*The effects of language marginalisation to it’s speakers.

“TjiKalanga is a dead language,” said a retired teacher who once taught at different schools in Mangwe which includes Kwite and Hobodo primary schools.

The most amaizing thing is that she could speak fluent Kalanga, yet she kept saying Kalanga must benot be taught because it has no impact at all in our lives.

She boasted that TjiKalanga has no Teachers, no content and no resources. She even alleged that all the Kalanga teachers who were enrolled at Colleges had not performed well in their ‘O’ Levels, hence not qualified to teach in Zimbabwe.

I am so disappointed as a TjiKalanga unemployed teacher to hear such news from an elder who can speak TjiKalanga yet she is against the language .

_Mhembgwe Ludzi._ This proverb says it runs in the family like father like son like mother like daughter. l wonder what her children think about the language. She must have taught them not to dare speak or learn TjiKalanga.

If we continue looking down upon ourselves nobody is going to look at us.

by Shelton K. Lubimbi