Languages: 
An IsiXhosa language expert in the Department of Administration and Hospitality Management, Sinoyolo Nokutywa, said the prescription of his drama book at Fort Hare University and WSU shows the success of the decade-long fight by the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) to promote the use of indigenous languages.
In UFH, The book, tittle: “Yho-o! Bandenzile”, has been prescribed at Honours level while WSU has prescribed it for first-year students.
“It brings me great joy to have my book prescribed as part of reading material especially because it promotes an indigenous language (isiXhosa),” said Nokutywa.
The book follows the story of a young, Ntombi, on her relentless quest for justice after being framed for murder in a town far away from home. After authorities find two dead bodies and a bag of weapons, Ntombi is forced to fight tooth-and-nail to clear her name.
The author describes the novel as a thrilling drama that seeks to highlight the failures of the justice system in fighting for women’s rights, especially women in disadvantaged areas.
He said, “African languages have been undermined and taken for granted in the field of literature, as a result our people have been fixated on novels that tell western stories in a western manner. It is up to us as owners of that language to promote and preserve our own languages as time goes.”
In 2017, PanSALB launched the decade language activism campaign: “International Decade of African Languages,” aimed at encouraging South Africans to speak and live their languages and create a more multilingual society.
The campaign is commemorated annually on the 21st of February with a variety of themes that address unique challenges that are faced by all language groups in South Africa.
In 2022, WSU and PanSALB joined forces to promote sign language to be considered an official language and be infused in the process of the country’s development to include all nations at Efata School for the Blind and Deaf, in Umtata.
The author said, “I have been vested in many different efforts to foster the use of indigenous languages since the publishing of my book in 2015, poetry has been one of those venture.”
Nokutywa also published a book in 2017 titled: “Lisiko Xa Kutheni?” which explores the customs “ukungenwa” (the custom whereby a widowed woman automatically becomes her brother-in-law’s wife) in the democratic era.
He said, “This year I’m looking at publishing two books, one is the poetry book with my students and the other a drama focusing on the complications of being homosexual in the royal house.”
By Ongezwa Sigodi
