Artists must promote local languages

Lazarus Sauti

American author Oliver Wendell once said: “Language is the expression of culture. It is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.” Sharing the same views, an English author Samuel Johnson states, “Language is the dress of thought.”

This means that language is the most critical, indispensable and universal feature that characterise human communication in all societies.

Accordingly, artists in this country should use their works to promote local languages but sadly, there is a discrepancy in terms of the importance attached to national languages and foreign languages.

While artists like Bundu Boyz, Alick Macheso, Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mutukudzi owe much of their success to the use of local languages in their endeavours, the youthful urban brand of artists are alarmingly distant.

This new crop of artists depends on imitations from foreign artists and as a result, they are failing to gain an audience and at the same time local languages are suffering. Singing in foreign languages is also pushing local languages to the periphery.

The (local languages) remain very much in the background yet they are like a storage box for our cultures and we need to keep them alive to keep our culture alive.

Frankly, the country cannot keep its cultures alive when the carriers of those cultures are neglecting it and promoting foreign cultures through the use of foreign languages.

Using foreign languages is also working against local artists – since most artists imitate international stars, local audiences cannot easily relate to issues being conveyed in the lyrics and the arts practice.

Artists believe that if they present their works in English, they will be respected better; this is the chief reason why they have an offensive task of imitating foreign languages and accents. They still believe that it is important to speak and understand English better, both to be accepted socially and to have better opportunities.

“There is still this shyness about singing in local languages in Zimbabwe and that comes from the colonial system, but we need to overcome this and be proud of our cultural roots,” says jazz crooner Best Masinire.

Sharing the same views and writing in Parade, Owen Chirinda said: “Unlike in most societies… the Zimbabwean terrain has been faced by the language factor, especially in Harare, where rap is predominantly in English and rarely in Shona, Ndebele or any other local dialect.

“This renders the theme being discussed inaccessible to the uneducated, the accent hidden from the purely African mothers and fathers.”

Through indigenous languages, the country has a very rich cultural heritage and artists can be more appreciated if they use local languages. More so, to penetrate local markets, artists should sing in vernacular. Remember, it is difficult to make it big on the international scene without first pleasing a hungry audience back home.

To ensure that local languages are not dead and they are not boring, artists, since they command respect in communities, should view them as conditions of social acceptance in social settings. Also, the government should work with local arts organisation to create and promote local content.

Stakeholders in the education and arts sectors should use artists to promote the use of local languages. They should conscientise people that local languages are important to the development of this nation and one can make it in life through the use of indigenous languages.

If indigenous languages are not seen as languages that can bring riches to one’s life, no one will really care about whether they live or die. Consequently, indigenous languages need to be visible so that they can grow and really become languages of instruction – official languages.

Since artists are respected members of the society, they should use local languages to preserve the identity of the country.

The country needs to preserve this part of our identity to be able to develop.

Chirinda puts it clearly: “Charity begins at home. By easily choosing a local language, they [artists] can choose an audience, one that is purely local as most of them are failing to make it on the international scene.”