Who speaks Chibrazi, the urban contact vernacular of Malawi?

Chibrazi, the urban contact vernacular of Malawi, is a mixed or hybrid variety that caricatures language contact and contact induced language change in the country. With time, the variety has evolved into an instrument of wider communication and developed in structure. Questions about the variety abound partly because the variety has not received much scholarly attention. One such question is: Who speaks this variety? This article provides some answers to this question as obtained from a case study that was conducted as part of a study that the author is conducting at the University of Pretoria, which is formulated as a descriptive analysis of the variety. The data was obtained through a questionnaire, follow-up interviews and observation. While the data that was obtained through the questionnaire was analysed statistically, the data from the interviews and observation was analysed thematically following the questions in the questionnaire.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rlms202015-07-30hb201

The amaXhosa ukuthwala marriage custom in fact and fiction: a contemporary critique

publisher versionUkuthwala is traditionally a marriage custom within the amaXhosa culture in South Africa which permits a ‘legal abduction’ of a bride-to-be. Similar customs of ‘bridal abduction’ exist, most notably in Kyrgyzstan, where it is known as ala kachuu. Research into these customs necessitates a more innovative approach to explore the impact of this social phenomenon. In this article the authors mobilise a fictional narrative to offer a backdrop for a comparative assessment of the impact of bridal ‘legal abduction’ and assess its contemporary status and role within a multicultural society which celebrates the rights of the individual while recognising the value and importance of maintaining cultural identity and traditions. Cultural dissonance has always been characteristic of modern and post-modern societies as they strive for a workable shared ethos. However, when customs such as ‘legal abduction’ (Mtuze, 1993:50) continue under the veil of cultural rights, the wider social sensibilities and perspectives can be at odds with the maintenance of such activities where these activities contradict the rights of the individual as enshrined for example in what can be seen as a liberal South African Constitution