Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Education in Africa Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Basements of Babylon: Language and Literacy on the South African Gold Mines
Author:Brown, David M.
Year:1988
Periodical:Social Dynamics
Volume:14
Issue:1
Period:June
Pages:46-56
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:miners
literacy
gold mining
multilingualism
Labor and Employment
Education and Oral Traditions
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533958808458440
Abstract:This paper focuses on language and literacy policies on the South African gold mines, covering the period from 1945 to the present. It presents empirical evidence of literacy distribution patterns amongst workers under capitalist industrialization, which indicates that there is little correlation between social mobility in the workplace, remuneration and workers' attainment in literacy. It argues that there is added complexity to any consideration of literacy and its social consequences in the case of South African industry in general and specifically of the gold mines, where the multilingual context includes a dominant former colonial language, English; an indigenous language/creole, Afrikaans; vernacular languages consisting of largely two groups, Nguni and Sotho; and the pidgin, Fanakalo. Bibliogr.
Views
Cover