Pamphlets In The Tonga Language

Of all the Pacific nations only Tonga has retained a complete and lasting political independence. Find out how the shrewd, determined King of Tonga, Tupou I, teamed up with Wesleyan missionary and opportunist Shirley Baker to bring this about.

The Pacific is historically an area of enormous linguistic diversity, where talk figures as a central component of social life. Pacific communities also represent diverse contact zones, where between indigenous and introduced institutions and ideas; between local actors and outsiders; and involving different lingua franca, colonial, and local language varieties. Contact between colonial and post-colonial governments, religious institutions, and indigenous communities has spurred profound social change, irrevocably transforming linguistic ideologies and practices. Drawing on ethnographic and linguistic analyses, this edited volume examines situations of intertwined linguistic and cultural change unfolding in specific Pacific locations in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Its overarching concern is with the multiple ways that processes of historical change have shaped and been shaped by linguistic ideologies reflexive sensibilities about languages and language useheld by Pacific peoples and other agents of change. The essays demonstrate that language and linguistic practices are linked to changing consciousness of self and community through notions of agency, morality, affect, authority, and authenticity. In times of cultural contact, communities often experience language change at an accelerated rate. This is particularly so in small-scale communities where innovations and continuity routinely depend on the imagination, creativity, and charisma of fewer individuals. The essays in this volume provide evidence of this potential and a record of their voices, as they document new types of local actors, e.g., pastors, Bible translators, teachers, political activists, spirit mediums, and tour guides, some of whom introduce, innovate, legitimate, or resist new ideas and ways to express them through language. Drawing on and transforming metalinguistic concepts, local actors (re)shape language, reproducing and changing the communicative economy. In the process, they cultivate new cultural conceptions of language, for example, as a medium for communicating religious knowledge and political authority, and for constructing social boundaries and transforming relationships of domination.

Zimbabwean independence in 1980 demanded a thorough revision of the way in which the law was provided in order to dispense with any form of discrimination based on race or class. The ideals and principles behind this requirement had many practical implications in terms of provision, access, information and education, as well as a profound understanding of tradition and customary law. It was these manifold challenges that gave rise to the Legal Resources Foundation. A Balancing Act: A History of the Legal Resources Foundation 1985-2015 examines the impulse, growth, development of an NGO which has steadfastly sought to bring law to the people of Zimbabwe over three turbulent decades. Through a study of its outreach, publication, advocacy and education programmes, the author, Mary Ndlovu implicitly explores the social, economic and political framework of society and the state that determined the LRF’s trajectory. As the renowned jurist Reg Austin writes, ‘Examined from the perspective of its ambitious objectives and the range of its activities, this study of the LRF sheds an important light on a vital part of Zimbabwe's national history. The book is an important addition to the national literature on the role of the non-governmental sector.’

This guide to the Tonga language, collects the most common Tonga phrases and expressions, including greetings, food items, directions, sightseeing, etc., arranged by category. Also includes an English-Tonga/Tonga-English dictionary.