"Where art thou Sesotho?": Exploring the linguistic landscape of Wits University

A Panorama of Linguistic Landscape Studies

“…Until 1994, Afrikaans and English were treated strictly equally; afterwards, stamps became monolingual in English only and for the different denominations of coins and banknotes a rotation system for the 11 official languages was designed, although English was used more often. Similar results for the dominance of English in signage were found at various South African universities by Abongdia and Foncha (2014), Adekunle et al (2019) and Kadenge (2015), with the latter asking almost desperately: 'Where art thou Sesotho?' (see Chapter 10 for a discussion of these studies).…”

The current politics of African languages in Zimbabwe

“…Previous studies have argued that there has not been any meaningful language policy and planning in Zimbabwe (see, for example, Mkanganwi, 1992;Chimhundu, 1992Chimhundu, , 1993Viriri, 2003;Ndhlovu, 2009;Kadenge andNkomo, 2011a, 2011b;Ndlovu, 2013).The point has been made that Zimbabwe's language situation is largely a colonial inheritance. Attempts to define the language position of the country have over the years been punctuated by policy positions orchestrated mainly by regional efforts.…”

“…Nevertheless, whether overt or covert, 'language policy is ever present' (Bamgbose, 2003: 149). In fact, 'the real language policy of a political and social entity should be observed not merely through declared policy statements but rather through a variety of devices that are used to perpetuate language practices, often in covert and implicit ways' (Shohamy, 2006: 46;Kadenge, 2015).…”

“…The language policy is usually inferred from the language practices that characterise various spheres of life (Kadenge andNkomo, 2011a, 2011b). This is not unusual, as Bamgbose (1991Bamgbose ( , 2003 has established that the unavailability of a written language policy does not mean that there is no policy.…”

Ready-to-wear sexual politics: The semiotics of visibility on Wits Pride T-shirts

“…In this respect, it should be noted that in 2003 Wits adopted a policy through which it "commits itself to multilingualism and the phased development of Sesotho as a language that can be used as a medium of instruction together with English" (University of the Witwatersrand 2003: 5). The Wits Transformation logo is one of the very few semiotic artefacts in the linguistic landscape of the university that reflects this policy, and therefore should be given some degree of credit for promoting bilingualism on campus (see also Kadenge (2015) for a linguistic landscape analysis of Wits campus). On the other hand, the placement of the Sesotho text beneath the English text shows that English is given visual priority.…”