Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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The research bases on the discussion from ordinary Ugandans about the government education system of the thematic curriculum. The thematic curriculum is being applied in the lower primary schools...Show moreThe research bases on the discussion from ordinary Ugandans about the government education system of the thematic curriculum. The thematic curriculum is being applied in the lower primary schools of Uganda, and the research intends to determine the extent to which the ordinary Ugandans understand the entire policy atlarge.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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The present study seeks to investigate the body part nomenclature and partonomy of the Bantu language Xhosa and to explore its semantics by looking at the conventionalised ways these body part...Show moreThe present study seeks to investigate the body part nomenclature and partonomy of the Bantu language Xhosa and to explore its semantics by looking at the conventionalised ways these body part terms are used figuratively, in metaphorical and metonymical expressions. This is done in order to discover and document the richness of the way this language uses its body part nomenclature while simultaneously analysing to what extent the patterns that are found in the partonomy and the metaphorical use of body parts agrees with universal patterns found in previous research and to what extent it is culturally specific. First, the literature on the topic of body part nomenclature, partonomy and on metaphorical uses of body parts in African languages will be reviewed. Then, the methodology employed and data collected on Xhosa body nomenclature and partonomy and the metaphorical expressions will be presented. Thirdly, the body parts and their metaphorical uses that were collected will be described and analysed. Fourthly, the data collected will be compared to cross-linguistic data and data from similar studies performed on African languages. These components will finally accumulate to a concluding discussion on Xhosa body part nomenclature, partonomy and its metaphorical uses by exploring the ways in which Xhosa speakers conceive of body parts semantically and conceptualise them linguistically, with a special case study of the terms iminwe (fingers) and iinzwane (toes).Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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In her articles on written Zambian fictional literature in English, Ranka Primorac ascribes the term ‘local cosmopolitanism awareness’ to the novels she discusses: “(…) an awareness of the...Show moreIn her articles on written Zambian fictional literature in English, Ranka Primorac ascribes the term ‘local cosmopolitanism awareness’ to the novels she discusses: “(…) an awareness of the transnational and/or the universal situated within a condition of local embeddedness” (2010: 52). Analysing the symbols of mobility, this thesis attempts to show how Zambian novels operationalize the notion of local cosmopolitanism. Physical mobility has three features: progress, in the sense of moving forward; retrogression, in the sense of moving backward; and stagnation, in the sense of not moving. The figures of mobility in the novels can be characterised in three themes: availability of good transportation and infrastructure; lack of good transportation and infrastructure; and the movement of the Other. The first two themes concern the movement of the ‘Self’: the character whose viewpoint is centralized in the specific element of the book. The third theme focuses on the perception of the Self on the Other. Focalization of the characters in the passages will then determine whether or not local cosmopolitanism awareness is present. As the aim of this thesis is to strengthen Primorac’s perspective on Zambian literature, it proposes a new approach to unveil the notion of local cosmopolitanism. By using figures and representations of mobility, the ideas on and practices of cosmopolitanism can be carried out in fictional literature. In this light, the main research question is: how are the ideas and practices of cosmopolitanism carried out through figures and symbols of (im)mobility in three Zambian novels?Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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This thesis is an analysis of the report written by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a specific focus on the recommendation about the establishment of an extraordinary...Show moreThis thesis is an analysis of the report written by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a specific focus on the recommendation about the establishment of an extraordinary criminal tribunal. The different reasons why this extraordinary criminal tribunal has not been established are researched in this thesis.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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This bachelor’s dissertation deals with a new language spoken in Malawi. It is mainly used by teenagers and twenty-somethings in the urban areas of Malawi. This urban language is based on the...Show moreThis bachelor’s dissertation deals with a new language spoken in Malawi. It is mainly used by teenagers and twenty-somethings in the urban areas of Malawi. This urban language is based on the national language which is Chichewa. The youths manipulate the language and extensively borrow from other language which results in what is now commonly known as Chibrazi. This bachelor’s dissertation focuses on a particular variety of Chibrazi which is used at one of the campuses of the University of Malawi, Chancellor College in Zomba.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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Analysis of witchcraft as literary motif in the novels: Ceux qui sortent dans la nuit by the Cameroonian writer Mutt-Lon and Elonga by the Gabonese writer Angèle Rawiri. Focussing on how witchcraft...Show moreAnalysis of witchcraft as literary motif in the novels: Ceux qui sortent dans la nuit by the Cameroonian writer Mutt-Lon and Elonga by the Gabonese writer Angèle Rawiri. Focussing on how witchcraft is described in the novels and to what extent this image is determined by the author's own interpretation of and view on witchcraft or by research.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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This thesis report aims to analyze the different types of iconicity present in the Ghanaian language Akan. The ideophones existing in the different dialects of Akan are marked by pitch and placed...Show moreThis thesis report aims to analyze the different types of iconicity present in the Ghanaian language Akan. The ideophones existing in the different dialects of Akan are marked by pitch and placed in the center of focus by their special syntactic place at the boundary of the utterance they belong to. They can be categorized in the semantic domains of sound, movement, touch and vision. Their expressive morphology can add depictive concepts as gradation and iteration to their meaning. Imagic iconicity can be found in onomatopoeic ideophones. Of the possible Gestalt iconic mappings, three are prevalent: reduplication (evoking iteration or distribution), closed monosyllabicity (evoking a unitary event) and prolonged vowel length (evoking duration). Relative iconicity does not seem to be a prevalent feature of Akan ideophones.Show less
