Zimbabwe 4

Listen to Zimbabwe 4, a 34-year-old woman from Mutare, Zimbabwe. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject. 

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 34

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/11/1983

PLACE OF BIRTH: Mutare, Zimbabwe

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Black/Shona

OCCUPATION: au pair

EDUCATION: O-level; certificate in childcare

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject was born, raised, and educated in Zimbabwe but moved to Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband in 2009. She was still living and working there at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

In South Africa, she communicates with the local population in English.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/01/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I’m from Zimbabwe. I was born in Mutare, in a mountainous area, near Nyanga Mountains. I grew up going to a school, Seventh Day Adventists Primary School, and a secondary school that was Kariri Adventists Secondary School. That’s where I grew up; that’s where I did my education, from Grade 1 up to my Grade 12. We call it an O-level in Zimbabwe.

I was — I finished my O-level at, in 2000, and I was married in 2003. Right there. So, I had my first son in 2004, as I was married, and that’s where I start to decide, like, OK, education is very important. It was in 2009, and I left my son with my mom, and we come here in South Africa. I first, and yeah, I first worked, worked, like, as a cleaner, actually. And you see, sometimes you meet different people in life. You meet kind people; you meet terrible people; you meet good people. So it’s — pushes me until I decided for myself, like, no ways! I think I need more education; I need to do something to help myself; I can’t work, like, as a cleaner the whole lot of my life. It’s not going to work for me.

Nadia, it’s not very easy to look after someone’s child, but I’ll tell you what: I am very passionate, and I am very strict. New mothers: Sometimes they’re difficult to handle. But you need to know who are you, why am I here, what is my job description say?

Sometimes she’s a bit tough, and she wants to do like unnecessary things like smacking, and what, so I introduced, as for me, because I did it even to my kids: I give a time-out. If the child didn’t listen, I give a time-out. But before I do this, I settle a meeting with the mom.

In Zimbabwe, we speak Shona. Like, there is a lot of different, er, Shona. Zezurus: They’re from Harare, going to Morewa, like that. I am a Manyika. I come from Mutare. So I’m married to a Zezuru guy. So we can speak Shona, but there is, the Shona is different. It’s like: “It’s very good to have education.” [Subject speaks in Shona.] So it’s important to have education. It’s important to know what you’re doing. [Subject continues to speak in Shona.] And just very good to behave, to be a well-behaved person.

Now wait, I want, I mean that lullaby, I used to, it’s like ages ago [subject laughs], and I just ignore it. Then, ja, I can sing for you one. [Subject sings in Shona.] We can hold the child and sing like that, so if, especially when they’re crying: “Stop crying. Why are you crying? What did you see? What happened? Do you have pain?”

Er, I’m going to sing this for you; it’s like: “These days, there is a lot of diseases around. If you got your wife or your husband, stick to that!” [Subject sings in Shona.] So it’s like: “Wherever your husband go, wherever — be together!”

TRANSCRIBED BY: Nadia Barnard

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/01/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

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• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

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