On a quest to make vernacular popular
“IMAGINE a world where we conduct interviews in our mother tongue, where workplaces are so inclusive you get a job because you know the work, and not because of language, where English is not treated as a measure of intelligence, but all languages are equally regarded because they are recognised as official South African languages.”
These are the words of publisher Nkemiseng Molefe, 31, who is on a quest to make literature written in vernacular the norm in our society.
Pretoria-based Molefe was inspired by her father, author Dr Lawrence Molefe.
She went on to establish her own publishing house, Pelmo Books.
With this venture she pioneers a movement of reading in indigenous languages for inclusion, recognition and the encouragement of participation of African language speakers in the mainstream economy.
“If you are coming from rural Kwazulu-natal, you only know Zulu and went through school using Zulu. Now having to go to university, your Zulu world is gone and you have to adapt to English and Afrikaans.
“Even if you were a top student at school, there is a great chance of now failing.
“That is where my books come in, accommodating everyone. If I make it popular enough, it can get to the same level of acceptance, where we can all read, write and speak our languages comfortably,” said Molefe.
This desire goes as far as seeing information signs and other public spaces filled with vernacular instructions. But having to compete against English and Afrikaans hasn’t been easy.
“I have had to become competition to them and bring people back from those languages to their mother tongues.
“But contrary to popular belief, people want to read in their own languages and they are interested in having their children communicate with each other.”
Among the books Molefe has published are Alice in Wonderland published in Zulu (U-alice Ezweni
Lezimanga), and Uselwa – an adaptation of her father’s book, Ng’wafunge Amabomvu.
“As much as other countries give precedence to their languages, we should also get to a point where everyone can conduct anything and everything in their own language.
“What excites me about this venture is that each year I get to fall in love with what I do even more.
“I am learning so much as I go, and that is exactly how I got into the industry.”