Jane Fuse expected to play host to launch of Sepedi Ancestral Voices Writings

JANE FURSE – As part of intensifying the Decade of Indigenous Languages programme, The Limpopo Department of Sport, Arts and Culture together with the South African Heritage Publishers have embarked on a massive drive of ancestral voices project.

The third leg of the Sepedi Ancestral Voices Writings’ launch is scheduled to take place later this year in Sekhukhune District.

The ceremony is expected to bring together traditional leaders, pastors and bishops, school learners, Commission for Promotion and Protection of Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, Provincial Language Committee and Provincial Social Cohesion and Nation Building Committee, with emphasis on the importance of preserving history, culture and languages as a means of communication.

Its launch in Sekhukhune District, scheduled for the Jane Furse Lutheran Church within the Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality for the third quarter, is aimed at promoting reading and writing in indigenous languages whilst making communities aware of the great work done by the writes of the unique 891 writings produced between 1920 and 1950 by African authors.

According to the department, the project is also about elevating the status of Limpopo’s indigenous languages, further securing the future of the past through language preservation.

The Vhembe District has already launched the second phase of the project in the last financial year. The Xitsonga Ancestral Writings’ opening was held over a week ago at the Presbyterian Church while in Mopani it took place at Shiluvane Village in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality at the same church in recognition of the role played by the Presbyterian Church in the development of writings of the Xitsonga language.