Katrina Jacob
The Namibian National Association of the Deaf is inundated with misleading, false and defamatory information about Namibian sign language training, and Sign Language interpreters.
The chairperson of the NNAD, Beata Armas is pleading with the public to first request for recommendations from NNAD before they enrol with any institution claiming to offer sign language training. She further urged the public to stay away from individuals offering sign language training and charging exorbitant fees.
“There are non-recommended institutions such as NSL Institute, and Namibian College of Interpreting. Please stay away from these two. There is no working relation between us and them and they do not want to heed our request to work together, and have reputable deaf persons lead the training,” she said.
The association recommends that the Social Security Commission and the Business and Intellectual Property Authority (Bipa) also enquire from them (NNAD) on issues regarding sign language registration as a business.
Speaking at the press briefing last week, the vice chairperson of NNAD, Peter Uushona, called out Namibian social media influencer Herman ‘King Gucci’ Malukolo who makes humorous fake sign language videos to stop producing them and to remove them from all social media.
“King Gucci, we are thus requesting that you cease pretending to use Namibian sign language as it affects us the real users and it’s punishable. Our culture evolves around sign language, and we are striving to have it legally recognised as an indigenous language,” he stressed.
Ekumbatha Iyo Portal News’ Malukolo said there was a case of defamation of character opened by NNAD and he cleared it up with his lawyers. He said NNAD does not understand the thin line between comedy and humiliating the deaf people.
“Our videos are fair comedy. They are not meant to defame or shame the deaf people. NNAD says they want to get involved and sign correctly in our videos. That won’t work because the sign language interpreter in the video is a character to represent our comedy not to defame anyone. Also, we can not remove our videos online, they are not only on our pages but on a lot of people’s social media pages that they do not even know, how are we going to do that?” he questioned. Malukolo said their intentions are pure, and that’s the nature of their content. While the NNAD applauds those who are truly helping them in making services accessible through legitimate interpreting and training, they say there are institutions and individuals who are profit driven and as such they have encroached way too deep on the efforts to train qualified interpreters who are guided by the purpose of service provisions and accessibility.
The NNAD offers basic sign language training at three levels, which, upon successful completion, one can enroll with the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) for a diploma in Sign Language Interpretations.
She added, the NNAD, through the Namibian Training Authority (NTA), has a two year programme for Sign Language Interpreter Training and Professionalisation. This project aims to capacitate the existing sign language interpreters and help the new ones into the profession.
Meanwhile, the founder and CEO of National Sign Language Institute of Namibia, Linea Kapofi said she has always prided herself in uniting people despite their differences.
“As a teacher, I’ve been alongside deaf children and adults and have seen the impact that society has in excluding deaf Namibians, especially in rooms full of opportunities. In order to become a true representation of what I believe, I saw it upon myself to bring these communities together by bridging the gap of communication to unite them through sign language.”
Kapofi said she received training in Namibian sign language from the University of Namibia under the Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) in Education programme as well as a two week interpreting training in October 2021, of which NNAD was the organiser.
“Our classes are not solely conducted by me, as I am merely the facilitator of the workshops. It is important that sign language be taught by the daily users of the language, thus I am fortunate to have a team that supports NSLI when conducting workshops. The National Sign Language Institute is a registered institution created for the sole purpose of uniting communities to work together and better provide services to the deaf community. I believe that if we work together, we can create spaces for all Namibians to receive the necessary resources to support create the lives they want,” said Kapofi.
Efforts to reach College of Interpreters for comments before print proved futile.
*Katrina Jacob is an information officer for the MICT in the Khomas region.