Communicating across cultures in South African law courts: towards an information technology solution*
- Kaschula, Russell H, Mostert, André M
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Mostert, André M
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Language policy -- South Africa , Courts interpreting and translating -- South Africa , Translating and interpreting -- Technological innovations , Intercultural communication -- South Africa , Conduct of court proceedings -- South Africa , Linguistic rights -- South Africa , Multilingualism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59423 , vital:27599 , doi: 10.5842/36-0-39
- Description: Language rights in South Africa are entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa (Chapter 1, Section 6, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). However, the concomitant infrastructure and organisational realities make this policy difficult to implement, especially in law courts (Kaschula and Ralarala 2004). Creating effective communicative environments has historically been constrained by lack of effective training of legal practitioners and by the lack of capacity for building translation structures. With the advancement of technology, potential solutions are becoming more apparent and it is incumbent upon the academic community to embark on a rigorous investigation into possible solutions and how these Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions could be applied to the execution of justice in South African law courts. This article aims to open the discourse of possible solutions, via assessments of computer based translation solutions, ICT context simulations and other potential opportunities. The authors hope to initiate the interest of other language and legal practitioners to explore how the new technological capabilities could be harnessed to support the entrenchment of language rights in our law courts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Mostert, André M
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Language policy -- South Africa , Courts interpreting and translating -- South Africa , Translating and interpreting -- Technological innovations , Intercultural communication -- South Africa , Conduct of court proceedings -- South Africa , Linguistic rights -- South Africa , Multilingualism -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59423 , vital:27599 , doi: 10.5842/36-0-39
- Description: Language rights in South Africa are entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa (Chapter 1, Section 6, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). However, the concomitant infrastructure and organisational realities make this policy difficult to implement, especially in law courts (Kaschula and Ralarala 2004). Creating effective communicative environments has historically been constrained by lack of effective training of legal practitioners and by the lack of capacity for building translation structures. With the advancement of technology, potential solutions are becoming more apparent and it is incumbent upon the academic community to embark on a rigorous investigation into possible solutions and how these Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions could be applied to the execution of justice in South African law courts. This article aims to open the discourse of possible solutions, via assessments of computer based translation solutions, ICT context simulations and other potential opportunities. The authors hope to initiate the interest of other language and legal practitioners to explore how the new technological capabilities could be harnessed to support the entrenchment of language rights in our law courts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
The oppression of isiXhosa literature and the irony of transformation
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6334 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012398 , https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5481-6748
- Description: his article will contend that the natural development of isiXhosa orature and literature, as with all South African indigenous literatures, ended with the arrival of European missionaries in 1799. The apartheid policy then exacerbated the destructive approaches to indigenous languages already in operation as it designated separate language boards for language development. These boards operated in the 'homelands' and were generally conservative, corrupt and oppressive. The manuscripts they recommended to publishers were for the most part only those that could be prescribed in schools. This resulted in the publishing of material that was parochial, apolitical and neutral in style. Often the material prescribed was written by the board members themselves. For instance, Lennox Sebe, erstwhile President of the Ciskei, produced an isiXhosa book entitled Ucamngco, for prescription, though it seems to contain little original material. Laurence Wright has shown that the opposite was true for English literature written by black South Africans and published internationally in the 1970s, at the height of apartheid (2004, 47). He describes, for instance, how one of the manuscript readers of Peteni's seminal novel, Hill of Fools (1976), rejected it as irrelevant and unsuitable for publication precisely because it made no reference to South Africa's turbulent politics. Throughout this period, however, only apolitical novels were published in the indigenous languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:6334 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012398 , https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5481-6748
- Description: his article will contend that the natural development of isiXhosa orature and literature, as with all South African indigenous literatures, ended with the arrival of European missionaries in 1799. The apartheid policy then exacerbated the destructive approaches to indigenous languages already in operation as it designated separate language boards for language development. These boards operated in the 'homelands' and were generally conservative, corrupt and oppressive. The manuscripts they recommended to publishers were for the most part only those that could be prescribed in schools. This resulted in the publishing of material that was parochial, apolitical and neutral in style. Often the material prescribed was written by the board members themselves. For instance, Lennox Sebe, erstwhile President of the Ciskei, produced an isiXhosa book entitled Ucamngco, for prescription, though it seems to contain little original material. Laurence Wright has shown that the opposite was true for English literature written by black South Africans and published internationally in the 1970s, at the height of apartheid (2004, 47). He describes, for instance, how one of the manuscript readers of Peteni's seminal novel, Hill of Fools (1976), rejected it as irrelevant and unsuitable for publication precisely because it made no reference to South Africa's turbulent politics. Throughout this period, however, only apolitical novels were published in the indigenous languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
The oppression of isiXhosa literature and the irony of transformation
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/458734 , vital:75767 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47955
- Description: This article will contend that the natural development of isiXhosa orature and literature, as with all South African indigenous literatures, ended with the arrival of European missionaries in 1799. The apartheid policy then exacerbated the destructive approaches to indigenous languages already in operation as it designated separate language boards for language development. These boards operated in the 'homelands' and were generally conservative, corrupt and oppressive. The manuscripts they recommended to publishers were for the most part only those that could be prescribed in schools. This resulted in the publishing of material that was parochial, apolitical and neutral in style. Often the material prescribed was written by the board members themselves. For instance, Lennox Sebe, erstwhile President of the Ciskei, produced an isiXhosa book entitled Ucamngco, for prescription, though it seems to contain little original material. Laurence Wright has shown that the opposite was true for English literature written by black South Africans and published internationally in the 1970s, at the height of apartheid (2004, 47). He describes, for instance, how one of the manuscript readers of Peteni's seminal novel, Hill of Fools (1976), rejected it as irrelevant and unsuitable for publication precisely because it made no reference to South Africa's turbulent politics. Throughout this period, however, only apolitical novels were published in the indigenous languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/458734 , vital:75767 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC47955
- Description: This article will contend that the natural development of isiXhosa orature and literature, as with all South African indigenous literatures, ended with the arrival of European missionaries in 1799. The apartheid policy then exacerbated the destructive approaches to indigenous languages already in operation as it designated separate language boards for language development. These boards operated in the 'homelands' and were generally conservative, corrupt and oppressive. The manuscripts they recommended to publishers were for the most part only those that could be prescribed in schools. This resulted in the publishing of material that was parochial, apolitical and neutral in style. Often the material prescribed was written by the board members themselves. For instance, Lennox Sebe, erstwhile President of the Ciskei, produced an isiXhosa book entitled Ucamngco, for prescription, though it seems to contain little original material. Laurence Wright has shown that the opposite was true for English literature written by black South Africans and published internationally in the 1970s, at the height of apartheid (2004, 47). He describes, for instance, how one of the manuscript readers of Peteni's seminal novel, Hill of Fools (1976), rejected it as irrelevant and unsuitable for publication precisely because it made no reference to South Africa's turbulent politics. Throughout this period, however, only apolitical novels were published in the indigenous languages.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
The Sacred Door and other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba (Makuchi)
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175177 , vital:42550 , https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.45i2.4743
- Description: In The Sacred Door and Other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba, Makuchi has collected thirty-three folktales of the Beba people. These stories are presented in English only. The book contains a foreword by well-known oral literature scholar, Isidore Okpewho and a preface by the author. In the foreword, Okpewho states that:“Tales like these need to be retold again and again, because the lessons they yield belong not merely to a long-forgotten historical or so-called primitive past but very much to the present times in which we live”(xi). The book therefore represents a sense of continuity between past and present. Although the tales may no longer be told in the same way that they were many years ago, the messages contained in the tales remain as relevant today as they did in the past.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Kaschula, Russell H
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175177 , vital:42550 , https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.45i2.4743
- Description: In The Sacred Door and Other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba, Makuchi has collected thirty-three folktales of the Beba people. These stories are presented in English only. The book contains a foreword by well-known oral literature scholar, Isidore Okpewho and a preface by the author. In the foreword, Okpewho states that:“Tales like these need to be retold again and again, because the lessons they yield belong not merely to a long-forgotten historical or so-called primitive past but very much to the present times in which we live”(xi). The book therefore represents a sense of continuity between past and present. Although the tales may no longer be told in the same way that they were many years ago, the messages contained in the tales remain as relevant today as they did in the past.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
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