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)


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)


Language repertoires among hosts

7

Kiswahili

Kinyambo

Kinyakyusa

Kihaya Sukuma

Hindi

Arabic

Czech

German Dutch

French

Spanish

Italian

English


(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)



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


30 statements in my study

aim: 20/20

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


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.


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)


…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


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/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrVeRGo5IM

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)


Hakuna Matata (Swahili) an

expression of “African” culture?

18

Shop sign in a mall in Cape Town


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


Thank you!

Any questions or comments?

([email protected])


mailto:[email protected]



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.

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http://www.zanzibar.go.tz/index.php?rgo=tourism

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.


linguistic repertoires and language choices of south ... · 2019 on unguja island (stone town,...

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