New Kalanga writers sought

by Ngonile Mtasa —

THE secretary for Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association, Mr Tshidzana Malaba, says following the sourcing of US$9 million by the government towards the production of books for minority languages, they have started scouting for young writers to write Kalanga books and literature.

Last year the ministry of Education sourced US$9 million for the production of marginalised language reading material and Mr Malaba said they had embarked on a vigorous scouting of  potential Kalanga language writers.

“The Kalangas are nowhere in the history books of the current education curriculum. It’s therefore our role as language speakers to document our history and culture with speed considering that the language has been marginalised before and during colonial era. We therefore have very few people remaining who can tell us
about our past,” he said.

Mr Malaba said the Kalangas, appreciated that the Government listened to their call more seriously in 2002 on the teaching of the language, which has been cemented by the Education Transition Fund promising to help in printing written work.

“Should it come it will be definitely a boost to all the languages in this country. We have been encouraging our writers over the years to write and more literature is coming up,” he said.