The Bemba language is a Bantu language that is spoken primarily in Zambia by the Bemba people and about 18 related ethnic groups. It is the second-most spoken lanuage in Zambia, after Nyanja. The purpose of this guide is to provide a structured set of lessons for those interested in learning Bemba. Following these lessons will give students of Bemba a basic level of understanding and conversation skills.
A practical guide to modern Bemba, Zambia's most widely spoken language. Includes everyday phrases, an introduction to the sounds and grammar of the language, and English-Bemba and Bemba-English A-Z vocabulary.
Storytelling plays an important part in the vibrant cultural life of Zambia and in many other communities across Africa. This innovative book provides a collection and analysis of oral narrative traditions as practiced by five Bemba-speaking ethnic groups in Zambia. The integration of newly digitalised audio and video recordings into the text enables the reader to encounter the storytellers themselves and hear their narratives. Robert Cancel's thorough critical interpretation, combined with these newly digitalised audio and video materials, makes Storytelling in Northern Zambia a much needed addition to the slender corpus of African folklore studies that deal with storytelling performance. Cancel threads his way between the complex demands of African fieldwork studies, folklore theory, narrative modes, reflexive description and simple documentation and succeeds in bringing to the reader a set of performers and their performances that are vivid, varied and instructive. He illustrates this living narrative tradition with a wide range of examples, and highlights the social status of narrators and the complex local identities that are at play. Cancel's study tells us not only about storytelling but sheds light on the study of oral literatures throughout Africa and beyond. Its innovative format, meanwhile, explores new directions in the integration of primary source material into scholarly texts. This book is the third volume in the World Oral Literature Series, developed in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.
Audrey Richards (1899-1984) was a leading British anthropologist of the twentieth century and the first woman president of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Based on fieldwork conducted at a time when the discipline was dominated by male anthropologists, Chisungu: A Girl’s Initiation Ceremony Among the Bemba of Zambia is widely hailed as a classic of anthropology and African and gender studies. Underpinned by painstaking research carried out by Richards among the Bemba people in northern Zambia in the 1930s, Chisungu focuses on the initiation ceremonies for young Bemba girls. Pioneering the study of women’s rituals and challenging the prevailing theory that rites of passage served merely to transfer individuals from one status to another, Richards writes about the incredibly rich and diverse aspects of ritual that characterised Chisungu: its concern with matriliny; deference to elders; sex and reproduction; the birth of children; ideas about the continuity between past, present and future; and the centrality of emotional conflict. On a deeper level, Chisungu is a crucial work for the role it accords to the meaning of symbolism in explaining the structure of society, paving the way for much subsequent understanding of the role of symbolic meaning and kinship. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Jessica Johnson and an introduction by Jean La Fontaine.
There are not enough Bemba books for children available online. Learn a new Bemba language word everyday! The Bemba Children's Dictionary is an illustrated version of the Bemba Learner's Dictionary. It is made especially for your multilingual child to develop their Bemba and English reading skills. Contains simple nouns, verbs and adjectives for every day use. Discover the joy of reading in Bemba and English together with your multilingual child. Written in Modern Bemba. Suitable for children 0 to 7 years old.
PA NSAKA is a compilation of 1000 Bemba Proverbs and Sayings which have been explained both in English and Bemba. Delve into it and discover the rich traditions of the Bemba Speaking People of the Republic of Zambia and other neighboring countries.
"The first practical guide to Nyanja language as it's actually spoken in modern, urban Zambia. For too long, visitors to the Zambian capital Lusaka have arrived with phrasebooks and dictionaries of traditional Nyanja, the kind spoken in Malawi and Eastern Province, only to find themselves laughed at or misunderstood. Zambians living in town today don't speak that kind of Nyanja. Their language has evolved. This Nyanja isn't 'pure', it isn't standardised, and it's only just beginning to be written down. But if you want to actually communicate with the people of Lusaka in their own language - on the street, on the bus, in the market or elsewhere - this is the Nyanja you need. The book includes an introduction to Nyanja sounds and grammar, over 300 useful everyday words and phrases, and A-Z Nyanja-English and English-Nyanja vocabulary."--Publisher's website.
