Molweni, sanibonani to all of you! It's been a long time since the last African Voice, we know, but we've been busy, very bizi, you won't believe! Seriyas! Serious!

BESISENZA NTONI? What have we been doing?

So what have we been doing - at least, when we're not sitting out in our back yard, drinking coffee and having a lekker gossip? (In Xhosa and Zulu to gossip is ukuhleba and in Sotho it is ho sêba.)

MONASH SURVEY

Between November 2003 and February this year African Voices conducted a survey for Monash University of Melbourne, Australia, with Dr Ana Deumert (Research Director of Monash Language and Society Centre). The survey, entitled Migration and Social Protection Needs in South Africa looked at 215 households in Gugulethu, Langa, Imizamo Yethu (Hout Bay) and Ilitha Park (Khayelitsha).

We are still waiting for full statistical analyses of the data collected, but several trends have become clear and are quite startling.

• It seems that some communities have moved to Cape Town from their villages in the Eastern Cape virtually en masse and remain in small homogeneous groups (particularly in Langa and Gugulethu).

  Dr Deumert recorded this conversation between two of our researchers:

  Fieldworker discussion (Nkululeko and Thami) about their Gugulethu interviews (December 2003)
  Thami: They come from the rural areas to here ...
  Nkululeko: It's like they are in a sort of an island, you know, they are living in this Cape Town now but ...
  Thami: They've taken their village to Cape Town ...
  Nkululeko: They own their own shops, their own shebeens ... there are shebeens just across the street, you know, but they have their own ...

• People often come to Cape Town with no real assurance of work or accommodation.

• Living conditions, particularly in Langa and Gugulethu, are, on the whole, appalling. For many the bed is the home. For example, in many hostels where we conducted the surveys, four families cram into one room with four beds. Each bed represents a family (and some beds accommodate as many as six people).

• Most migrants (people who have been in Cape Town for 10 years or less) cannot speak English at all. Although people don't realize it, not being able to speak English is like a social Aids - a debilitating disease that shrinks your life until eventually you are just that young mother, sitting listlessly in the corner of a hostel room, baby on lap, wondering why you came here.

  People answered that they saw English as the most important language in Cape Town, but the survey shows that when people do learn English it is not from mixing with English speakers:

  Domain of Usage	Percentage of English
  newspaper, usually read	39%
  radio, TV	78%
  government offices	46%
  police	25%
  at work	63%
  Pick 'n Pay	58%
  with family	0%
  neighbourhood	0%
  with friends	3%
  spaza shop	0%
  language mixing (yes)	61%

You can contact Dr Deumert on: Ana.Deumert@arts.monash.edu.au or Associate Professor Brett Inder on brett.inder@buseco.monash.edu.au for further details on the study.

SOCCER WORLD CUP

Halala! South Africa will host the Soccer World Cup in 2010!

Zulu teacher Estelle Rassman, who has done extensive research on the signs used on Johannesburg taxis, compares football nicknames with those used for taxis, which refer to driving style, skills or behaviour in traffic. So people give nicknames to football players with specific reference to the way they move. Like football players the taxi driver has to be skillful in their field:

Kuzuhlanya
(football: "Stop the madman")

Nyakaza ndoda
(taxi: "Move about, man")

Shaluza wemfana
(football: "Flash past, boy")

Washesha ndoda
(taxi: "You are in such a hurry, man")

Shelela
(football: "Slip out of the way and come back")

Washelela'
(taxi: "He slips out and comes back")

Other examples from her research on taxi signage:

Isidudla sami - My overfilled grain sack (ie bursting with passengers)
Ukuthula bakithi - Peace, my people
Senzeni thina? - What should we do?
Khulumani-ke - Speak, then
Into enjani le ekhuzwayo? - What kind of surprise is this?
Busisiwe - Blessing
Indlala ibanga ulaka - Hunger creates anger
Pho indaba kabani? - Well, whose business is it?
Bakhaliphicebo - They cry: where is the plan?
USathane ujampa amafence - Satan jumps fences
Biza amaphodisa ivukile inja - [sic] Call the police, the dog is awake
Isilingo No 2 - Temptation No 2
Isidakwasonke No 9 - Total drunkard No 9
Siza kancane - Help a little
Thula sizwe - Be quiet so that we can hear
Inhliziyo zenu zingakhathazeki - Let not your hearts be troubled
Beka izindaba zakho - Look to your own affairs
Zibambele ndoda - Restrain yourself, man
Okay baba wami - Okay, sir
Suka sihambe - Get up so we can go
Ukuthula makwande - May peace increase
Xola mthakathi - Be at peace, wizard
Heyi wena suka emva kwami - Hey, get away from behind me
Izitha engingazi nengizaziyo ngizinika kuwe Nkosi
The enemies I don't know and the ones I do know I give to you, Lord
Hawu wahlupha indoda ehlupheka. Ngiyekeleni madoda
Oh, you have bothered a man (already) bothered. Leave me alone, men.

PHRASE CD'S

Over the years we have had so many requests for audio CDs with useful phrases - people driving long distances want to make good use of the time spent in the car - that we are currently working on phrase CDs for Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho. Please let us know if you're interested in purchasing one of these CDs. We have completed a collection of simple medical phrases on CD (sorry, Xhosa only) which you can also purchase.

DEPRESSING STATISTICS
African Languages as Second Languages at School

Our recent research into African languages being taught as second languages at state schools revealed the following statistics:

Province	Second Language	No. of Schools offering Language
GAUTENG	Afrikaans	247
	Zulu	37
	Sotho	5
WESTERN CAPE	Afrikaans	503
	Xhosa	81

We believe there are many complex reasons for this state of affairs, but, whatever they are, we hope that you as parents, uncles and aunts make a fuss when your children aren't given the option of learning an African language at their schools.

MUVAS AND SHEYIKAS

Overheard on Umhlobo wenene (African Voices' preferred radio station)

Ukudeligeyita - to delegate
Ukukhontrola - to control
uku-akhomideyita - to accommodate
Ngoobani aba-muva besheyikha? - Who are the movers and shakers?

BRENDA FASSIE

Brenda Fassie died in May this year. We thought this profile on her, taken from the web site http://www.southafrica.info would interest you:

Madonna of the Townships

Born in Langa township in 1964, the youngest in a family of nine, Brenda Fassie's musical career began at the age of four when, inspired by her pianist mother, she formed a singing group, the Tiny Tots.

By the time she was 14, armed with a power-packed, gutsy voice and determination to match, she had moved to Johannesburg to seek fame and fortune.

Dubbed the Madonna of the Townships in a 2001 Time Magazine interview, Fassie emerged at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s to give a voice to marginalised black South Africans.

But while songs like Black President told of the destruction of black aspirations under apartheid, Fassie was also capable of getting people dancing across the colour line - a feat she achieved from the start with Weekend Special (1983), a funky disco groove which became South Africa's fastest-selling single and a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, making the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart and featuring in concerts in the US, UK, Europe, Brazil and Australia.

Brenda left The Big Dudes in the late 1980s to team up with Sello Chicco Twala, one of South Africa's most accomplished musical producers, a collaboration that resulted in the 1989 hit album Too Late for Mama, which included the hits Black President, Shoot Them Before They Grow, Stay Away From My Man, and Don't Follow Me I'm Married.

During the 1980s Fassie was involved with Big Dudes band member Dumisani Ngubeni, giving birth to a son, Bongani - now 19 years old.

In 1989 she married Nhlanhla Mbambo, only to divorce him in 1991 amid rumours of physical abuse.

Descent and Return

Fassie's life went into a downward spiral after her divorce, and for years she checked in and out of drug rehabilitation clinics, missed gigs, alienated fans, was sued by concert promoters, sank into debt, and finally woke up next to the body of her lover, Poppie Sihlahla, who had died after a drug binge, in Johannesburg in 1995.

The following year, 1996, Fassie made the first of many comebacks, producing her own album, Now Is The Time, in which she performed two duets with Congolese superstar Papa Wemba.

Her 1997 album Paparazzi failed to impress, but in 1998 she teamed up with Twala again on the album Memeza (Shout), which included the song Vulindlela and earned Fassie the South African Music Awards (Samas) award for best-selling release of the year.

Vulindlela (Clear the path or Make way) became a hit through Africa and also earned Fassie the 1999 continental Kora award for best female artist.

Fassie scooped the Samas best-selling release award for the next three years running with the albums Nomakanjani (1999), Amadlozi (2000) - featuring the hits Thola 'madlozi and Nakupenda - and Mina Nawe (2001), all produced by Twala.

In 2001 Fassie released Brenda's Greatest Hits - also a massive seller - followed by Myekeleni in 2002 and Mali in 2004.

According to The Star Tonight, Nomakanjani sold 525 000 copies, while Memeza sold half a million copies. "No other South African artist has ever come close to this record", Tonight notes, "not even top-selling gospel star Rebecca Malope, whose album sales are thought to be closer to the 250 000 mark. "This means Brenda will take the Best-Selling Album of the Decade award at the South African Music Awards (Samas) at the end of the month."

I'm a shocker

Throughout, Fassie continued to stir controversy with outrageous behaviour and a turbulent private life. She openly admitted to being a drug addict and bisexual - taboo in the townships - and her antics, both on and off the stage, made her a regular target for tabloid fodder in the Sunday papers.

Jan Hennop, writing for AFP, recalls a 2001 performance in a club in Washington, DC, during which Fassie's breasts popped out of her costume. "The audience gasped, but Fassie unabashedly grabbed her bare bosom and thrust it at the crowd", Time Magazine said of the show. "This", she proclaimed, "is Africa!"

"I'm a shocker. I like to create controversy. It's my trademark", she once said in an interview.

At the same time, Fassie remained a central figure in the development of township pop, as her music shifted from the bubblegum of the 1980s to the edges of the dominant kwaito style of the late 1990s.

Hennop writes: "In the latter stages of her career her voice also matured, as she sang in the kwaito township style - a combination of hip-hop, slowed-down house music with traditional African bass, sung mainly in Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho."

Right up until her death, Fassie was the consummate rock 'n roll survivor, and the outrageous template for musical superstardom township-style.

GOODBYE

Let's say goodbye (Go well) to Brenda, who gave us so much, in as many African languages as we know:

Xhosa: Hamba kakuhle!
Zulu: Hamba kahle!
Sotho: Tsamaya hantle!
Tsonga: Famba kahle!
Ndebele: Khamba bugwala!