M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / South Africa can be metaphorically described as a quilt – a combination of diverse languages, ethnicities, beliefs and cultural practices, carefully stitched together and passed on from one generation to the next. South African children grow and develop surrounded by the comfort and warmth of this colourful quilt. Although this provides a rich and dynamic learning environment, we face the challenge of providing equal quality education and educational psychological services to all our children. Psychological testing aids with the deeper understanding of an individual’s area of development and strengths in order to be able to make informed decisions about appropriate interventions, support and recommendations. However, due to South Africa’s problematic political past, psychological testing is faced with challenges of its own such as unavailability of tests that are culturally sensitive. This study forms part of a longitudinal study which is addressing this challenge by implementing a localized solution to a local problem, at an affordable cost. The Junior South African Intelligence Scale (JSAIS) is an instrument which measures the intelligence of 3- to 7-year-old children, and is currently standardised for Afrikaans and English-speaking children only. In an effort to eliminate the language barrier and make it more applicable of our South African population, the JSAIS GIQ-8 was translated into Sesotho and isiZulu. In previous studies, the translated tests were administered and a Rasch measure of analysis used to determine the quality of the items in relation to the ability of the participants. This exploratory qualitative study focuses on acquiring recommendations from a panel of people experienced in administering the JSAIS with the aim to improve the quality of the Sesotho JSAIS. Findings show that the Sesotho used in the initial translation is a pure form of Sesotho and participants are concerned that children living in townships around the country may not understand this well. The participants recommend administration to a wider sample group to learn more about the Sesotho dialects used in different regions of South Africa. A Sesotho manual needs to be added to guide administrators in regional word use and in providing standard instructions. The answer sheets needs to be adapted. Some of the pictures on the picture cards need to be changed and the Sesotho questions on those picture cards added as appendices...

This PhD thesis provides a morpho-syntactic description of Northern Sotho from a computational perspective. While a number of publications describe morphological and syntactical aspects of this language, may it be in the form of prescriptive study books (inter alia Lombard (1985); Van Wyk et al. (1992); Poulos and Louwrens (1994)) or of descriptive articles in linguistic journals or conference proceedings (inter alia Anderson and Kotz´e (2006); Kosch (2006); De Schryver and Taljard (2006)), so far no comprehensive description is available that would provide a basis for developing a rule-based parser to analyse Northern Sotho on sentence level. This study attempts to fill the gap by describing a substantial grammar fragment. Therefore, Northern Sotho morpho-syntactic phenomena are explored which results in the following descriptions: <ul> <li> language units of Northern Sotho are identified, i.e. the tokens and words that form the language. These are sorted into word class categories (parts of speech), using the descriptions of Taljard et al. (2008) as a basis; </li> <li> the formal relationships between these units, wherever possible on the level of parts of speech, are described in the form of productive morpho-syntactic phrase grammar rules. These rules are defined within the framework of generative grammar. <br></li> </ul> Additionally, an attempt is made to find generalisations on the contextual distribution of the many items contained in verbs which are polysemous in terms of their parts of speech. The grammar rules described in the preceding chapter are now explored in order to find patterns in the co-occurrence of parts of speech leading towards a future, more general linguistic modelling of Northern Sotho verbs. It is also shown how a parser could work his way step-by-step doing an analysis of a complete sentence making use of a lexicon and the rules developed here. We have also implemented some relevant phrase grammar rules as a constraint-based grammar fragment, in line with the theory of Lexical-Functional Grammar (Kaplan and Bresnan, 1982). Here, we utilized the Xerox Linguistic Environment (XLE) with the friendly permission of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). Lastly, the study contains some basic definitions for a proposed machine translation (MT) into English attempting to support the development of MT-rules. An introduction to MT and a first contrastive description of phenomena of both languages is provided. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / African Languages / unrestricted

Bibliography: pages 368-396. / This thesis examines how Lesotho came to depend on the export of its men to South African mines; what the experiences of these men were; and how all this impacted on Basotho society during the years between c.1890 and 1940. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the context and dynamics of labour migration and recruitment in Lesotho during the late 1880s to the late 1930s. This Part lays the basis for subsequent sections by showing which sections of Basotho opted for labour migrancy; and why it was men and not women who, initially at least, became migrants. In discussing the decline of the Basotho economy in the 1920s and 1930s, this section also shows how this was characterised not only by dependence on migrants' earnings, but also by the orientation to and concentration of Basotho labour on the Witwatersrand gold mines. Part II discusses various themes relating to life and conditions on the mines and in the compounds during the period up to c.1940. While specific note is taken of the African miners' death and accident rate, most attention is devoted to the various ways which Basotho miners developed for dealing with the sickness, death and destitution befalling their compatriots in the compounds and on the mines. Conversion to Christianity was an important part of some miners experience, as church forums and the bible could be used for recreational purposes, while literacy classes imparted many with essential skills which could lead to promotion on the mine. But competition for promotion and favours, as well as conflicting survival strategies, often resulted in violent conflict among African miners. Although some scholars have mistakenly attributed such conflict to ethnic factors alone, this thesis argues for an approach which is simultaneously historically and materially grounded. Part III, by using the case of infectious and occupational diseases, and prostitution and commercial beer-brewing, traces and analyses the impact of the migrant labour system on Lesotho. The thesis shows how the spread to Lesotho of such diseases as syphilis and tuberculosis was directly linked to contact with South African towns and mining centres through wage labour. Beer canteens and brothels emerged and flourished in colonial Lesotho not only because of the decline of the country's economy and the breakdown of Basotho social structures, but also because these establishments serviced the migrant labour traffic itself. The significance of this study lies in two areas. Historiographically, this study seeks to contribute to migrant labour studies in Lesotho in particular and Southern Africa in general. Its approach stands between economism which attributes the causes of labour migrancy solely to economic factors, and those paradigms which privilege ideas and culture over material factors. There is a dialectical interplay between material factors and ideas, although the former ultimately determines the latter. Secondly, the significance of this study lies in the fact that many of the issues raised, especially those in Part III, continue to pose serious problems for Basotho people and their government to this day. Knowing something about the origins and history of these problems may contribute to finding lasting solutions. This study, therefore, is about Lesotho, Basotho, and the mines.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Eurocentric literature has contributed towards the understanding of homosexuality for centuries. However, there is very little literature on perceptions of homosexuality from an African perspective. Based on this historical gap, the aim of the current study was to explore Northern Sotho traditional healers’ perceptions of homosexuality in the Capricorn District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This was with the intention of documenting themes pertinent to Northern Sotho culture regarding homosexuality. Ten (10) participants (7 females and 3 males) were interviewed in the current study and they were selected using snowball sampling. Data was collected using individual face-to-face interviews guided by semi-structured questions and analysed using Thematic content analysis (TCA). The study was underpinned by Afrocentricity. The main themes and sub-themes which emerged from the data analysis were: homosexuality threatens family structure and values; homosexuality is regarded as a taboo and a disgrace; homosexuality and ancestral calling; historical evidence of homosexuality; homosexuality is confusing; homosexuality and western culture; homosexuality and cleansing (mourning process); homosexuality, traditional healing and ancestral calling; homosexuality and initiation schools as well as proposed interventions to curb homosexuality. The results of the study suggest that understanding homosexuality is not consistent with Northern Sotho culture. The study contributes to knowledge and information within Northern Sotho culture and offers suggestions for indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), academic training, policy development and legislation in terms of homosexuality and the indigenous culture. The study also offers guidelines, which health care workers and any other relevant personnel who work closely with homosexuals, should be cognisant of. Furthermore, valuable lessons were also reasoned from the current study in terms of homosexuality and Northern Sotho culture in the area where the research took place.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Translation Studies and Linguistics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Refer to ducoment

Bibliography: pages 131-146. / There is presently considerable debate as to the forms of relationships established between hunter-gatherers and their non-forager neighbours and whether relationships which are documented as having been established significantly affected these hunter-gatherer societies. In southern Africa, particular attention has been paid to the effects of such contact on hunter- gatherer communities of the south-western Cape and the Kalahari. The aim of this thesis has been to assess the nature and extent of relationships established between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities and to identify the extent to which the establishment of these relationships may have brought about changes in the political, social and religious systems of south- eastern hunter-gatherers. General patterns characterising interaction between a number of San and non-San hunter-gatherer societies and farming communities outside the study area are identified and are combined with archaeological and historiographical information to model relationships between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities. The established and possible effects of these relationships on some south-eastern San groups are presented as well as some of the possible forms in which changes in San religious ideology and ritual practice resultant upon contact were expressed in the rock art. It is suggested that the ideologies of many south-eastern San communities, rather than being characterised by continuity throughout the contact period, were significantly influenced by the ideological systems of the southern Nguni and Sotho and that paintings at the caves of Melikane and upper Mangolong, as well as comments made upon these paintings by the 19th century San informant, Qing, should be interpreted with reference to the religious ideologies and ritual practices of the southern Nguni and Sotho as well as those of the San. Other rock paintings in areas where contact between the south-eastern San and black farming communities was prolonged and symbiotic may need to be similarly interpreted.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Eurocentric literature has contributed towards the understanding of homosexuality for centuries. However, there is very little literature on perceptions of homosexuality from an African perspective. Based on this historical gap, the aim of the current study was to explore Northern Sotho traditional healers’ perceptions of homosexuality in the Capricorn District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This was with the intention of documenting themes pertinent to Northern Sotho culture regarding homosexuality. Ten (10) participants (7 females and 3 males) were interviewed in the current study and they were selected using snowball sampling. Data was collected using individual face-to-face interviews guided by semi-structured questions and analysed using Thematic content analysis (TCA). The study was underpinned by Afrocentricity. The main themes and sub-themes which emerged from the data analysis were: homosexuality threatens family structure and values; homosexuality is regarded as a taboo and a disgrace; homosexuality and ancestral calling; historical evidence of homosexuality; homosexuality is confusing; homosexuality and western culture; homosexuality and cleansing (mourning process); homosexuality, traditional healing and ancestral calling; homosexuality and initiation schools as well as proposed interventions to curb homosexuality. The results of the study suggest that understanding homosexuality is not consistent with Northern Sotho culture. The study contributes to knowledge and information within Northern Sotho culture and offers suggestions for indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), academic training, policy development and legislation in terms of homosexuality and the indigenous culture. The study also offers guidelines, which health care workers and any other relevant personnel who work closely with homosexuals, should be cognisant of. Furthermore, valuable lessons were also reasoned from the current study in terms of homosexuality and Northern Sotho culture in the area where the research took place. Keywords: Afrocentricity, Culture, Homosexuality, Northern Sotho, Traditional Healer.

Thesis (M. A. (Northern Sotho)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / There is nothing new on earth. Every text is the repetition of another text, or other things already existing. This study reflects on the texts leaning thematically on other texts. It does so by critically examining the intertexts which shaped O.K. Matsepe’s four novels, namely Lešitaphiri (1963), Megokgo ya Bjoko (1968), Kgorong ya Mošate (1962) and Mahlatse a Madimabe (1981). By revealing the intertexts, it is hoped that a maximum understanding of the novels by this outstanding author is reached. Underpinned by intertextual theory, this study adopted a qualitative approach to allow a better understanding of the identified phenomena. The four novels were purposevily sampled due to their relevancy to the topic under discussion. The study employed content analysis to thoroughly analyse data which were collected using a document review method. The discussion and findings of the study clearly indicates that the Bible and culture are the two main sources which influenced Matsepe’s writing. This research contributes to the existing knowledge as it scrutinises Matsepe’s philosophical novels which are still relevant to the current epoch and beyond.

Colonialism in Africa had an impact on the indigenous peoples of Africa and this is shown in some of their games. The purpose of this study is to gain deeper insight into Basotho children's games and to demonstrate that the Western ideas of music and games are not necessarily the same as Basotho folk children's conceptions. The literature on Basotho children's games is reviewed though not much has been contributed by early and present Basotho writers who have generally approached it from the angle of literature without transcribing the songs. The Sesotho word for games (lipapali) embraces entertainment but a further investigation of it shows that aspects of learning of which the children were aware in some cases and in others they were not aware, are present. These are supported by musical examples and texts. The definition of play versus games is treated (with regard to infants and children) and these two concepts are still receiving constant attention and investigation by scholars and researchers as the words are synonymous and can be misleading. Infants' play is unorganised and spontaneous while games are organised structures. Furthermore, play and games are important in child development education. In this study, they are given attention in order to lay the foundation for the understanding and interpretation of games used in both cultures. It is a misconception that African children's games are accompanied with music in the Western sense. Hence, the word `music' in Sesotho children's games takes on a different connotation from those in the West. Music' in Sesotho children's games embraces not only tunes that are sung, but game verses chanted in a rhythmic manner as opposed to spoken verse. Yet, mino (music) exists in Sesotho and is equivalent to the Western idea. These chanted rhythms and games are analysed against the backdrop of specific cultural dimensions for children depending on the function of the game played. The results of this study indicated that though the idea of music in children's games is not the same, games are an educational in character building and learning. Recommendations are made for educationists and music educators. / ART HIST, VIS ARTS & MUSIC / DLITT ET PHIL (MUSICOLOGY)