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23 March 2021 | Story Mbali Moiketsi
International Mother Language Day

The Office for International Affairs recently celebrated International Language Day.  This year, we invited all faculties to submit the names of people who would be willing to contribute video clips to educate us about their mother tongue.  The videos submitted were from diverse academic staff members and postdoctoral fellows currently based in different parts of the world.  Extensive research has created this edutainment video, featuring famous language quotes, indigenous languages across the African continent, and business languages used across the African continent. Some of the indigenous languages on the African continent are fading away, caused by colonial influence.

Fun facts:
From 1994 to 2013, South Africa was in the Guinness Book of World Records for most official languages.  These are Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Sepedi, Sesotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.

Since the adoption of the 2013 Constitution, Zimbabwe now holds this title with 16 official languages, namely Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sign Language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa. Zimbabwe therefore now holds the Guinness World Record for the country with the largest number of official languages.  

Albeit the main languages in Zimbabwe are English, Shona and Ndebele, the minor languages are Chewa, Chibarwe, Kalanga, Koisan, Kunda, Lozi, Manyika, Nambya, Ndau, Nsenga, Tsonga-Shangani, Sotho, Tjwao, Tonga, Tswa, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.

WATCH: International Mother Language video


News Archive

Academic receives award for contribution to international congress
2007-07-26

 

Prof. Hendri Kroukamp, Programme Director of Public Sector Management at the University of the Free State (UFS) received an award at the joint congress of the International Institute for Administrative Sciences (IIAS) and the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) recently held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for his contribution to the scientific value of the conference. Prof. Kroukamp was re-elected as African representative on the board of management of IASIA. He also serves as chairperson of one of IASIA’s working groups, namely ‘Public administration training and education: aligning missions and quality’. Here is Prof Tienie Crous, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the UFS, congratulating Prof Kroukamp with the awarding of the prize.
Photo: Supplied

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