Zimpapers Logo

Bernard Muchemwa in SYDNEY, Australia

ZIMBABWEANS here have started a language school to teach their children Shona and Ndebele.

Most of the children were either born here or they came at a very young age, neither speaking their mother vernacular nor English.

One city which has gone ahead in this vital programme is Sydney where two schools were opened for Saturday and Sunday.

The schools are housed at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Northmead and ZAOGA Church in Minto.

The coordinator for the schools Dr Thembi Dube and Mr Shepard Mashingaidze, Mrs Thembi Mpofu, and teachers Mr Dumi Mpofu, Mrs Jennifer Phiri and Mr Mutsapata, play a crucial role in establishing and ensuring that the schools are sustainable.

The schools are courtesy of an association of Zimbabweans formed to advance Zimbabwean interests in all spheres of life, including the passing down of Zimbabwean culture to young people of Zimbabwean heritage.

Speaking at the certification of the learners at the year end, Dr Dube, a linguistic lecturer at Macquarie University, outlined the importance of such an initiative.

“Zimbabwean families are scattered all over Sydney, and with the busy lifestyles they have, children rarely get to meet each other or make friends within the Zimbabwean community,” he said.

“I think making friendships with people who share similar cultural beliefs creates a solid friendship foundation as you’ll tend to be accountable to each other.

“That also creates a sense of belonging, which is apparently lacking in most of our children living in Australia.

The school, therefore, provides a platform for bringing our children together so they cannot only learn Ndebele and Shona, but also build those physical friendships with others from similar cultural backgrounds.

“This will help them have a real sense of belonging to the Zimbabwean community, and also provide them opportunities to use the languages.”

Dr Dube said she was motivated to make a difference in young people’s lives, be it academically or socially.

She finds that making time for teaching and mentoring of young people with the hope that they’ll make a difference to those people around them, be it family friends or the community at large, makes her happy.

This, however, is not a walk in the park due to lack of cooperation from the parents – inconsistency in bringing children for lessons, and helping with implementation of language use in the home set-up.

Mr Mashingaidze said the school was about teaching Ndebele and Shona, in particular basic skills for the purpose of communication, preservation of culture and identity.

This language school is important even to Zimbabwe as a nation. Zimbabwe will never lose its people through loss of language in Australia.

Speaking at the same event of certification of the learners, Dr Vera Williams Tetteh, the guest speaker, summarised the importance of the school with an encouraging and touching speech.

“The programme that has brought us here today is a very important one in the lives of your children, and one day these children will be thanking you for your foresight in making sure that they were not deprived of their language heritage,” she said.

“They will thank you also because knowing the language contributes insight for understanding and embracing cultural values and norms embedded within it.

“The thing is, whether we are on the continent or in the Diaspora, our languages are quite important. It is through language that we are able to define who we are in the world.

It is through our language that we can be who we are and bring some of these nuances into English.

“In Australia, English is the main language that we use outside the home and in the public arena, so we all agree that having English is important.

“But it is also important that we do not neglect the language of our ancestors that has been passed down to us as parents and to keep this legacy going in future generations.”

A lot of Zimbabwean parents take their children back home and this complicates their situation and embarrasses both parents and the children.

The school aims to correct this anomaly and also breaks the barrier of relatives in both divides. Dr Tetteh added: “We all know that in the Diaspora, learning the language heritage and passing it on to our children is a big challenge.

It is not like back home, where it is easier because children hear it being spoken and they speak it on a daily basis in a lot of places: on the streets, in the market, on the school playground and so on and so forth.

“In Australia, the story is different. Children mainly hear their language spoken at home. People in the neighbourhood do not speak the language. Their friends do not speak the language and they may not hear it anywhere else apart from the home.

“Around about high school age, some children will start getting embarrassed when their parents speak their language in the presence of their friends. Children want to be like their peers and use English at home.

“Now when they are spoken to in their language, they may respond in English.

A small tension starts to brew with parents not being aware that there is a plan in place for English to replace the home language!

“In situations where parents come from English speaking countries such as Zimbabwe with excellent command of English, this switch to English tends to happen quite often and quickly too.

“English speaking parents, led by their children’s seemingly lack of understanding, would tend to accommodate their children’s language needs by using the home language less and less, until eventually, English takes over as the main language between the parents and the children.

The children would then end up losing their ability to speak their language.”

The school also serves as a vehicle to overcome the problem of language heritage loss.

In a few years, the children will become young adults – Zimbabwean- Australian or whatever hybrid identity they choose to take on.

During this period, they would have a better understanding of their identity, and a better sense of who they are as people of African and Zimbabwean backgrounds living in Australia.

It is then that if they know and use their language they would appreciate what the parents have invested in them by bringing them to weekend school.

Dr Vera added that: “What if they have lost their language, by then? It will not be surprising to see some of the children blaming their parents for not teaching them or not forcing them to learn the language and use it at home.”