WINDHOEK- The Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management (Nipam) together with the University of Namibia (Unam) yesterday launched the long-awaited Indigenous Language Initiative.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Joël Kaapanda already in 2013 tasked Unam through its Department of Language and Literature Studies to develop more indigenous languages courses to facilitate translations and dissemination of information through the print and electronic media.
The initiative is a culmination of consultations by Nipam with Unam, NIED, NTA and the Polytechnic of Namibia during which it was discovered that media personnel had big challenges when it came to communicating news from English into indigenous languages and vice versa.
Professor Jairos Kangira, Head of the Department of Languages and Literature Studies at Unam, said the initiative is a platform for the recognition of community language varieties, thereby working towards saving some endangered indigenous languages.
“We are of the philosophy that promoting the use of indigenous languages on its own is an indication of accepting people’s distinctive heritages and above all accepting people as they are,” Kangira said.
He said it is through the mother tongue that a child begins to understand phenomena around him or her.
“It is therefore important that mother tongues are preserved and promoted in all communities.”
Canadian-born Judy Judge, who is a language consultant, said over the past three years she compiled a multilingual translator.
The translator is an instrument like a calendar whereby a word is translated into many other mother tongues having the same meaning.
Judge said the translator is used in various schools to accelerate and improve English proficiency.
“What I have learned through my work in Namibia is that I can help Namibians to accelerate their English by using their mother tongue, so I compare English to mother tongues but along the way I’ve come to recognise that it can be used with all the different languages,” she said.
Nipam’s Executive Director Professor Joseph Diescho said the institution is currently hard at work to prepare a glossary and select translators from various indigenous language groups to prepare them to properly translate indigenous languages simultaneously at national gatherings.
Diescho said that towards the end of 2015 Namibia will have a multilingual Namibian dictionary spearheaded by Nipam.
“If we want to transform the public service we need to start with their own needs. Part of this training will go with the induction of members of parliament and Cabinet so that they have material to use when consulting or addressing indigenous communities anywhere in the country,” he said.
Once the centre is up and running, training workshops will be offered to improve and sharpen translation skills and expose the attendees to various translation techniques.
Digital oral training will also make making information available to the community and dictionaries and thesauruses will be developed for indigenous languages in different fields of study like medicine, agriculture, law, science, economics and accounting, and for many more uses.
The Namibian Language Policy of 2003 stipulates that indigenous languages should be strengthened by linguistic development through, amongst others, standardisation and the coining of new words.
By Fifi Rhodes