Occasional Paper No. 1 (Year 1998)
The Classification of Languages in Zambia and Malawi
Felix Banda

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate, generally, the classification of languages in Africa. The focus of the paper is the classification of languages in Zambia, but it also draws examples from Malawi, particularly regarding Chinyanja and Chitumbuka. The gist of the paper is to argue that the classifications of languages are inadequate because they do not show the relative relationship or affinity between the languages.

ISBN No.1-919799-02-8 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 2 (Year 1998)
Pratiques Langagieres et Esoterisme Linguistique Vaudou
Lebene Phillipe Bolouvi

In addition to the importance generally associated with language in African cultural practices, there exists for the linguist a question concerning the origin, the construction and functioning mechanisms of the linguistic materials used. Among the Fons (Ghana, Togo, Bénin), the communities that worship the original Voodoo use, in different versions, a language generally referred to as vodugbè or yè·ègbè, i.e. “the language of voodoo” or “voodoo language” which appears to be a “cocktail” of several dialects. Using a collection of materials of this language as the starting point, this paper attempts to a) identify the dialects which are part of this linguistic mixture, and b) describe their functioning. Three methods of “lexical mixing” have been outlined, namely “morphological camouflage”, “lexical substitution” and “periphrastic or metalinguistic differentiation”.

ISBN No. 1-919799-03-6 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 3 (Year 1998)
“New” African Immigration to South Africa
Antoine Bouillon

A survey of francophone African immigration into South Africa, in all its facets. It identifies the wide range of groupings and regional, socio-political and cultural identities. The study covers legal and illegal status, survival tactics and life projects as well as the resultant socializing processes.

The opening of South Africa to the rest of Africa, especially in terms of trade, saw increased immigration by Africans into South Africa. This coincided with the adoption by Europe of the Schengen Convention, making immigration to Europe more difficult.

ISBN No. 1-919799-04-4 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 4 (Year 1998)
The Deletion of the Article in Ivorian French
Silue Sassongo

This paper focuses on a linguistic variable (the deletion of the article) and some gender issues, but in a presumably pidginizing language, “Ivorian French”. The objective here is to show that, whatever the level of education of the speakers, the deleton of the article is essentially determined by gender-related factors and stylistic variation as well.

ISBN No. 1-919799-05-2 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 5 (Year 1998)
Ambivalent Adventure: Indigenization of Literacy Programmes in Africa
Francis Owino

This paper makes a brief survey of adult literacy programmes in Kenya and concludes that for African countries to enable their people to control their economic, social and political environment in the 21st century, literacy programmes accompanied by non-formal education must be delivered through the indigenous African languages, the languages through which our people relate to their natural and social environment, indeed to the entire universe, and must focus on the rural economic activities of the learners.

ISBN No. 1-919799-24-9 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 6 (Year 1999)
Perspectives and Dilemmas in the Study of African Development
Cleophas Lado

This contribution attempts to make explicit what an “African perspective” on development implies. In the discussion of the “African perspective”, various historical explanations of African underdevelopment are provided. The question of so-called “European superiority” in development as compared with, say, African development and why and how Europe developed this superiority so as to influence and dominate different parts of the world is discussed.

ISBN No. 1-919799-07-9 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 7 (Year 1998)
On the Production of Mathematical Knowledge in Central and Southern Africa
Paulus Gerdes

After some preliminary remarks on mathematical knowledge production and ethnomathematics, some early evidence of cultural activities with mathematical aspects and a short overview (counting and numeration systems, calculation games, algebraic algorithms in divination, geometrical explorations) are presented, followed by a few examples of the production of geometric-mathematical knowledge embedded in the Tonga decorated bag weaving (southern Mozambique), the Yombe weaved decorated mats (Lower Congo area), the Sotho mural decoration (Lesotho, South Africa), and the sand drawing (Eastern Angola) traditions.

ISBN No. 1-919799-27-3 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 8 (Year 1999)
The Challenge of Expanding the Lexicon of an African Language: The Case of Kiswahili in East Africa
Kitula King’ei

This paper explores the major obstacles encountered as well as some of the achievements made in the task of developing the technical and scientific domains of Kiswahili in an effort to expand and modernize the technical vocabularly of Kiswahili, whose importance has grown immensely as the East Africa’s national language and official language. It discusses the major techniques used in adopting, borrowing and standardizing the lexicon.

ISBN No. 1-919799-28-1 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No.9 (Year 2000)
The Call to African Renaissance through Xhosa Literature
W.M. Kwetana

The main focus of this paper is not on the explanation of African Renaissance as propounded by President Thabo Mbeki, but on the Xhosa authors that precede him in making the same call for rebirth and vigorous self-development, not only for amaXhosa but for all Africans in South Africa.

ISBN No. 1-919799-50-8 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 10 (Year 2001)
The Rainbow Nation: Can we Sing Together?
Bertie Neethling

This paper attempts to grapple with some critical and seemingly perplexing quandaries facing the post-apartheid government in South Africa. It suggests that only with a benign and less hostile immigration policy, augmented by the introduction of auxiliary measures such as effective border controls, the elimination of corruption from the immigration department and a sustained education of the public on the positive contribution of immigrants, among others, can South African effectively deal with the huge immigration problems and dilemmas it currently faces.

ISBN No. 1-919799-55-9 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 11 (Year 2001)
International Migration, Xenophobia and the Dilemma of the South African State
John K. Akokpari

International migration and illegal border crossing to South Africa have seen a dramatic increase since 1994, caused by economic recession and conflicts in other sub-Saharan African countries. However, with an economy grappling with internal demands, the South African government has responded to the influx of immigrants with a number of policy measures, including the granting of asylum, detention and deportations. At the same time the influx of immigrants has generated strong anti-foreigner sentiments among many South Africans, which creates a dilemma for a government facing skill shortages. South Africa needs to revisit its immigration regime to enhance its ability to deal with the immigration dilemma.

ISBN No. 1-919799-56-7 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 12 (Year 2001)
Zambians of Indian Origin: A History of Their Struggle for Survival in a New Homeland
B.J. Phiri

This occasional paper agues that Zambians of Indian origin, though considered members of the Zambian population, are constantly engaged in a struggle to get fully accepted as Zambians. Although their role in commerce and industry is appreciated, they are usually not fully welcome as political partners. Indeed, as Lord wrote many years ago, “Asiatics were strangers forcing themselves upon communities reluctant to receive them.” The position has hardly changed, forcing Indians in Zambia to respond to developments that threaten their trading and business interests as a pressure group.

ISBN No. 1-919799-57-5 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 13 (Year 2001)
Afro-Arab Interaction in the Indian Ocean: Social Consequences of the Dhow Trade
A. Sheriff

For several millennia regions around the western Indian Ocean have been experiencing close relations with the help of the monsoon dhows. They involved trade, including slave trade, intermarriage, and mutual social and cultural influences on their language, dress, cuisine, and even religion, but only rarely brought about political domination.

ISBN No. 1-919799-58-3 R25,00 / US$5 / £2

Occasional Paper No. 14 (Year 2002)
Accounting for Prenasals in Bantu Languages of Zone A
Gratien Gualbert Atindogbe

Bantu Languages of Zone A, unanimously called “proper” or “narrow” Bantu languages, are mostly found in the following five of the ten provinces of Cameroon: Central, East, Littoral, South and South West. This Zone comprises about 58 languages.

ISBN No. 1-919799-80-X R30,00 / US$6 / £3

Occasional Paper No. 15 (Year 2002)
A New Panlectal Medium in Nigeria: A Little but Significant Index
Tunde Ajiboye

The paper seeks to draw attention to a phenomenon in language development in Nigeria which tends to support the possibility of language barriers breaking down, not through English or any other exogenous medium, but through the resources provided by our own languages. The index towards the panlectal evolution of our languages is provided by research recently undertaken by the writer. On the basis of about 70 lexical and paralexical items, it was discovered that speakers of languages as far apart as Hausa, Yorùbá and Igbo could still “communicate” common realities of the society without recourse to their known primary linguistic loyalty. It is suggested that with words like “tòkunbó”, “kóbokòbo”, “ògá” and “apateshi” in use not only in the source language(s) but outside it (them), the way seems open to the possible eventual neutralizaton of linguistic cleavages. This trend, if sustained, will contribute to the view that communicative efficiency in a multilingual setting may not be the exclusive preserve of the “colonial” medium. Thirdly, the unifying language of tomorrow (e.g. “pinglish”) may well see evidence from this research as ready data for exploitation.

ISBN No. 1-919799-82-6 R30,00 / US$6 / £3

Occasional Paper No. 16 (YEAR 2003)
The English Language as a Culture Transmitter: The African Experience
Taiwo Soneye

ISBN No. 1-919799-91-5 R35,00 / US$7 / £4

Occasional Paper No. 17 (YEAR 2003)
Standardization and Harmonization of Cameroonian Languages
Gratien Gualbert Atindogbe

ISBN No. 1-919799—93-1 R35,00 / US$7 / £4

Occasional Paper No. 18 (Year 2003)
Kodi Demokalase Ingamele Mizu Muafilika? 
Silvester Ron Simango

This publication raises key and fundamental questions regarding the need for democratic institutionalization. It discusses the importance of an attentive civil society for the development and consolidation of democracy. The writer argues that for democracy to succeed, people need to be educated to appreciate diversity and tolerance.

ISBN No. 1-919799-24-X R35,00 / US$7 / £4

 

Occasional Paper No. 19 (Year 2003)
The Metamorphosis of the Historical Imagination in the African Novel: Ayi Kwei Armah’s Osiris Rising and Kemet (KMT)
Kwame Ayivor

ISBN No. 1-919799-98-2 R35,00 / US$7 / £4

 

Occasional Paper No. 21 (Year 2003)
The Phenomenon of Noun Class Systems:  The Case of Batonu.
Issa O. Sanusi

This paper defines and exemplifies the phenomenon o Noun Class Systems among African languages.  The author compares the use of suffixes, as noun class markers in Batonu, with the use of prefixes in other noun class languages like Auga, Igede, and Kiswahili.  Such comparison reveals that noun class markers can be employed for various grammatical functions in a given noun class language.

ISBN No. 1-919932-16-X R35,00 / US$7 / £4