Hleze Kunju's proudest moment - writing his PhD in isiXhosa

Hleze Kunju has been hailed for breaking barriers in academia after becoming the first person at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape to write a PhD in his mother tongue.

Kunju‚ 31‚ who is an isiXhosa lecturer at the Sol-Plaajte University in the Northern Cape‚ wrote his four-year-long PhD about the Xhosa people who settled in Mbembesi‚ about 45km outside Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.

Kunju‚ who graduated with his PhD on Thursday last week‚ said: “I did this as part of transformation and decolonisation of education. Our parents often encourage us to go to learn in English but we need to change that so that we use our own language.

“I wrote the PhD in Xhosa because I also wanted my work to be accessible to the people‚ whom I wrote about‚” he said.

In his work Kunju looked at the various cultural and linguistic aspects of Xhosa people.

“This achievement is not for me but the Xhosa people and I want to be remembered not as the first person to do this but rather the one who encouraged others to produce academia in their own languages‚” said Kunju.

He added that writing his PhD in his mother tongue was not easy as there was little literature in isiXhosa and he had to translate the material.

He said that having grown up in the small town of Mqanduli‚ in the Eastern Cape‚ he struggled during his undergraduate studies at Rhodes University.

“I went through a culture shock and learning in English had become difficult‚ especially because I had come from bilingual schools where the material was mostly taught in isiXhosa‚” he said.

TMG Digital/TimesLIVE