aZ'jwbvzia (2001), XXVIII (i).BOOK REVIEWSDuramazwi Rechishona, By Herbert Chimhundu, Harare, College Press.1996, 504 pp.The term Duramazwi (Kudura: to reveal, explain; mazwr words), to renderthe English word "dictionary", has been in use in Shona for some time. Itoccurs in M. Hannan's Standard Shona Dictionary^ and in I). Dale'sDuramazwi: A Shona-English Dictionary2 The title of the work underreview indicates that it is a dictionary of Shona in Shona, in which theresources of the language are used for the first time lexicographically toanalyse and describe itself. In this important and original aspect, it differsfrom the two predecessors mentioned, namely, in being completelymonolingual. It is the work of a team led by Dr. H. Chimhundu that isundertaking an ambitious and formidable project code-named ALLEXC ,,i -can Languages Lexical Project) which seeks to compile monolinguald" t;;>naries in all the African languages of Zimbabwe.The first phase of the ALLEX project was formally launched at uw> kshop held at the University of Zimbabwe in 1992 in whichlexicographers and computer experts from the Universities of Oslo andGothenburg also participated. The publication of Duramazwi Rechishonafour years later demonstrated the efficient dedication and enthusiasm ofthe ALLEX team. Having used the dictionary over a period of somemonths, this reviewer can testify to the almost complete absence ofmisprints or misplacements; no small achievement for a group of editorsfaced with an exacting work schedule.SCOPEDuramazwi Rechishona is a medium-sized, general-purpose dictionarydesigned to be inexpensive and easy to handle. It is well printed withdifferent kinds of type, signalling the movement from headword tosynonyms in the treatment of each major entry. The components of atypical major entry are: the headword, in large bold lower-case roman;the tone pattern, indicated by sequences of plain upper-case letters Kand D, standing for high and low tone, respectively; the type of word inquestion, described by an abbreviated label in standard lower-case roman;a number or numbers, in the case of a noun, indicating the class to whichit and any irregular plural forms belong; an explanation of the meaning or1 M. Hannan, Standard Shona Dictionary, 2nd edition (Salisbury, Rhodesia Literature Bureau,1974).2 D. Dale, Duramazwi: A Shona-English Dictionary (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1981).121122 BOOK REVIEWSmeanings in lower-case roman, with the headword, when referred to,printed in italics; an illustrative example of examples in italics of theheadword in context; finally, synonyms, printed in italics under the rubricFAN, which stands for "Similar forms". For example:Chibage DDK z 7>6. Chibage imbeu inorimwa ichiita vana vane tsangadzinogaiwa kuita upfu hunobika sadza. Baba vakarima chibage chogaFAN magwere 6, mabarwe 6.(Maize: Maize is a plant which is cultivated and produces cobs withgrains which are ground to make flour for cooking stiff porridge.Father has cultivated only maize).The number of headwords listed is a modest 16 000, but the editorsclaim that the number of words included in the dictionary is much larger.Variants, differing only slightly in form, are entered within bracketsimmediately after the headword. Many synonyms are listed which receiveno more than a simple mention, while many headwords are homonyms.In such cases, each of the several meanings receives an explanation and,often, an example of usage under the single homonomous headword. Allthese formatting devices are in the interest of economy of space andcost.The work has a three-fold aim. The first is to provide a medium-sizeddictionary aimed at teachers and students of higher classes to assistthem understand and teach the structure of their language through theprovision, for the first time, of a technical terminology in Shona, dealingwith its linguistic features. Teachers and students of Shona are morelikely to need to consult a dictionary than others and to make use of itscontents in the course of their daily lives as well as to mediate itscontents to others. For the ordinary reader, such a work of reference canprovide, with ease and understanding, the meaning, use, and function ofwords such as would not be so easily or fully grasped if conveyed in, andthen translated from, a foreign language as has been the case hitherto.The second aim is to provide a "word hoard" (dura romutauro wose:lit. "a barn to store the whole language" Š a conscious pun on thehomophony between dura: "a granary" and "dura" "reveal"). Thus,contributions from all the dialects and regional forms are sought to swellthe wealth of vocabulary of the unitary language, which is the property,and inheritance of all. These contributions result in a good deal ofsynonymity. In their treatment of synonyms, the editors take into accountthe usage of the majority of speakers, widely used forms receiving the fullformat with definition and exemplification, while forms with a narrowerdistribution are entered as headwords in a shorter format in whichreaders are referred to the main entry. This procedure is a straightforwardand economical way of promoting the unification of the language, whilereflecting its inner differentiation of use.BOOK REVIEWS 1?3Editorial revision may be needed here to provide more consistencyin the cross-referencing between headwords of full entries and theirsynonyms. It is important, in order to realise the aims of the dictionary,to unite linguistically all members of the Shona-speaking community, thatall synonyms should be clearly and consistently cross-referenced. Toemphasise this unity, synonyms, whether accorded the treatment ofheadwords or merely listed, are no longer labelled for dialectal origin asthe editors feel such labels to be now unacceptable.The dictionary realises the ideal for which the Reverend B. H. Barnes,the first editor and compiler of a unified Shona dictionary, argued nearlyseventy years ago. He wrote:Let us have a dictionary which shall include all the vocabularies in onealphabetical order, printed in the common orthography... The variousdialectal areas will all be able to use the dictionary, for their own wordswill be in it, and at the same time, they will be getting familiar with thewords found in other dialects ... In a generation or two, we shall haveadvanced perceptibly towards a common language, not by the road ofconquest, but by the road of peaceful interpenetration. Is it not truethat we English of all parts of the English-speaking world have beenbrought to share a common speech very largely by the unifying influenceof the dictionary? The Bible and Shakespeare have done much, but itmay be argued that Dr Johnson has done even more.3The third aim, the animating heart of the project, is to promote thestatus and use of the language. The dictionary, it is hoped, will help tomake people use it appositively in widening areas of life, and to value it asconferring self-respect and the means towards a better and developedstandard of life. This will be achieved by self-help and greater participationthrough the medium of the mother tongue in affairs at all levels. Towardsthe full realisation of this end, dictionaries of other kinds, other degreesof completeness, and other languages, will be needed. DuramazwiReChishona is a mere beginning.It is up to those whose mother tongue it is to realise that theirlanguage is capable of developing into a medium able to express andcommunicate to people at all levels the concerns, aims and techniques ofnational development. Having seen the potential and the first steps ofgrowth towards the status of a national language which enshrines bothindigenous cultural values and is actively adaptable towards the breadthof modern knowledge and the applications of science, it is up to them toactually realise this growth. However, confronting such growth is notonly the effort of adaptation, somewhat like that of a rose creeper covering3 B. H. Barnes, "A Campaign against Babel: The Unification of Dialects of Mashonaland" InNADA 6(1928), 50.124 BOOK REVIEWSa wall, but competition with the official language to which it would adapt,and which, at present, is so much more powerful, necessary for externalcontacts, and efficient in the fields to which the editors hope to seeShona develop. Yet, indigenous speakers are able to make the effort andthe example of the editors, themselves all indigenous speakers of Shona,lies before them.The metalanguage, or the technical language about itself, which theeditors present, partly assembled from current use and partly speciallydevised, is listed in three columns of (1) abbreviations, (2) Shona termsin full, and (3) English equivalents. For example:z Zita NounThis triple column is, itself, triplicated to allow each of the threecolumns, alphabetically arranged, to provide an index for cross-reference.The editors expect these lists, and the lists of noun class prefixes andverbal extensions, both with examples, to be a help towards the teachingof Shona through the medium of Shona at all levels from the primaryclasses up to University courses. It is in the field of linguistics andliterature that the first devising of technical terminology is being made.SELECTION OF HEADWORDSTo the editors, seeking at once to promote both unification anddevelopment, the selection of what words to include in their dictionaryto present problems of choice call for a great deal of care. We have seenhow the question of dialectal diversity has been dealt with. The diversityarising from culturally determined styles of speech proper to intimate ordistant relationships, the occasions on which veiled and allusive speechalternates with direct and open language, and the further developmentswithin slang are not treated. Questions like these, as also the presence ofthe spoken dialects and their relation to the standard literary language,await treatment in the larger dictionary now being compiled.A second problematic aspect of word selection arises from theadaptable nature of language as it suits itself to the needs of life. Thegreater the growth and development of adaptation, the more numerousare the innovations. The editors' task is to discriminate betweenneologisms which, being the result of passing fashion, are quick todisappear, and those which strike deeper roots and persist, sometimesunexpectedly. For example, chikafu (English: scoff, food), futseki (Afrikaans:voertsek, "Be off), and hobho (Afrikaans: hoop; English: a heap) havesurvived. Modern inventions are naturalised at once, for example firiji(English: fridge) and kombiyuta (English: computer). Some adoptives havebeen in use for a long time, for example, mbanje (Indian hemp or bhang),BOOK REVIEWS 125ndarama (gold, cp. Arabic daraham, "coins") and sinyoro (a praise nameof the Njanja clan, adopted from the Portuguese "senhor"). However,particularly since independence, Shona and Ndebele are being increasinglyused in business, central and local government, commerce, industry,mining, agriculture, education, health, advertising, broadcasting, andtelevision, all areas which create pressure for term creation.The two bilingual dictionaries mentioned earlier have provided aprimary source for entries. Dale's Duramazwi: A Basic Shona-EnglishDictionaiy had gone some way towards being monolingual in thatdefinitions are partly in Shona and partly in English. It was drawn uponfor the majority of its entries. These were supplemented by choosingwords of wide distribution from Hannan's Standard Shona Dictionary, amassive work of some 54 000 entries but still far from being complete.Research for Duramazwi ReChishona was able to discover many wordsnot contained in it. The availability of these two earlier works obviouslyfacilitated and expedited the production of Duramazwi ReChishona.In order to make the selection of entries as widely representative oflife as possible withjn the compass of a general purpose, medium-sizeddictionary, the editors ensured that their nets were cast widely. Areasresearched were schools and colleges, especially for terms coveringlanguage and literature, the media, sports and sporting, churches, tradeand commerce. Thus, Duramazwi ReChishona is a corpus-aided dictionary,using language that has actually come from the mouths or pens of Shonaspeakers themselves.FORMATThe editors have followed the cobuild-type of format for their definitions.According to the editors,Each definition consists of a complete sentence, so that the user isshown the word as it appears in natural language use. Such a definitionillustrates both the typical grammatical context and the typical use ofthe word. From the user's point of view, this method of defining isparticularly useful for an inflecting language like Shona, whereheadwords are not necessarily orthographic words.4A good example is the following:-famba K it. Kufamba Kubva pane imwe nzuimbo pane imwe, netsokakana kuti uchishandisa mudziyo, senge bhasikoro kana motokari kanachitima. Rwendo rurefu rwakadai harudi kufamba netsoka.(To travel is to go from one place to another, on foot or by using aThe editorial team, "Response to Professor G. Kahari's Review of Duramazwi ReChishona"Harare, The Herald, 20 March, 1997, Features Section, 2-7.126 BOOK REVIEWSconveyance such as a bicycle, a motor car or a train. Such a longjourney is not to be travelled on foot).It is interesting to compare this entry with that given in Hannan'sStandard Shona Dictionary which follows a more traditional format.-famba [H] KkoMZ v t & i Move. Walk. Progress. Journey. Travel. Nyokainofamba nedumbu: a snake moves on its stomach. (H indicates hightone, KkoMZ, the dialects concerned, v t & i stand for "verb, transitiveand intransitive".In many cases, the definition of a headword is so informative thatthere is no need for a further sentence as an illustrative example of use.Of course, the definition of a headword cannot cover all the sensesinhering in it. Its aim is to present "the typical case" in such a way thatthe meaning is clear and the user is enabled to become aware of its useand further applications, and to use it in sentences of his own. When thedefinition is not sufficient of itself, then an example must be provided toclarify it further, always by way of a complete sentence.The advantage of adhering closely to a formatting system is that,once a particular format has been agreed upon, then headwords of thesame constituent class (noun, verb, ideophone etc.) can be defined in aconsistent way. The Introduction to Duramazwi ReChishona describesthe different defining formats used for nouns (five types of sentence),verb stems (two), adjectives (two), ideophones (two), and others (two)!By following these, the dictionary attains a high degree of consistency.The introduction to the dictionary ends with an explanation of therubrics which provide descriptive linguistic information about theheadwords which is complementary to that supplied by the definitionsand examples. This information is helpful to those who are not used toconsulting dictionaries.Altogether, this is a remarkable publication, worthy of note from anumber of aspects. It is remarkable in being among the very first ofmonolingual dictionaries of an African language; in the consistency andrational character of its early planning, its preliminary research itstargeting of the most effective section of the public in view of the furtheraims of the dictionary programme, and its designedly well-timedcollaboration with professional and technical expertise of the mo*advanced kind. It is remarkable also in being such a positive response tothe cha lenge of independence, inspired by the belief in the potential ofnational languages to liberate and unite their speakers' energies inhetask of national development. s neIn its execution, it has given a very good example of collaboration inthat it is the work of a dedicated team aided enthusiastically by helo froma number of national agencies. The team has already embarked on"BOOK REVIEWS 127further stage of its enterprise, a large Shona dictionary, making muchmore use of the information stored, and a medium-sized Ndebeledictionary, similar to that which we have been reviewing. In the words ofDuramazwi ReChishona, we can say: "Mazviita, musanete namangwana!(Thank you for what you have done! Keep it up, tomorrow as well!)England GEORGE FORTUNEEnvironmental Security In Southern Africa, Edited by Daniel Tevera andSam Moyo, Harare, SARIPS, 2000, ISBN 1-77905-101-8, 236 pp.Environmental Security in Southern Africa is a compilation of selectedpapers presented at the SAPES Trust Colloquium on RegionalEnvironmental Security and Natural Resources held In 1998. Consisting of13 articles grouped In four sections under the following themes:Environmental Security Frameworks, Land Use, Water Conflicts andInsecurity and Cross-Cutting Issues, the book seeks "to provide a coherenttreatment of key themes in relation to contemporary environmentalsecurity In the region".The first section on Environment Security Frameworks contains papersby Sam Moyo and Daniel Tevera, Meena Singh and Backson Slbanda.Moyo and Tevera's paper, 'Regional Environmental Security In SouthernAfrica', opens with an observation that, hitherto, the study ofenvironmental security has been an "eclectic and multldlacipllnary effortInformed by a variety of analytic perspectives'. It contends that what Isneeded Is a multl-factoral approach to understanding the various social,economic, ecological and political Influences on the demand, utilizationand management of natural resources. Such an approach, It Is argued, isbest suited to providing solutions to environmental conflict In the region.Meena Singh's paper, entitled 'Environmental (In) security: Loss ofIndigenous Knowledge and Environmental Degradation In Africa1 analysesland and environmental development and conservation strategies amongthe Afar of Ethiopia and Basuto of Lesotho and highlights two criticalfactors in environmental security. These are: a historical perspective toenvironmental Insecurity, famine and poverty In Africa, and the need tofuse local Indigenous knowledge systems to build sustainableenvironmental security. Singh concludes that the state's "imposition ofconservation measures upon an unconsulted rural farming communitywas at beat unsuccessful and at worst harmful to the environment".In 'Community Participation: NGOs and IGOs in Nature Management'Backson Slbanda argues that the era of liberalization and globalizationhas brought to the fore Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and