ZA vs. SA

Ever wondered why the South African rand is represented by ZAR instead of SAR and why South African websites have a .co.za extension?

As expected, wikipedia provided me with za answer:

None of the official names for South Africa can be abbreviated to ZA, which is an abbreviation of the Dutch Zuid-Afrika. This is a legacy of when Dutch was an official language in South Africa, before being replaced by Afrikaans, in which the name of the country is Suid-Afrika. Afrikaans joined English and Dutch as an official language of South Africa in 1925 in a synonym-status with Dutch, and in the South African Constitution of 1961 Dutch was removed as an official language altogether and replaced by Afrikaans. In 1983 Dutch lost its synonym-status with Afrikaans. However, the .sa domain is used by Saudi Arabia and ZAR is the ISO 4217 currency code for the South African Rand. The international vehicle code for South Africa has been ZA since 1936.

The Languages of South Africa

South Africa has 11 official languages (and scores of unofficial ones):

1. Afrikaans
2. English
3. isiNdebele
4. isiXhosa
5. isiZulu
6. Sesotho sa Leboa (Pedi/Sepedi)
7. Sesotho
8. Setswana
9. siSwati
10. Tshivenda
11. Xitsonga
12. Indigenous creoles and pidgins   

South Africa's linguistic diversity means all 11 languages have had a profound effect on each other. South African English, for example, is littered with words and phrases from Afrikaans, isiZulu, Nama, and other African languages. And African-language speakers often pepper their speech with English and Afrikaans.

Most South Africans are multilingual, able to speak more than one language. Most South Africans speak English, which is fairly ubiquitous in official and commercial public life. The country's other lingua franca is isiZulu.

 Constitutional Court Sign in 11 languages!

In terms of linguistic classification, the official languages include two West-Germanic languages (English and Afrikaans) and nine Bantu languages. Four of these are Nguni languages (Zulu, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele) and have many similarities in syntax and grammar and three are Sotho–Tswana languages (Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho and Tswana). Tsonga is a Tswa–Ronga language.

Here are some great free online language courses offered by UNISA (University of South Africa). Salani kahle!

Notes from Wiki and South Africa.info

Hartbeespoort

This morning, we woke up very early and drove to Hartbeespoort, informally known as "Harties", a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, situated on the slopes of the Magaliesberg mountain range and the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The name of the town means "pass of the hartbees" (a species of antelope) in Afrikaans. It was previously known as Schoemansville, named after General Hendrik Schoeman (1840 - 1901), a Boer General in the Anglo-Boer War who owned the farm that the dam was built on. The dam was originally designed for irrigation which is currently its primary use. It is fed by the waters of the Crocodile and Magalies rivers.

Picture from intotravel.co.za

So, why did we wake up so early? To make it in time for Om Die Dam ('Around the dam'), the annual 50k ultra marathon (they also have a half-marathon and a 5k). The sun hid behind the clouds and granted us some beautiful running weather. The 5k path led us through quiet, hilly residential streets with beautiful homes (most with barking dogs, who seemed ready for the annual onslaught of morning pedestrians).

After the run, we walked to the Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway (apparently the longest monocableway in Africa) and took a ride to the top for a spectacular panorama of the town, the calm waters and the endless mountains.

Xhosa

Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.

Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for post-alveolar clicks . Tones are not indicated in the written form.
[From Wikipedia]

Here is a short video about Xhosa Tongue Twisters; a good introduction to the three types of basic clicks in the language:

Nzolo, Dearly Beloved

Here is a post by a friend, an excerpt from The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

Jambo Bwana

Especially on the island of Zanzibar, we heard this catchy song over and over again. From Street vendors with pirated CDs ("Hey Sister! The music of Africa!") to the tree climber who was asked to demonstrate to us the method used to climb a coconut tree, the Zanzibaris sang "Jambo Bwana" to us. See (and hear) for yourself and while you're at it, pick up some basic Swahili too (Lyrics and meaning here). And it's no cliche, you are bound to hear the phrase "Hakuna Matata" used several times a day!

Here is a video of that entertaining coconut man and his rendition of the classic as he makes his way down. Enjoy!

Another version here.

Baking Cakes in Kigali

Ah, the fascinating world of Angel Tungaraza, cake-maker extraordinaire! Although a tad like Mma Ramotswe's setting in the beginning, the book develops its individuality quickly and captures your attention. Interesting (and often funny) characters, mouth-watering cakes and stories (both happy and sad) will come your way as you read on about people and their situations and circumstances in current day Rwanda. I found the cross-cultural and language aspects particularly interesting. Angel is very endearing and Parkin shows her witty side often in this enjoyable book.

Burundi

NatGeo Picture: Burundi drummers perform during a tribal ceremony in Ninga.

From the NatGeo Guide:

Small, poor, densely populated, and landlocked, Burundi lies just south of the Equator in central Africa. From the capital, Bujumbura, on Lake Tanganyika, a great escarpment rises to fertile highlands. Agriculture employs 90 percent of the people, with most being subsistence farmers. Since independence in 1962, Burundi has been plagued by ethnic conflict between the majority Hutus and the Tutsis, who tend to dominate the government and army—but are only 14 percent of the population. A 2003 cease-fire and new government offer hope for peace.

I found this information from the World Factbook interesting:
Burundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated in October 1993 after only 100 days in office, triggering widespread ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. More than 200,000 Burundians perished during the conflict that spanned almost a dozen years. Hundreds of thousands of Burundians were internally displaced or became refugees in neighboring countries. An internationally brokered power-sharing agreement between the Tutsi-dominated government and the Hutu rebels in 2003 paved the way for a transition process that led to an integrated defense force, established a new constitution in 2005, and elected a majority Hutu government in 2005. The new government, led by President Pierre Nkurunziza, signed a South African brokered ceasefire with the country's last rebel group in September of 2006 but still faces many challenges.

Mini Fact-File:

• Official Languages: Kirundi, French (and unofficial: Swahili)
• Independence: From Belgium in 1962
• Capital: Bujumbura
• Currency: Burundi franc

Greeting in Rwanda

Here is the South Indian semi-celebrity Wilbur Sargunaraj showing us how to greet in Kinyarwanda. Entertaining and informative.

Disclaimer: Not sure if the spellings are entirely accurate.

ECOWAS

This acronym puzzled me for months (Echoas, Echoise, Eckowass, I tried them all). Today's a day to say "Aha!". From Wikipedia:

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries, founded on May 28, 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos. Its mission is to promote economic integration. In 1976 Cape Verde joined ECOWAS, and in December 2000 Mauritania withdrew, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.

It was founded to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for the member states by means of economic and monetary union creating a single large trading bloc. The very slow progress towards this aim meant that the treaty was revised in Cotonou on July 24, 1993, towards a looser collaboration. The ECOWAS Secretariat and the Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development are its two main institutions to implement policies. The ECOWAS Fund was transformed into the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development in 2001. ECOWAS is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community (AEC).
The current President of the Commission is James Victor Gbeho. The current chairman is acting President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.
It operates officially in three coequal languages (English, French, and Portuguese).

Official Website.

Tama's Snimbe

I must thank Putumayo for all the African music it helps me discover. My latest disvovery is Tama's Snimbe, a colloborative effort with one of my favourite artists, Susheela Raman.

Tama's Biography from Yahoo Music: Named after a Bambara word meaning "to walk," Tama consists of Malian vocalist Tom Diakite, percussionist Djanuno Dabo of Guinea Bissau and London-based producer/multi-instrumentalist Sam Mills. The trio met when they were playing with the hypnotic Bengali performer Paban Das Baul, with whom Mills had collaborated previously on albums like Real Sugar. Having some extra time at the recording studio led to the group creating impromptu songs that incorporated Diakite's West African musical heritage and Mills' roots in pop, avant-garde and world music, which stretch back to his days in 23 Skidoo in the late '70s and early '80s. The group's debut album Nostalgie was released in 1999 on the RealWorld label. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide.

Snimbe feature's in Tama's album Espace.

Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa

Image from here.

Linguistically, sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by the Niger-Congo phylum (distribution shown in yellow), with pockets of Khoi-San in Southern Africa, Nilo-Saharan in Central and East Africa, and Afro-Asiatic in the Horn of Africa. Read more here.

Soweto Blues

Soweto Blues is a beautiful number written for Mama Africa by Hugh Masakela. Soweto (South Western Township) is an urban area in the City of Johannesburg, in Gauteng, South Africa. The song is about the Soweto riots of 1976 which started because of a language decree.

I had a hard time finding the lyrics, so I thought it would be fitting to save them here:

The children got a letter from the master
It said: No more Xhosa, Sotho, no more Zulu.
Refusing to comply they sent an answer
That's when the policemen came to the rescue

Children were flying bullets dying
The mothers screaming and crying
The fathers were working in the cities
The evening news brought out all the publicity:
Just a little atrocity, deep in the city
Soweto blues (4)

Benikuphi ma madoda (where were the men)
Mabedubula abantwana (when the children were being shot)
Benikhupi na (where were you)
Abantwana beshaywa ngezimbokodo (when the children were throwing stones)
Benikhupi na (where were you)

There was a full moon on the golden city
Knocking at the door was the man without pity
Accusing everyone of conspiracy
Tightening the curfew charging people with walking

Yes, the border is where he was awaiting
Waiting for the children, frightened and running
A handful got away but all the others
Hurried their chain without any publicity
Just a little atrocity, deep in the city
Soweto blues (4)

Benikuphi ma madoda (where were the men)
Mabedubula abantwana (when the children were being shot)
Benikhupi na (where were you)
Abantwana beshaywa ngezimbokodo (when the children were throwing stones)
Benikhupi na (where were you)

Soweto blues (3)
Soweto blues - abu yethu a mama
Soweto blues - they are killing all the children
Soweto blues - without any publicity
Soweto blues - oh, they are finishing the nation
Soweto blues - while calling it black on black
Soweto blues - but everybody knows they are behind it
Soweto Blues - without any publicity
Soweto blues - god, somebody, help!
Soweto blues - (abu yethu a mama)
Soweto blues

Another beautiful version of Soweto Blues:

Obuswandi

I'm taking a quick break from Mauritius to bring you this catchy number from Baby Joe. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and now lives in Finland. His music is unique in that it seems to have found a connection between the African and European sound.

Although I'm not entirely sure, I read somewhere that "Obuswandi" is a 'Ganda' word. From Wiki: Luganda, sometimes known as Ganda, is a major language of Uganda, spoken by over ten million people mainly in Southern Uganda which includes the Ugandan capital Kampala. It belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

Casela Bird Park

In May 2005, I visited the Casela Bird and Nature Park. Casela is a mini-zoo with a fantastic collection of birds (and plenty of other animals including tigers, zebras, javan deer, etc.). The aviaries are well maintained and have many exotic birds including some of my favourites - the Toucan, the Makaw and the Bleeding Heart Pigeon. If you come to Mauritius, you must meet the famous "Pink Pigeon". Luckily, they've saved this one from extinction (and a lot of the hard work was done by Gerald Durrel and his team). I saw many amazing photo opportunities but the I had a really hard time taking pictures because of the cages! :(

The Casela Park entrance ticket costs Rs.150 but they have a superb safari ride through the mountains for just Rs.30. I spotted these beauties while we were heading towards the mountains.

At Casela, I had the privilege of meeting Lori, the cockatoo. She is 30 years old. She can talk, dance and whistle a variety of tunes. She loves meeting new people. I had read about her and was eager to meet her.

At the petting zoo Lori was in her cage and as soon as I saw her I said "Hello" at least 10 times and she wouldn't reply. I kept wondering why until the sweet lady who takes care of her (and who took this picture) said "Oh, Lori speaks only French"!! She responded to my first "Bonjour" and happily climbed onto my arm to have a nice conversation with me and whistle some tunes for me. She was fascinated with my camera. I took a picture of her and showed it to her and she was amazed with it - she kept touching it with her beak. She also liked my bag and had a nice time walking all over it. So adorable!

Inch'allah

Our colleagues in Mauritius were extremely hospitable and helped us truly enjoy and experience the island. Among other things, they made many recommendations, taught us Creole phrases and shared music with us. I was particularly interested in the French numbers and this one is by far my favourite one they shared with me:



MC Solaar is the stage name of Claude M'Barali (born March 5, 1969), a francophone hip hop and rap artist. Claude M'Barali was born in Dakar, Senegal to parents of Chadian origin. When he was six months old his parents immigrated to France. He is famous for his wordplay... his official website is called SolaarSystem!!

Inch'allah is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard and I love the frequent reference to the Maghreban robe, the Djellaba.

Madagascar

Giant Baobabs (Adansonia Grandidieri), Toliara, Madagascar

Some interesting facts about the beautiful island of Madagascar:

• The Republic of Madagascar (previously Malagasy Republic, French: République malgache), is the fourth-largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.

• An island roughly the size of Texas or France, Madagascar is home to more than 250,000 (5% of the world's plant and animal) species of which 80% are found nowhere else on the globe (including six baobab species).

• The Merina is the largest ethnic group in Madagascar. Boasting a population of 3 million, which equals to about one-quarter of the country's population, they speak a Malayo-Polynesian language and are concentrated in the central highlands.
  

• Ancestors of the Merina, the Austronesians, migrated from the Malay archipelago (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Malaysia) around the beginning of the common era. Today, the Austronesian features of the Merina are still quite visible. Read about the Bloody Mary of Madagascar.

• Madagascar was recently suspended from the SADC since Andry Rajoelina made himself head of state in place of the democratically elected President Marc Ravalomanana.

• The Malagasy language is of Malayo-Polynesian origin and is generally spoken throughout the island. Madagascar is a francophone country, and French is spoken among the educated population of this former French colony. English, although still rare, is becoming more widely spoken.
  

Sources: Wiki, WildMadagascar (see the interesting timeline); Great Posters of Africa from AllPosters.com

Francophone Africa

Map highlighting Francophone Africa

██ Pays normalement considérés francophones / Countries usually considered as Francophone Africa

██ Pays parfois considérés francophones / Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa

This map from Wikipedia indicates the countries in Africa in which French is spoken. If you're a French-speaking traveller, Africa is obviously a great continent to visit!

From the Wiki page on African French, French is spoken by an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries.

Amadou et Mariam

When I (first) discovered Amadou and Mariam on the list of performers at All Points West, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that I had missed them by an hour. This talented musical duo consists of Mariam Doumbia and Amadou Bagayoko, a blind couple who met at a school for the blind in Mali and got together because of their common interest in music.



The first A&M number I heard was "Je pense à toi", which is my favourite. I also love "Dimanche à Bamako". Their album with the same name is produced by Manu Chao. Check them out on Myspace and NPR.

Goodbye Solo

Souleymane Sy Savane (Solo) and Red West in GoodBye Solo

Goodbye Solo is a film about a Senegalese cab driver (Solo) who encounters an aged man determined to commit suicide. Solo is also determined - to dissuade him. He tries hard to befriend and help him. Solo is a gentleman, a kind and loving person who embraces life and its hardships. As an immigrant working hard to make ends meet for his blossoming family, Solo's view of life is radically different and he struggles to understand William (Red West)'s decision.

Through the film, Solo talks fondly of life in Senegal, often breaking into (and muttering to himself in) French. Directed beautifully by Ramin Bahrani, the film is subtle, yet thought provoking and deeply moving.