''A Bilingual Field Guide to the Frogs of Zululand'' (or ''Isiqondiso Sasefilidini Esindimimbili Ngamaxoxo AkwelaKwaZulu'' in

IsiZulu Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...

) is a

field guide A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna or funga) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the " field" or local area where suc ...

meant to help readers identify frogs found in the Zululand region of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

province and to dispel

misconceptions Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries; the main subject articles can be consulted for more detail. Common mis ...

about

frogs A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough skin texture due to ...

among

AmaZulu Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni people, Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest Ethnic groups in South Africa, ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. They o ...

of the region. This book is written in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and by co-authors

Doctors Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

Fortunate Mafeta Phaka Fortunate Phaka (born July 12, 1987, in Mamelodi) is a South African environmental scientist, author, environmental television producer and science communicator. He is best known for research focused on herptiles, studying the relationship betwe ...

, Edward C. Netherlands, Donnavan J.D. Kruger, and

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Louis H. du Preez from the

North-West University The North-West University (NWU) is a public research university located on three campuses in Potchefstroom, Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark in South Africa. The university came into existence through the merger in 2004 of the Potchefstroom Univer ...

. Translation of the text from English to IsiZulu were done by Manzo Khulu. The

South African National Biodiversity Institute The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is an organisation tasked with research and dissemination of information on biodiversity, and legally mandated to contribute to the management of the country's biodiversity resources. ...

published the book as part of their ''Suricata'' range of

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

publications meant to be an inclusive platform for all Africans and the continent's biodiversity This book uses the ''

Tête-bêche In philately, ''tête-bêche'' (French language, French for "head-to-tail", lit. "head-to-head") is a joined pair of Postage stamp, stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other, produced intentionally or accidentally. Like any pa ...

bookbinding Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

structure; one side of the book has the English titled front cover while the other side has the IsiZulu titled front cover and readers have to flip the book horizontally to switch between either languages. At the start of a frog bio-monitoring project in Zululand by the book's authors and their colleagues, the authors recognised the importance of speaking to local communities about their research in a language that was easily understood in the region, which is IsiZulu. After consultation with Zululand community members to understand their perceptions of frogs, the process of writing the book began on 28 November 2016 and the book was officially launched on 27 November 2017. As a result of this consultation, a

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

of this book determined that it has taken an ''

a posteriori ('from the earlier') and ('from the later') are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on experience. knowledge is independent from any experience. Examples include ...

'' approach to

environmental education Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating discipli ...

and the sharing of educational ecosystem benefits. This book written as part of Fortunate Phaka's

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

research, became the first South African field guide for frogs to be written in one of the country's official

indigenous languages An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigeno ...

(IsiZulu)

Spin-offs

''A Bilingual Field Guide to the Frogs of Zululand'' is cited as the motivation behind an initiative to document and share wildlife knowledge in South Africa's indigenous languages as a means of increasing inclusivity in the country's wildlife sector and preserving cultural heritage. The book was used as a case study about how the process of developing environmental education reading materials in indigenous languages contributes to development and intellectualisation of African languages. Another case study based on the book focused on

folk taxonomy A folk taxonomy is a vernacular name, naming system, as distinct from Taxonomy (general), scientific taxonomy. Folk biological classification is the way people traditionally describe and organize the world around them, typically making generous us ...

of the frogs discussed in this book and how it is possible to extend folk taxonomy so that it emulates scientific taxonomy with a comprehensive list of names for each frog

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the region

References

South African books Herpetological literature Bilingual books Frogs of Africa {{Improve categories, date=October 2022 English books