Language Vernacular Discourse and Nationalisms 1St Ed Edition Finex Ndhlovu Full Chapter
Language Vernacular Discourse and Nationalisms 1St Ed Edition Finex Ndhlovu Full Chapter
Language,
Vernacular Discourse
and Nationalisms
Uncovering the Myths of
Transnational Worlds
Finex Ndhlovu
Linguistics
University of New England
Armidale, NSW, Australia
The roots of this book lie in three stories about my personal encounter
with how perceived identities of non-desired ‘Others’ are imagined and
constructed in everyday casual conversations. The first story is this. A
few years ago, I visited my aunt, umalumekazi (the wife of my moth-
er’s late brother). She had just lost one of her daughters, so I had gone
there to extend my condolences. My aunt and I then spoke about sev-
eral issues, one of which was about her other children who were not
at home at the time. As I had not met them for a long time, I asked
curiously about the whereabouts of all my cousins, including four boys,
one of whom had been with me in primary school several years back.
She told me about the whereabouts of three of her boys—two were
in South Africa, and the other one was said to be in the local city of
Bulawayo. The only boy she skipped mentioning was the one I went to
school with. So, I reminded my aunt that she had not told me where
my primary school classmate was. She looked at me with a smile and
said in the Ndebele language ‘Ah! Ungatshona ubuza lowo? Angithi lowo
usenguPhiri!’ (Ah! Why would you bother asking about that one? Isn’t
he now a Mr. Phiri!) I could not understand why my aunt called her
vii
viii Preface
son ‘Phiri’—because this was not his real name. She explained further,
followed by a somewhat sarcastic laughter: ‘Ukhonapha eHarare kodwa
uvele kasalugxobi ekhaya. Yikho nje ngisithi usenguPhiri’ (He is right here
in Harare, but he never sets his foot home anymore. This is why I said
he is now a Mr. Phiri!) We both laughed about it.
The surname ‘Phiri’ is common in Malawi and Zambia, and most
people who migrated to Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) in the 1950s to
take on menial jobs on farms and in mines used this surname. Because
they never had rural homes in Zimbabwe, most such people stayed at
the mine and farm compounds and city townships, even during the fes-
tive holidays, such as Christmas, when locals often travel to their rural
homes to catch up with family and friends. The surname Phiri, then,
became a derogatory label or identity marker, not only for people orig-
inally from Zambia and Malawi, but also for local Zimbabwean people
who, upon gaining employment in the cities, chose to stay there and
lost ties with their rural roots. It was precisely why my aunt called her
son ‘Mr. Phiri’; he had stopped coming home several years ago.
The second story happened sometime in 2011 when I visited
my elder brother’s daughters who live in Harare, the capital city of
Zimbabwe. They are both married—the older sister resides in the sub-
urb of Kuwadzana and the younger in Kambuzuma. They, however,
always have regular contact with each other at community events such
as church services, weddings and funeral vigils. So, on my visit in 2011,
I went to Kuwadzana where efforts were made to call the younger sister
to come over and greet me as I had not met her in a very long time. Her
mobile phone kept on going straight to voicemail, prompting the elder
sister to try and figure out what the problem could have been. Speaking
in the local Ndebele language, she provided the following explanation
for why her younger sister’s mobile phone was not being answered:
speak very well. As the conversation progressed, it came to light that she
was in a similar situation as me because she couldn’t speak or under-
stand the two local languages. When I asked her whether she could
speak either Setswana or Sepedi, she replied with a rather sarcastic tone
expressing her frustration about being perceived as a foreigner by the
majority of people in Pretoria. This is what she said: ‘No, I don’t speak
any of these languages and I don’t want to speak them because these people
think that we are foreigners when in fact, we are all South Africans.’ The
question here is: How does a black South African person get labelled
as a foreigner by fellow black South Africans? In what ways do the
myths of foreignness, belonging and indigeneity both defy and coincide
with normatively defined nation-state-centric identity imaginings? Is it
still tenable to frame notions of belonging on language-based identity
imaginings inherited from colonial and apartheid social engineering
policies of separate existence and development of each people?
Together, these three stories sowed the seeds that got me thinking
about the ways we talk about each other, and the cultural and politi-
cal discourses we use to describe others. As stories such as these gain
resonance beyond the micro-social settings of local communities and
get expressed and acted upon at national and international levels, their
effects become even more pervasive. I thought of the role of ‘small talk’
in shaping popular thinking about what it means to be an insider or
an outsider in the context of the well-known migration histories across
current national borders. The identity question and the associated
meanings of belonging are even more complex when identity markers
normally reserved for foreigners are sarcastically used to describe locals
who would have transgressed local traditional norms and expectations
about what it means to belong and behave—like an indigene and not
like a foreigner—or those who happen to speak a different language.
Language, Vernacular Discourse and Nationalisms extends these three
stories and uses them as an entry point in reading new meanings into
contemporary identity debates and imaginings at a global scale. The
book addresses key issues and cross-cutting themes around the evolu-
tion of discursive practices, identity narratives and vocabularies of race,
culture, ethnicity and belonging that tend to be framed in ways that
Preface xi
xiii
xiv Acknowledgements
which I have built my academic career. In those early days, I also had
the good fortune of being taught introductory sociolinguistics by Prof.
Juliet Thondhlana. To Juliet, I also say thank you for those passionate
and well-articulated lectures that still linger vividly in my memory.
In the years that followed my completion of Honours and postgrad-
uate studies, I was appointed to the academic position of lecturer in the
Department of African Languages and Culture at the Midlands State
University (MSU). It was at MSU that my budding academic interests
in language and society studies blossomed as I taught sociolinguistics
units in both the B.A. Honours and B.A. General Degree programmes.
To all my former colleagues and students at MSU, I say thank you for
your collegiality and the challenging questions that we debated together.
Starting from 2005 to the present and, being based in Australia, I have
received tremendous support and mentoring from many senior aca-
demic colleagues: first while at Monash University (where I did my
Ph.D.), then at Victoria University (where I was a postdoctoral research
fellow for three years) and presently at the University of New England
(where I now hold a senior academic position). I am exceedingly grate-
ful to all three institutions for their various research grant schemes and
other forms of academic support that have facilitated the flourishing
of my academic work in language and society studies. To Dr. Sophia
Waters and all my past and current Ph.D. students, thank you for
always asking me about my next book even before the one I am work-
ing on is not yet out. I am especially grateful to the following former
Ph.D. students of mine for challenging my thinking around the issues
discussed in this book: Dr. Thoai Ton, Dr. Jesta Masuku, Dr. Sura Alani
and Dr. Arvind Vijaykumar Iyengar.
To Prof. Lewis Bizo, Head of the School of Behavioural, Cognitive
and Social Sciences at the University of New England, and Assoc. Prof.
Debra Dunstan, Deputy Head of the same School, I say thank you
so much for all your support and encouragement. You both very gen-
erously supported my request to spend four months at the Graduate
Center, City University of New York (CUNY), which enabled me to
finalise the manuscript for this book. I also extend my sincere grati-
tude to the Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) Program at the
CUNY Graduate Center for appointing me to the esteemed position of
Acknowledgements xv
References
Ndhlovu, F. (2017a). Vernacular Discourse, Emergent Political Languages
and Belonging in Southern Africa. Africa Review, 10(1). [Online version]
https://doi.org/10.1080/09744053.2017.1401783.
Ndhlovu, F. (2017b). Southern Development Discourse for Southern Africa:
Linguistic and Cultural Imperatives. Journal of Multicultural Discourses,
12(2), 89–109.
Contents
xvii
xviii Contents
Part V Conclusion
Bibiliography 351
Index 377
Abbreviations and Acronyms
xix
xx Abbreviations and Acronyms
xxi
Part I
Setting the Scene
1
Introduction—Theories,
Concepts, Debates
Previous Theorisations
Nearly half a century ago, John W. Barton wrote about dominant per-
spectives on the configuration of the world and implications for the
paths we follow in seeking solutions to world problems.
Post Nationalisation
that the actions and decisions of the nation-state are the ultimate imper-
ative to regional and transnational engagement. Unlike the classical
model of national identity, which is anchored in territorialised notions
of cultural belonging, the postnational model is an open one that
emphasises fluid and deterritorialised modes of identity and belong-
ing. Thus, from the perspective of the postnational model, national
belonging does not mean containment within geographical confines
of the nation-state in question. Instead, it is about a geographical area
being open to multiple possibilities of trade, social networking and eco-
nomic and cultural exchanges with other players at national, regional
and international levels. Under the postnational model of membership,
the intensification and connectedness of national, regional and global
systems do not necessarily signal that nation-states are organisationally
irrelevant or that their formal sovereignty is questioned (Soysal 1994).
Rather, the point is this: nation-states remain as authorised actors that
function concurrently with regional and international structures of
organising membership, participation and rules of social, cultural, eco-
nomic and political engagement.
Overall, the notion of post nationalism constitutes the foundation
for subsequent theorisations about the present world system whereby
the notion of the nation-state as container is challenged. The usefulness
of seeing the nation-state as the unit of social and political analysis is
problematised because, as Anthony Giddens (1990) observed, virtually
no pre-modern societies were clearly bounded as modern nation-states.
The proliferation of transboundary dynamics and formation has meant
that the thesis on the nation as container category is now untenable and
inadequate—both conceptually and methodologically (Taylor 1996;
Sassen 2003). This means the popular habit of seeing the world through
the lenses of the nation-state is flawed due to the coalescence of mul-
tiple structurations of the global and the local inside a space that has
historically been understood as the national. While nation-state as con-
tainers are thick-walled with their societies perceived as relatively homo-
geneous and isolated from each other (Mau 2012: 7), the reality that
obtains in the atoms of society is quite different.
10 F. Ndhlovu
Globalisation
The global world is a village, they say, yet this village currently appears to
be populated by heedless villagers who ignore their own identity as much
as the identity of their neighbours. Instead of a confident celebration of
our riches, such a situation can only lead to timid, fearful, latent conflicts.
(Ramadan 2011: 20)
Ramadan extends his argument further, noting that ‘life in the ‘global
village’, which is increasingly marked by individualism, has even led
us to doubt that there remain any traces of philosophy behind the cal-
culation of our drives for power and of our respective interests’ (ibid.,
p. 21). The significant point here is that the discourses and metaphors
that underpin the notion of globalisation (and other postmodernist the-
oretical frameworks) are fraught with numerous inadequacies. The idea
that the global world is some kind of a village gives the false impres-
sion that villages are populated by fully engaged villagers who actively
participate in the everyday affairs of their village and who do so in the
interests of their fellow villagers. As Ramadan (2011) clearly argues, this
is simply not true; the majority of people in small local villages (and
by extension members of the global village) are passive, disengaged,
non-proactive and above all driven by self-interest in whatever they do.
Both the local and global villages are also spaces dominated and con-
trolled by a few hegemonic elite who propagate and cultivate normative
linguistic and cultural values that are subsequently imposed on every
other member of the village under the guise of universalism and/or
social cohesion. Therefore, by drawing on the metaphor of the village to
describe issues of culture and identity in contemporary society, the con-
cept of globalisation gives a false sense of equality among world cultures
and a misleading impression that all cultures and identities are recog-
nised as integral part of the so-called global village. What the champi-
ons of globalisation fail to reveal is the fact that beneath this thin veneer
of horizontal global cultural and identity comradeship lie simmering
tensions and multiple forms of both spoken and unspoken or symbolic
1 Introduction—Theories, Concepts, Debates
13
Denationalisation
Like all other theorisations that preceded it, the concept of denationalisa-
tion has been variously defined and subjected to multiple interpretations.
The most commonly cited definition is one given by Michael Zürn (1998,
cited in Mau 2012: 13) who conceives denationalisation as being about
the ‘relative increase of intensity and reach of cross-border exchange or
production processes in the areas of economics, the environment, author-
ity, mobility as well as communication and culture’ (translated by Mau
2012: 13). The significant point in this definition is that denationalisa-
tion takes as its starting point changes to the nation-state to account for
changes in global human relations taking place at multiscaler levels that
articulate with discourses of globalisation. Saskia Sassen (2003) provided a
14 F. Ndhlovu
Deterritorialisation
between places and people are established, thus bringing back into iden-
tity narratives the idea of territory (Mau 2012). Deterritorialisation is
a useful concept that helps us think anew the notion of territory and
see how the logic of territoriality is both played out and challenged (in
equal measure) in the present world system (Elden 2005: 10). This is
particularly so when it is conceived in the context of the current height-
ened mobility of people, goods and services and the intensity of inter-
cultural contacts among people from differing backgrounds, from both
the Northern and Southern orbits of the world.
Transnationalisation
Two of the oldest mosques were built in China—one in the port city
of Guanzhou in the south and the other in Xian for the benefit of the
Arab Muslim traders in the first millennium […]. Dhaka, the capital city
of Bangladesh, was home to various nationalities in the eighteenth cen-
tury. Foreign and Indian merchants, traders and bankers—Europeans,
Armenians, Pathans, Turanis, Marwaris, and other up-country Hindus—
came to Dhaka to do business. (Turner and Khondker 2010: 176)
their persistent focus on the logic of states and the scale of the state at a
time when we see a proliferation of non-state actors, cross-border processes
and associated changes in the scope, exclusivity and competence of state
authority (Sassen 2003: 7). All previous theorisations are also characterised
by their non-critical approach to the supposed existence of a transnational
world. They overlook the lived experiences of individuals and communi-
ties in different parts of the globe that suggest the idea of transnational
worlds is, in fact, a myth. It is shorthand for subtle cultural homogenisa-
tion that sustains marginalisation, exclusion and erasure of identities and
cultural practices of the majority of people in the world. In the midst of
the pomp and fanfare about perceived growth in interconnectedness of
national societies, we continue to see an unprecedented rise in tenden-
cies towards autochthony and parochial forms of inward-looking ultra-
nationalist sentiments. Examples include the recent resurgence of far-right
nationalist political formations and social movements in the USA (e.g.
neo-Nazi organisations such as Ku Klux Klan (KKK)), Europe (e.g. the
Defend Europe movement) and even in Australia (e.g. United Patriots
Front). All these pseudo-social political movements are driven by racist,
xenophobic, anti-refugee and anti-immigrant agendas. The activities of
these and other similar groups are aimed at creating an image of a ‘world
without others’ (Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2017) whereby they systematically
express their disdain and hatred of coexistence and mixing of people from
differing cultural, ethnic, religious, linguistic and political backgrounds.
As I have argued above, previous theorisations around these issues
have exhibited a strong tendency to focus at the macro-structural level
while overlooking the equally important role of actors operating at the
micro-social level of society. Therefore, any new conceptual framework
that claims to look differently at issues around migration and diversity
must seek to make significant theoretical contributions beyond mere
empirical observations of human population movements from one
point to another. In their present iteration, all theoretical approaches
reviewed in this section do not seem to measure up very well when con-
sidered against this premium. They need to be complemented by more
nuanced frameworks that help us see what we couldn’t—or wouldn’t—
see before. In the section that follows, I show how Language, Vernacular
Discourse and Nationalisms is one such attempt at filling these methodo-
logical and conceptual lacunae in the field of mobility studies.
1 Introduction—Theories, Concepts, Debates
21
This Book
Language, Vernacular Discourse and Nationalisms joins the quite con-
temporary conversations that centre on the tensions and contradictions
of nation-state-centric identity imaginings in a world that is conceived
as integrated yet simultaneously pluriversal. This book adds to cur-
rent academic debates the novel perspective of vernacular discourse as
a way to read new meanings into what is essentially a vexed topic that
has exercised the minds of several generations of social scientists. The
book contributes new points of method and interpretation that have
so far been overlooked in the previous body of work. Vernacular dis-
courses are conceived here as every day or mundane ‘…texts or forms of
speech and conversations that emerge from discussions between mem-
bers of self-identified smaller communities within the larger civic com-
munity’ (Ono and Sloop 2012: 13). These are discursive practices and
other forms of ‘language’, ‘grammars’ and ‘vocabularies’ that emerge out
of small talk in public spaces whose effect is felt when they are trans-
lated and acted upon to inform popular thinking and perceptions about
identities, being and belonging (Ndhlovu and Siziba 2014). Vernacular
discourses constitute communities, construct social relations and protest
identity and cultural representations circulating in mainstream or domi-
nant culture. Using the notion of vernacular discourses, this book specif-
ically draws our attention to the languages and meta-discursive regimes
that shape and mediate myths of a transnational world against the back-
drop of resurgent inward-looking and autochthonous nationalisms.
The book examines social and economic policy documents as well
as statements made by elected national political leaders and traditional
authorities who speak on behalf of the people they lead and represent
at both national and international forums. Political leader discourses
are, by and large, considered to be national and representative of the
broader sentiment within respective constituencies. While it includes
some passing remarks on other comparable regions of the world, the
book specifically focuses on past and present social and economic pol-
icies in Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The overall intention is
to glean insights that illustrate the particular point about how vernac-
ular discourses and various forms of nationalist language undermine
popular assumptions about a transnational world that is supposedly
22 F. Ndhlovu
I appeal to all our citizens no matter from what land their forefathers came
[…] to shun with scorn and contempt the sinister intriguers and mischief
makers who would seek to divide them along lines of creed, of birthplace,
or of national origin. I ask them to remember that there is but one safe
motto for all Americans, no matter whether they were born here or abroad,
no matter from what land their ancestors came; and that is the simple and
loyal motto, AMERICA FOR AMERICANS. (Roosevelt 1916: 9)
This was, indeed, a fitting clarion call for national pride, national sov-
ereignty and national unity that came in the middle of the First World
War when all nation-states at the time were seized with the onerous
task of rallying their populations towards defending their territories.
Although Roosevelt coined this expression at a time when forces of glo-
balisation and transnational human population movement were not as
pronounced as they have now become, he seems to have been well ahead
of his time as he grasped the need to rise above narrow, parochial and
26 F. Ndhlovu
Title: Majatalo
Language: Finnish
Kirj.
I. S. Turgenjeff
Suomentanut
Alexander Halonen
Majatalo.
Kaikin puolin hyvä olisi ollut Akim, tahi kuten häntä kutsuttiin
herrastalossa, jossa hän usein käväsi ja varsinkin sunnuntaisin
puolipäivämessun jälkeen, Akim Semenovitsh, — kaikinpuolin olisi
hän ollut hyvä, ellei häntä olisi seurannut eräs heikkous, joka jo
monen ihmisen on maailmassa perikatoon saattanut ja loppujen
lopuksi tuhosi hänenkin elämänsä — nimittäin, heikkous
naissukupuoleen nähden. Akimin rakkaus meni äärimmäisyyksiin,
hänen sydämensä ei mitenkään voinut vastustaa naisen katsetta;
hän suli siitä, niinkuin ensimäinen syksylumi auringonpaisteesta… ja
tavallisesti hän joutui maksamaan ylimääräisen tunteellisuutensa
tähden.