South African Nama Development Association (SANDEVA) founding president, James Mapanka, has stated that for the South African government to effectively develop the Nama language and integrate it into schools, it must rely on Namibia’s expertise.
A group of about 16 people, including Mapanka, are in the ||Kharas Region for a week-long working visit organised under a twinning agreement between the ||Kharas Regional Council and the Northern Cape Provincial Government on economic development opportunities, safety and security and improving education and cultural tolerance, which was signed in September 1999.
In an interview with Nampa here on Wednesday, Mapanka said there is no need for South Africa to reinvent the wheel while it can benefit from the expertise and skills found in Namibia, which is also covered by the twinning agreement.
“We can learn a lot from our counterparts in Namibia, we are trying to show people that in the southern African region, we can integrate our programmes, we can learn from one another, and all we need is goodwill for the language and the culture,” he said.
He indicated that one of SANDEVA's objectives is to create a training manual that will be employed in South Africa to provide Nama language training at an acceptable level.
“It is in our constitution for the language to be developed, but we aim to avoid delivering sub-standard language training. We want it to be on a standardised level, we do not want a situation where the Nama language is spoken on different levels in Namibia and South Africa. It should be uniform,” he added.
He further said once the group returns to South Africa, they must persuade the education department to introduce Nama language teaching in schools for Nama descendants and any other South Africans interested in learning the language.
“We are the activists of the language and tradition, we will go back and lobby those who are in power to see to it that the Nama language becomes part of the curriculum,” said Mapanka.
Edwina Adams, a qualified teacher from the Eastern Cape, told this news agency she aspires to be a Khoekhoegowab practitioner.
“Nama is a very interesting language, our language has been dying out where I am from. I am learning a lot from this trip, the Nama history and all. What stood out for me was that when we visited the schools those little children could speak, write and read the language fluently, It was amazing and I want to be part of that,” she said.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency