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Each of the approximately 20 000 runners participating in this year’s Comrades Marathon has a dream: to simply be seen on TV at the starting point or finish line, to improve on their previous record, or to beat the record of the previous winner.
For Mpho Ngoepe, who has completed nine Comrades in the past, the dream this time is not only to finish his 10th within his record, but also to raise awareness and money for a cause close to his heart: the promotion of indigenous languages.
Ngoepe, the director of the School of Arts at Unisa, will be running under the banner #RacingForOurLanguages.
Poor literacy gives campaign further urgency
In an interview with City Press early this week, a day after he arrived in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to acclimatise to the coastal weather, he said:
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He was referring to the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which showed that South Africa has one of the poorest performances, with 81% of fourth-graders unable to read for meaning in any language.
In trying to turn the situation around, Ngoepe is working closely with the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, the Indigenous Languages Initiative for Advancement and Unisa on projects that address three intersecting societal challenges: the literacy/reading crisis, the marginalisation of indigenous languages and the digital divide.
In promoting indigenous languages, Ngoepe leads by example, having published two books in his mother tongue, Sepedi.
The first one was Ntshwe, a collection of short stories published in 1995 by Via Afrika, which won third prize in a literary competition run by the Limpopo department of arts and culture.
Focusing on topics such as drug abuse, child abuse, witchcraft and other related issues, the book was prescribed for Grade 8 pupils in Limpopo.
His second book, Morole o Mosesane – also a short story collection – came out in 2007. He also wrote an English biography of veteran runner Ludwig Mamabolo and is in the process of having it published in Sepedi.
It might come as a shock to those outside the publishing industry that only 3% of books published in this country are written in indigenous languages – despite the fact that black Africans who speak them comprise the majority of the population.
Walking for education inspired his running
As for his marathon career, Ngoepe started running when he was a child attending Seshane Primary School in the Bogom area, Limpopo.
He recalled, when explaining how he developed the muscles for marathons:
In later years he participated in athletic activities at a competitive level at school and, in the years since then, he has never lost his love of running.
To date, he has run 13 Two Oceans marathons in Cape Town, a number of Soweto Marathons and some in Gaborone, Botswana, and Bela Bela in Limpopo.
“My first Comrades was in 2010, inspired by the euphoria that had swept the country when it was announced we’d be hosting the Fifa World Cup that year,” said the 48-year-old academic.
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It took him six months of hard training to prepare for this year’s Comrades. Roughly, his training regime includes long runs of 100km a week, speed sessions and weekly workouts in which he runs up and down a hill five times.
This year’s Comrades is a down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, covering a distance of 87.7km. There will be 2 354 international runners from 84 countries, alongside 17 920 South Africans who have qualified to participate.
Ngoepe holds an honours degree, a master’s degree and a PhD in information science from Unisa. He did his undergraduate studies at the former University of the North (now the University of Limpopo).
He urged people to contribute towards the cause of promoting our languages.
Donations will be handled by Puku and can be made by EFT into its current account at Nedbank:1007 111 917, branch code 169745, SWIFT code NEDSZAJJ; address: 51-81 Main Road, Rondebosch Village, 1st floor, Shop 4, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700.
International donations can also be made to Puku’s fiscal partner, the SA Development Fund, on the SA Development Fund donation page www.payfast.co.za/donate/go/pukuchildrensliteraturefoundation.
Alternatively, donors can reach the #RacingForOurLanguages campaign hotline via voice call or WhatsApp on 079 267 7469 during business hours.
For further information about Puku, visit www.puku.co.za
