DocuAfrica features short documentaries of personal accounts on experiences and desires from various African perspectives. The individual film projects derive from our linguistic work and draw on longstanding personal relationships and close friendships with speakers of marginalised African languages. DocuAfrica gives voice to neglected communities as well as to so far unheard members within these communities. It publicises and disseminates the concerns and visions of those fighting against discrimination and injustice on the African continent.
Matthias Brenzinger (University of the Free State) & Sheena Shah (TU Dortmund University & University of the Free State) |
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DocuAfrica 1
EbaPhuthi sive lesihle The beautiful Phuthi nation Composed & performed by Malebela Qaoka https://youtu.be/jigE-Vb-6X8 |
Malebela is a Phuthi herdsman and poetic activist from southern Lesotho. He composes poems in siPhuthi to raise awareness on the decline of his language and to mobilise the ebaPhuthi to take initiative in jointly fostering the use of their ancestral language. His poems reflect his experiences of living with his livestock in the mountains and they address a wide range of topics related to language, identity and wellbeing. Malebela’s poems are well received when he performs them at public events.
In the poem entitled EbaPhuthi sive lesihle, Malebela begins by apologising directly to siPhuthi for being a bad custodian of this ancestral language of his. He then reaches out to the traditional healers and elders for advice and help on how to prevent the Phuthi language and the nation of the ebaPhuthi from perishing. Towards the end of his poem, he stresses the importance of social media for the restoration of siPhuthi as the unifier of the community. Key in reaching this goal is the WhatsApp group Ekhaya le Baphuthi, which translates as 'home of the ebaPhuthi'. The members of the group discuss language matters on and in siPhuthi. Malebela assumes this group to be his home in which he and other ebaPhuthi not only advance their language skills but also foster and spread the use of siPhuthi as the medium of daily communication.
In the poem entitled EbaPhuthi sive lesihle, Malebela begins by apologising directly to siPhuthi for being a bad custodian of this ancestral language of his. He then reaches out to the traditional healers and elders for advice and help on how to prevent the Phuthi language and the nation of the ebaPhuthi from perishing. Towards the end of his poem, he stresses the importance of social media for the restoration of siPhuthi as the unifier of the community. Key in reaching this goal is the WhatsApp group Ekhaya le Baphuthi, which translates as 'home of the ebaPhuthi'. The members of the group discuss language matters on and in siPhuthi. Malebela assumes this group to be his home in which he and other ebaPhuthi not only advance their language skills but also foster and spread the use of siPhuthi as the medium of daily communication.
Seed funding for establishing DocuAfrica came from Linguapax International and the Government of Catalonia (Ministry for Foreign Action and European Union).