoric at Penn State, in 2010, I found myself standing on the great divide between North American rhetoric culture and my own¹. I had to make a confession to the audience: I had hardly read anything by Kenneth Burke, possibly the most important scholar in rhetoric as a political espistmology on the other side of the Acheron – except his essay on Hitler’s rhetoric (1939), which I had found, at the time, politically naïve and, in any event, far less prescient than Curzio Malparte’s genial Technique ducoup d’état (1931). But naivety is a matter of context, and I may have been the naive one.
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    Socio-economic determinants of obesity of Namibian women in the reproductive age group: A binary logistic regression model
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Pazvakawambwa, Lillian; Tjipueja, Werner
    Obesity leads to reduced lifer expectancy, increased likelihood of a wide range of diseases Obesity also lowers self-esteem and has negative consequences on the cognitive and social development of a person. World-wide, obesity is a leading yet preventable cause of death and its prevalence both in children and adults is increasing day by day. Compared to men, women have a relatively higher burden of disease attributable to overweight and obesity. This paper establishes the socio-economic factors influencing obesity in women in Namibia using logistic regression. The outcome variable was Obesity (1 for Obese, 0 for Not obese). The independent variables included the total number of children ever born to the woman, her place of residence; current age of the woman, her highest level of education, her economic status, contraceptive use, smoking habits, age of the woman at first birth, place of residence, region, and religion. Results indicate that in Namibia, obesity of a woman is associated with the age of the woman, her highest level of education, her economic status, contraceptive use, smoking habits, and the age of the woman at first birth. Policy and intervention programs to reduce obesity should focus on encouraging women to delay onset of child-bearing, to embark on lifelong regular exercise and diet programs. Even though smoking was inversely related to obesity, women should be encouraged to stop smoking because of its other devastating health effects.
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    The educational consequences of teenage pregnancy in the Kavango Region
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Nekongo-Nielsen, Haaveshe; Mbukusa, Nchindo R.
    In this paper the authors discuss the pregnancy prevalence among learners in the Kavango region. The paper is an extract from a national study on dropout which collected data from three (3) regions, namely; Kavango, Kunene and Omaheke. While the dropout study was conducted in three regions with the highest dropout rate in the country, the findings on teenage pregnancy reported in this article are from the Kavango region only. The Kavango region, in addition to having higher dropout rates is also one of the regions with higher incidences of teenage pregnancy in the country. Through interviewing dropout learners and school principals as well as focus group discussions with teachers at 58 schools in the Kavango region the study found that a high number of female learners drop out of school due to pregnancy. Out of the one hundred and thirty one (131) learners interviewed, of which seventy two (72) were female, sixty (60) dropped out because of pregnancy, which means 83% of all female dropout cases was due to pregnancy. The dynamics and reasons why these learners became pregnant were as diverse as the schools visited. Based on the findings it is recommended that a good strategy for reducing pregnancy in the region requires the collaboration of community leaders, parents and school authorities.
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    A gendered analysis of the ‘Decade of Crisis’ in Virginia Phiri’s Highway queen
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Muwati, Itai; Gambahaya, Zifikile; Chabata, Emmanuel
    The article is an exegesis of the discursive apotheosis of motherhood/ mothering in Highway Queen (2011). It particularly analyses the narrative’s manipulation of motherhood as a vital and strategic life-support resource in a context that, in some scholarly circles, has come to be known as the ‘decade of crisis’ in Zimbabwe. That the mother character is identified with both the search for and the application of, in a pragmatic manner, life-giving values, fi rmly locates her as the “center of life, the magnet that holds the social cosmos intact and alive” (Sofola as cited in Hudson-Weems, 1993, p. xviii). This construction of motherhood resonates with the place, status and role of the African mother in antiquity where she has always been an important part of the equation of life. Remarkably, Highway Queen accomplishes an ingenious role-reversal within Zimbabwe’s literary landscape where male characters have been depicted as exclusive avatars of agency in more tempestuous and tranquil situations alike, while women are forced to contend with the victim tag in either context. Highway Queen propagates a topsy-turvy world in which the woman is invested with more agency in a situation that threatens both genders and would normally be for the man to conquer.
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    The marginalised in post-independence Zimbabwe in selected stories in Memory Chirere’s short story anthology Somewhere in this country
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Mupondi, Aaron
    Memory Chirere is one of the contemporary Zimbabwean writers who uses the short story genre as a mode of expression. In his fi rst collection of short stories in English under one book, Somewhere in this Country (2006), Chirere focuses on the marginalised members of society in their day-to-day struggles for survival in post-independence Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s masses leading miserable lives, years after independence which was obtained in 1980, refl ects that the black leaders failed to fulfi ll their erstwhile promises of better days to the majority. At the centre of each of the stories selected to be studied in this article, “Suburb”, “An Old Man”, “Maize” and “Sitting Carelessly” is the writer’s touching compassion for the underprivileged members of society such as squatters, street kids, land-hungry peasants and displaced farm workers respectively. However, in “Maize” the black government is applauded for alleviating the situation of peasants by giving them land under the recent land reform programme. Hence, notable in Chirere’s criticism of society and its institutions is his objectivity.
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    Out of Action: By Chris Cooks. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South Publishers 1999; pp 278.
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Makombe, Tafirenyika
    Chris Cocks’ (2008) Out of action is the sequel to his (1988) Fireforce – one man’s war in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. In Fireforce the writer narrates his life in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. In Out of action the twenty-one year old Cocks explains his double role as civilian and police reservist when he writes: “A few months before I had been Lance-Corporal Cocks. Now I was Police Reservist Cocks, attempting to begin a civilian career in agriculture” (Cocks, 2008, p. 24). In reality, however, there is no distinction between the two roles as a lance-corporal and police reservist because the Rhodesian police was militarised. In the army Cocks was a stick leader while in the police he is leader of a Police Anti-Terrorist Unit (PATU). The PATU was a paramilitary specialist unit in the British South African Police (BSAP) while a stick was a four to six-man unit or battle group in the Rhodesian Army. For both units their call was to respond to guerrilla sightings and engage them in combat.
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    We need new names: By NoViolet Bulawayo. London: Reagan Arthur Books, 2013; pp 290.
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Muganiwa, Josephine
    The novel captures the Diaspora experience of a young girl, Darling Nonkululeko Nkala, after experiencing hardships in the Zimbabwean economic meltdown. It is therefore a critique of moving to the Diaspora as a solution to challenges in one’s country. Darling constantly refers to the pain of missing home but stuck in the knowledge that she can never return because she has become an illegal immigrant in America. Once she visits ‘home’ she will not be allowed to come back as her papers are not in order. What intensifies the pain is the misunderstanding by those that remain in the troubled country that those in America are sitting pretty, with no worries at all. This pushes aunt Faustina and others to work double shifts so that they can send money home. The chapter “How they lived” fully captures the experience of those in the Diaspora from third world countries which gives the book a universal feel. Bulawayo writes: And the jobs we worked, Jesus- Jesus – Jesus, the jobs we worked. Low paying jobs. Back breaking jobs. Jobs that gnawed at the bones of our dignity, devoured the meat, tongued the marrow. We took scalding irons and ironed our pride fl at. We cleaned toilets. We picked tobacco and fruit under the boiling sun until we hung our tongues and panted like lost hounds. We butchered animals, slit throats, drained blood. We worked with dangerous machines, holding our breaths like crocodiles under water, our minds on the money and never on our lives. We swallowed every pain like a bitter pill, drank every fear like a love portion, and we worked and worked Every two weeks we got our paychecks and sent monies back home by Western Union and MoneyGram. We bought food and clothes for the families left behind; we paid school fees for the little ones. We got messages that said Hunger, that said Help, that said Kunzima, and we sent money. When we were asked, You guys work so hard, why do you work so hard? We smiled (We Need New Names, p. 244).
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    Establishing a university records management programme: A case study of the University of Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Matangira, Violet; Katjiveri-Tjiuoro, Mercia; Lukileni, Ndahambelela H.
    Records management is crucial to all organizations including universities. Unless records are managed efficiently, it is not possible to conduct business effectively, and to account for what has happened in the past or to make good decisions about the future. The University of Namibia (UNAM) records management project reported in this article was carried out on the notion that records need to be systematically and continuously managed throughout their life-cycle in an integrated manner. The management of institutional records throughout their life cycle is necessary in order to support strategic business objectives of the university and to preserve corporate memory. The project was an attempt to formalize record-keeping at the university in accordance with international archival standards. Starting with information gathering, the project followed some stages which included the legal and regulatory framework, resources and staffing. The investigation also covered vital functions of the university including finance, human resources, student affairs and the executive. The information gathered using the survey method paved way for the implementation of the records management programme at the university.
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    A socio-cultural and linguistic analysis of postcolonial christian naming practices in Zimbabwe
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Mashiri, Pedzisai; Chabata, Emmanuel; Chitando, Ezra
    The study of African personal names has interested a number of researchers from diverse fields. Focus on Christian beliefs in the postcolonial period and on the linguistic forms and the meanings communicated through these forms provides revealing insights to the relationship between language use and its sociocultural context, itself the concern of anthroponomastics. Zimbabwe’s political independence in 1980 represented a more robust Christian tradition and provided a framework for linguistic freedom that resulted in dynamic and creative ways of expressing Christian faith. Naming assumed exciting dimensions. The present study reveals the revitalisation of the traditional culture where naming is a specific, conscious and deliberate linguistic act intimately linked with values, traditions, hopes, fears and events in people’s lives. The data discussed in this article shows how black Zimbabwean parents communicate messages reflecting these dispositions through names that they create for their children in insightful, inventive and systematic ways in the postcolonial period.
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    Land and racial domination in Zimbabwe: An African-centred critical analysis of selected post-2000 Zimbabwean-authored novels
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Magosvongwe, Ruby; Nyamande, Abner
    The article makes an African-centred analysis selected post-2000 Zimbabwean authored novels that narrativise the land experiences in the country. The African-led land occupations of white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe from the late 1990s have necessitated the study and revisiting of the land question in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). The process that has been defended by the Government as part of the necessary land redistribution exercise to rectify colonial land injustices shows that the land question is as potent now as it was at the inception of colonial settlements. Zimbabwe’s land history has remained consistently contentious because land is the life-blood of the people’s livelihoods, black and white. For this reason, the process and aftermath of the occupations have rocked racial relations in the country and internationally. The controversies arising from the land occupations have culminated in the socio-economic and political instability of the country, and threaten to spill into and destabilise the SADC countries as well. It is against this backdrop that the article makes an African-centred analysis of selected post-2000 Zimbabwean-authored novels that variously respond to Zimbabwean land issues characterising the tumultuous post-2000 period. The view presented here is that literature defines the epicentre of the struggle of ideas, that partially but significantly, define what Zimbabwe is, including how and where she wants to go. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not (2006); Eric Harrison’s Jambanja (2006); John Eppel’s Absent: The English Teacher (2009) and Mashingaidze Gomo’s A Fine Madness (2010) are analysed in this light. The African-centred approach utilised in this chapter is significant in locating both texts and authors within the background that informs their fictional representations. The extent to which texts successfully balance their explorations of land and racial identity and help to influence society to rise above parochial partisan approaches, and encourage people to confront some of Zimbabwe’s land challenges would be worth noting.
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    Remembering or re-membering? Life-writing and the politics of narration in Morgan Tsvangirai’s autobiography At the deep end (2011)
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Kangira, Jairos; Moyo, Thamsanqa; Gonye, Jairos; Hlongwana, James
    Morgan Tsvangirai’s autobiography is a construction of both personal and national identities from the 1960s up to 2011. In doing that the autobiography At the Deep End reshapes events from the colonial up to the period of Zimbabwe’s crisis with a view to staking a specifi c, deliberate identity that privileges the self as more sinned against than sinning. This paper interrogates Tsvangirai’s autobiography so as to unpack the conspicuous presences and absences and the motive of such narration. The paper argues that the politics of narration in the book is motivated by the reality of his being a leader of the opposition party in Zimbabwe where he has faced a lot of accusations about his history and leadership qualities. Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was often branded as a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU PF). We argue that Tsvangirai’s analysis of events is compromised by his view of the self as a possible leader in Zimbabwe. Out of the possible selves generated by his shifty experiences, he privileges the political identity in order to create an aura of relevance in the rugged political terrain of Zimbabwe. Thus the autobiography is constructed in a way that shows remembrance and re-membering of historical accounts.
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    Inflation and stock market development in Namibia: Evidence from co-integration and error correction modelling
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Kaakunga, Esau K.; Matongela, Albert M.
    The current study looks at the relationship between infl ation and stock market development in Namibia using modern time series econometric techniques that of co-integration and error correction modelling. The main results in this paper indicate that real gross domestic product promote stock market development in Namibia. More particularly, changes in gross domestic product impacts positively on market capitalization and the value of domestic shares traded. The results also indicate that there is a relationship between infl ation and market capitalization and value of domestic shares traded. However, this relationship is insignifi cant. The foregoing implies that Namibia should place emphasis on the policies that promote gross domestic product, because this is benefi cial for the development of the stock market. Although the relationship between stock market development indicators and infl ation is insignifi cant, there is a need for the country to continue pursuing monetary policy that ensures a low and stable infl ation. This is important because low and stable infl ation encourages stock market activities. In other words, it is important for monetary policy to remain fi rm and conducive in future for the betterment of sound and sustainable development of the stock market and general economic activities.
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    A linguistic study of reduplication in Sesotho
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Ekanjume-Ilongo, Beatrice
    The concept of reduplication has attracted interest from many linguists in recent years. This is because reduplication is an important phenomenon in languages. Although some linguists have tried to look at reduplication in Sesotho, its role and function in this language has been neglected. This paper looks at the usage of reduplication and its role in the enrichment of Sesotho. The paper reveals that Sesotho makes use of partial and complete reduplication with various functions such as: showing plurality, emphasis, diminutives, echoic expressions, completeness, originality, intensity, frequency, among others. Another interesting fact in this paper is that Sesotho, like English (Ghomeshi et al., 2004, p. 308) has contrastive reduplication where some speakers use it to contrast one concept from others. In addition, the paper reveals that reduplication in Sesotho can be categorized into prototypical meaning, literal meaning, intensifi ed meaning and value-added meaning.
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    Land use practices in Caprivi’s changing political environment
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Colpaert, Alfred; Matengu, Keneth K.; Polojarvi, Katja
    This paper presents an account of developments that led to present land use practices in the eastern parts of Caprivi and the eff ects these practices have on the ecosystem. In the pre-colonial period (–1890), the early inhabitants of east of the Kwando River were hunters and gatherers. Climatic and hydrological conditions enabled the fi rst Bantu communities to practice settled subsistence agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries, a time when the Lozi and the Kololo kings ruled this area. Its location between perennial rivers made eastern parts of Caprivi good and easily defensible grazing area. Peripheral location and prevalence of malaria and cattle diseases made the area less tempting for European and South African farmers, but also made the colonial administration of east of the Kwando River diffi cult for Germany 1890–1915 and South Africa 1915–1990. The paper reviews published works and government documents, which is combined with fi eld observations and aerial photos of the area. In particular, our analysis focuses on Salambala conservancy because of its successes and many controversies. The analysis shows that indeed, enactments of law did not address land use in the manner that would have led to fulfi lment of the needs of subsistence farmers until Namibia’s independence in 1990. Nowadays, almost the whole area is still intensively used for small-scale subsistence farming and agricultural practices have remained traditional. The article describes the eff orts of previous administrations and outlines several factors that accounts for present-day land use practices. This account concludes that intensifi cation of grazing and clearing
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    “In my work there is a constant conversation between the earth, nature and the sky:” Conversations inside and outside of conversations in Chenjerai Hove’s Ancestors
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Chirere, Memory
    Chenjerai Hove’s novel of 1996 called Ancestors is intriguing because of its wide variety of methods of narrating that operate side by side in one novel. Sometimes the story is told by a realistic male character called Mucha. He is the immediate and major narrator who tells us his story and the story of his family from a personal and realist point of view. At another level, Mucha narrates the family story from the point of view and spiritual instruction of Miriro and to a less extent, Tariro. Then the reader fi nds out that Miriro, who remained deaf and dumb throughout her short life occasionally tells us directly from the grave about what she ‘heard’ during her lifetime! She even remembers the sounds of birds and animals, people’s songs and conversations. Miriro remembers all the things that are normally not available to those who are deaf and dumb. Therefore, a mathematical and accurate reading of this novel by one of Zimbabwe’s internationally acclaimed writers is not quite possible. To read it is an exercise akin only to moving towards an estimation of meanings.
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    Mukwahepo: Woman, soldier, mother: As told to Ellen Ndeshi Namhila. Windhoek: University of Namibia Press, 2013; pp 141.
    (University of Namibia, 2013) Akawa, Martha
    Unlike many stories that deal with high ranking and public fi gures, Mukwahepo is a book about a humble and unknown personality who made outstanding and remarkable contributions to the liberation of Namibia, popularly called The Land of the Brave. Mukwahepo is an ordinary woman who performed extraordinary duties for her country. This book is a clear testimony that the contributions, especially those made by women, did not have to be ambassadorial or political.