English Analysis of Shumbafoot Texts

Languages Division
English Department

Speech | THE CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

Content of the Text

This is an informative, comparative text and this message targets a young audience, particularly of the 21st century. It outlines the differences between the principles and practices that governed the the societies in the 20th century and those that are currently governing the modern societies in the 21st century. Some of the themes that he touches on in this text are EXPECTATION VERSUS REALITY;  DISCIPLINE and RESPECT. 

The Chairman mentions the concern behind the fact that people are abandoning common practises and principles that should govern society, all in the name of 'rights'. He shows us that there is no problem with some rights and principles, and the fact is, they have helped us to establish hierarchy in society and this will help with instilling order in our global society.

He also touches on how, with no doubt, many young people of the 21st century are very lazy, worse than the young people of the 20th century. 

The conclusion answers one of the questions that he posed, which constitute the title of this text. The proposed solution consists of four elements namely; INTEGRITY, DISCIPLINE, RESPECT and Love. These elements are referred to as the, "four elements of a healthy society''.

Style, Language and Techniques

The Chairman titles his massage, "What did I notice? What is lacking in many societies?" By posing these two questions, he is trying to engage his audience and he is introducing the context of his message, basically the issue that he wants to address in his informative message. From the inclusion of the word 'societies', we notice that this message targets many people from many different backgrounds, basically from all over the world, not a particular group of people.

The topical sentence of the first paragraph begins with the word 'I' and this shows us that this paragraph is mainly in the first person's perspective, being the Chairman's perspective. This is not the only occurrence in which he states his issues in this perspective, which shows us how much he cares about the welfare and upliftment of societies. The word rights was put in quotation marks, to bring out emphasis on how young people in the 21st century are now misusing their rights in order to disrespect their parents and guardians, the people that work hard to raise them up in a better and comfortable environment. What we see, from how the Chairman has phrased it in the second sentence, is that rights are not meant to attack parents, but they are meant to protect both parents and children.

The introductory sentence of second paragraph (especially the phrase, "To the young people,") engages the main audience, the young people in our societies. Throughout the second paragraph, we are meant to notice that the writer admires and supports the old ways of respecting elders and he firmly believes that respect for elders should never fade away as new centuries unfold. The aim of the second paragraph is to allow each young person to reflect on his or her background and history and how their parents and grandparents respected their elders. This detailed paragraph serves as a reminder to the young, on how they are expected to show respect to their elders in their respective societies. 

The third paragraph begins with a question and this is meant to remind the audience about the subject matter of this message. The following sentence brings out the importance of education and skills training and the example given by the writer is the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Some of the following questions which are posed in this paragraph contain the word 'we' meaning that the Chairman is a fellow young person who is trying to engage his generation on the issues that are affecting young people and consequentially, are also affecting the state of our societies. The use of the colloquial word 'y'all' (meaning you all) further clarifies that the Chairman is indeed speaking to his generation, the generation of the 21st century. The use of a sad emoji helps us to comprehend how saddened he is concerning the loss of discipline in young people. The side note (with a Chief's permission) shows us that hunting in the bush is a special practise, therefore Africans should visit their chiefs to seek permission to hunt and this is a good way of even protecting wildlife from poaching and preventing the extinction of species. 

There is a sudden change of tone and the target audience in the fourth paragraph. Although the issues stated in the previous paragraphs are meant for young people to reflect on them, we should notice the inclusion of other age groups in the opening word 'We', because this paragraph is basically touching on general issues.

The Chairman switches back to his first person's perspective, as he concludes his message. The four elements of a healthy society - according to the writer - are written in block letters for emphasis because of the magnitude of the problem that the Chairman took note of. The statement that says, "We need to diagnose the problems that made many of us lose these four elements of a healthy society," implies that these special elements were existent in the past but they have been fading away in this century and part of the problem should be the irresponsible and ill-disciplined young people of today. 

In general, this message is full of rhetoric and with the existing evidence, there is no absolute doubt that it mainly targets the young people of the 21st century.

More could have been included, but it's now up to you to make your own detailed analysis of this text. Enjoy!😊