Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Producing Print
- Part II Readers and Audiences
- Part III New Genres
- Chapter 11 Linguistic Cohabitation and the Equivalences of Print
- Chapter 12 Autoethnographic Expression and the Politics of Educational Adaptation
- Chapter 13 Satirical Street Literature
- Chapter 14 Pioneers of the Popular
- Chapter 15 Orthographic Arguments
- Chapter 16 ‘Usefully Unofficial’ Reading
- Part IV Worlds of Print
- Index
- References
Chapter 15 - Orthographic Arguments
Language Debates in Swati Newspapers of the 1950s and 1960s
from Part III - New Genres
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2025
Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Producing Print
- Part II Readers and Audiences
- Part III New Genres
- Chapter 11 Linguistic Cohabitation and the Equivalences of Print
- Chapter 12 Autoethnographic Expression and the Politics of Educational Adaptation
- Chapter 13 Satirical Street Literature
- Chapter 14 Pioneers of the Popular
- Chapter 15 Orthographic Arguments
- Chapter 16 ‘Usefully Unofficial’ Reading
- Part IV Worlds of Print
- Index
- References
Summary
African newspapers could be important conduits for debates around language and identity; more than that, newspapers were often the very crucible through which new African languages emerged. This chapter tells the twentieth-century story of the emergence of a codified written form of siSwati, the vernacular language of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Yet the appearance of siSwati was far from straightforward, and it appeared relatively late in the day, only around the 1960s. Earlier Swati intellectuals had largely used the language of neighbouring South Africa – isiZulu – for their print innovations. By the 1950s, a new interest in a written form of siSwati emerged in step with nationalist aspirations. Yet evidence from African-language newspapers shows us that the development of siSwati was fraught, dissent-filled, and uneven. The periodic and decentralized nature of the mid-century African newspaper made these kinds of debates possible, reminding us of the important orthographic work accomplished by print periodicals.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African Literature in TransitionPrint Cultures and African Literature, 1860–1960, pp. 294 - 312Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
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