Linguistic repertoires and language choices of South ... · 2019 on Unguja island (Stone Town,...
Transcript of Linguistic repertoires and language choices of South ... · 2019 on Unguja island (Stone Town,...
English with a twist Linguistic repertoires and language choices
of South African migrants in the tourism
industry of Zanzibar
INTPART meeting, 5 – 7 March 2019
Susanne Mohr, University of Cape Town
Liminality
S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019 2
… refers to individuals or entities that are neither here nor
there; they are betwixt and between (Derrida 1983)
Lim
inal square
d b
y J
ulie
Mehre
tu,
http://w
ww
.thecultura
lexpose.c
o.u
k/a
rts-
culture
/som
eth
ing
-you-s
hould
-see-j
ulie
-mehre
tu-lim
inal-
square
d-a
t-th
e-w
hite-
cube/
Migration and diaspora
African diaspora often outside the continent, South-South migration is a relevant topic though (e.g. Manger & Assal 2006)
Recent conceptualizations of diaspora are dynamic, “celebrations of ‘travelling’ or nomadic identities and living ‘in-between’ spaces and cultures” (Mavroudi 2007:7)
Vertovec (1997): 1. Diaspora as social form
2. Diaspora as type of consciousness
3. Diaspora as mode of cultural production
3 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Research setting
4
https://w
ww
.worldatlas.c
om
/aatlas/info
page/z
anzib
ar.
htm
S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Tourism in Africa, tourism in
Zanzibar
Africa accounts for 5% of global tourism (Sarmento &
Rink 2016)
Tourism & service sectors account for major part of Zanzibar’s economy
– 50% of the population employed in tourism, ca. 25% of the GDP (SMZ 2013)
– Zanzibaris: low skill jobs vs. foreign investors: owning large businesses vs. mainlanders: work migrants (Keshodkar 2013)
5 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Tourism and language
“Modern tourism accounts for the single largest peaceful movement of people across cultural boundaries in [...] the world” (Lett 1989:276)
→ fascinating sociolinguistic effects in super-diverse spaces (Vertovec 2007), language is commodified and re-contextualized under global capitalism (Jaworski & Thurlow 2010:256)
Tourism a work site in which language is produced and sold to a specific audience (Schedel 2018:139)
6 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Language repertoires among hosts
7
Kiswahili
Kinyambo
Kinyakyusa
Kihaya Sukuma
Hindi
Arabic
Czech
German Dutch
French
Spanish
Italian
English
S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
(mo
difie
d fro
m M
oh
r, fc.)
Afrikaans
Russian Kichagga
Giriama
South
African slang
English
used for
practical
reasons (Schneider
2016)?
English as
“multilingua
franca” (Jenkins 2015)
Data and methodology
Data: collected in Aug/Sept 2017, Dec 2018/Jan 2019 on Unguja island (Stone Town, Paje, Jambiani, Nungwi)
Semi-structured interviews with hosts (n=11, ca. 5h)
Videos of tours (ca. 17 min.)
Photos of linguistic landscape, souvenirs, promotional material
Questionnaires from tourists (n=46)
Field notes
Q-sorts + questionnaires + interviews (n=22 tourists, n=18 hosts)
8 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Data and methodology
Q-methodology for the study of subjectivity (Stephenson 1935)
1. Compilation of a concourse
2. Assembling a Q-sample
3. Choosing participants to sort the sample
4. Execution of a Q-sort by the participants
5. Conducting an inverse factor analysis
9 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
30 statements in my study
aim: 20/20
Data and methodology
10 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
11 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Data and methodology Pseudonym Origin Stay in ZNZ Occupation L1 Other lgs.
Charlie (CH) South Africa 3 weeks Shop
clerk/kite
surf
instructor
English Afrikaans,
learning
Kiswahili
Thomas
(TH)
South Africa 10 years Kite centre
manager
English French,
Kiswahili
Saidi (SAI) Zanzibar Born in ZNZ Tour guide/
student
Kiswahili English,
German
Mohammed
(MH)
Zanzibar Born in ZNZ Receptionist Kiswahili English,
Arabic,
Italian
12 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
All participants except TH are significantly (p < .01) associated with the viewpoint, CH
negatively
English…
“English for practical reasons”: Most important motivation for CH: uses it because he is most fluent in it (12: +4); similar to TH (12: +3)
feeling that English is understood by everyone (1: +1 for CH, 0 for TH), tourists frequently address them in English (24: +3 for CH, +1 for TH)
→ practical motivation (cf. Schneider 2016)
Don’t speak many other languages, CH wishes he could, felt bad after the interview and like he should take up learning Kiswahili again, TH generally nervous to speak foreign lgs.
13 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
English…
“Linguistic repertoire to show off”: Most important motivation for SAI & MH is showing off to others by using English (18: +4), which they feel is a sign of education (21: +2)
The same applies to using the tourists’ mother tongues (13: +1), which are seen as a sign of wealth (7: +1)
Practicality not important for using English, which they do not use reciprocally (24: -3) nor because they feel it is understood by everyone (1: -1)
→ Showing off a broad linguistic repertoire positions them well with respect to job opportunities (cf. Nassenstein 2016)
14 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
…with a twist
CH & TH do not speak Kiswahili proper, use “Hakuna Matata Swahili” (HMS) (Nassenstein, fc.)
Touristified, simplified version of Kiswahili, e.g. jambo without the person/negative prefix, hakuna matata instead of hakuna matatizo/hakuna shida
→ Widely used by tourists in Zanzibar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrVeRGo5IM )
Widely known due to presence of HMS in popular media, cf. recent motion by Walt Disney to trademark the phrase
16 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
htt
p:/
/em
pty
sp
ace
scin
em
a.c
om
/eve
nt/fa
rm-y
ard
-flic
ks-p
rese
nts
-dis
neys-lio
n-
kin
g/
The twist: Hakuna Matata Swahili
CH & TH use HMS for practical reasons:
tourists use it when they address them (CH, 25: +2), they feel it sounds nice (CH, 16: +2), tourists might like it (CH, 8: 0); also feel it is an expression of a general “African” culture (CH, 11: +1)
The Zanzibaris use HMS rarely:
if so to sell their goods/service (2: +2), don’t think it sounds nice (16: -2), don’t think it expresses “African” culture (11: -1)
17 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Hakuna Matata (Swahili) an
expression of “African” culture?
18
Shop sign in a mall in Cape Town
S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Postcard in a gift shop in Cape
Town
Conclusions
Liminality accounts for South Africans not learning Kiswahili proper, using HMS, a touristified practice
Diaspora among these participants a mode of cultural production (Vertovec 1997): related to globalization, involving the (re)production of a transnational social and cultural phenomenon
In touristic contexts, English (and other foreign languages) a skill to be invested in by Zanzibaris (cf. also Duchêne & Heller 2012)
Motivations for language choices in this super-diverse context are complex, not reducible to one single reason
19 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
Thank you!
Any questions or comments?
20 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019
References Derrida, J. (1983). Of grammatology. (G. C. Spivak, Trans.). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Duchêne, A., & M. Heller. 2012. Multilingualism and the new economy. In M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge, & A. Creese
(eds.) The Routledge handbook of multilingualism. New York: Routledge, 369-383.
Jaworksi, A. & C. Thurlow. 2010. The globalizing habitus of tourism: toward a sociolinguistics of fleeting relationships. In
N. Coupland (ed.) The handbook of language and globalization. Chichester et al.: Wiley-Blackwell, 255-286.
Jenkins, J. 2015. Repositioning English and multilingualism in English as a Lingua Franca. English in Practice 2(3): 49-
85.
Lett, J. 1989. Epilogue. In V. L. Smith (ed.) Hosts and guests: the anthropology of tourism. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 275-279.
Manger, L., &m. A. M. Assal (eds.). 2006. Diasporas within and without Africa: Dynamism, heterogeneity, variation.
Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.
Mavroudi, E. 2007. Diaspora as Process: (De)Constructing Boundaries. Geography Compass 1(3): 467-479.
Mohr, S. forthcoming. Jambo! I greet them with a smile. Language choices in greetings in commodified interactions
between tourists and hosts in Zanzibar. In S. Mohr, J. A. Anderson & K. P. Schneider (eds.) Communicative Action
and Interaction in Africa. John Benjamins.
Nassenstein, N. 2016. Mombasa’s Swahili-based ‘Coasti Slang’ in a superdiverse space: languages in contact on the
beach. African Study Monographs 37 (3): 117-143.
Nassenstein, N. forthcoming. The Hakuna Matata Swahili: Linguistic Souvenirs from the Kenyan Coast. In A. Mietzner &
A. Storch (eds.) Entanglements, Emblematic Codes and Languaging in Tourism. Bristol: Channel View.
Sarmento, J. & B. Rink. 2016. Africa. In J. Jafari & H. Xiao (ed.) Encyclopedia of tourism (Volume 1). Cham: Springer,
14-17.
Schedel, L. S. 2018. Turning local bilingualism into a touristic experience. Language Policy 17: 137-155.
Serikali ya Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar (SMZ). 2013. Tourism in Zanzibar. Available online at
http://www.zanzibar.go.tz/index.php?rgo=tourism, last accessed 22/01/2018.
Stephenson, W. 1935. Technique of factor analysis. Nature 136. 297.
Vertovec, S. 1997. Three Meanings of "Diaspora", Exemplified among South Asian Religions. Diaspora: A Journal of
Transnational Studies 6(3): 277-299.
Vertovec, S. 2007. Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(6): 1024-1054.
21
Acknowledgements
I am deeply thankful to all my participants for taking the time to talk to me and answer all my little, and big questions.
I am especially indebted to Abdulsatar Ali Mohammed for introducing me to people in and around Stone Town, and discussing my work with me.
I would like to thank my student assistants Judith and Sarah for their help with the transcription of the interviews.
The study is supported by a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, the fieldwork was supported by a research scholarship of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.
22 S. Mohr - INTPART meeting, Stellenbosch 2019