The Structure of Values among Northern Sotho Speaking People in South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compile a culture specific taxonomy of human values in Northern Sotho. Two raters extracted a comprehensive list of value descriptive nouns from two Northern Sotho dictionaries. The list comprised a total of 210 terms. Four hundred individuals, 256 men and 144 women, from the Limpopo Province of the Republic of South Africa, participated. Their mean age was 24.6 years (SD = 7.9). The participants rated these concepts on an 11-point-scale with regard to their subjective importance as guiding motives in life. The principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation yielded five factors which explained 42.3% of total variance: (I) Religiosity and Support, (II) Solidarity (ukuzwdana, ubunye or ubudlelwane), (III) Conformity and Benevolence, (IV) Leadership and Achievement, and (V) Human Enhancement. With respect to cross-cultural comparisons the outcome of the study shows that in Northern Sotho, religious themes and social commitment play a more important role than in German, and that religious issues correlate with social concerns. The other dimensions share some aspects with the German factors but mainly reflect the religious and collective values of traditional African culture.