[Edling] Reaction to the post: "Decolonizing African Language Policy..."

[David Balosa via Edling]

*EL:* Hi David,
Thanks very much for your response to the BBC report on Swahili’s spread
throughout East and Central Africa. When I read the BBC report, my
impression was that the article was not necessarily advocating using
Swahili as a monolingual pan-African lingua franca. My impression was that
more and more people in areas outside of Swahili’s original geographic
linguistic area were embracing Swahili as a means of wider communication.
That would mean that its spread was not the result of a concerted or
intentional language policy effort on the part of governments, but was a
product of transnational and trans regional economic and trade relations. I
support your advocacy of a series of referenda about the trans regional use
of indigenous languages in African contexts which you have presented in
your latest papers. I think that is a viable way to approach the issue.
I was surprised that Lingala was not mentioned in the article as a possible
further language of wider communication in central and southern Africa,
especially since Lingala is not only a prominent language in Congo, but is
one of the most prevalent languages used in African popular music far
beyond the Congo, including areas in which Swahili is also spoken. I am not
aware of any West African language such as Yoruba, Hausa, or Fon which
might spread to Southern Africa, or vice versa, any South African language
which might be spoken in other areas of Africa, but certainly with the
migration of Nigerians and other ethnic groups to South Africa it would be
interesting to find out what languages are used as a transregional
languages. I would guess that it would be English, but I am not that
intimately knowledgeable about that.

*DB:* Dear beloved EL,
Thank you for your reaction to my post.
The African political elite, the African Union, and their Western elite
allies are pushing for Swahili as a possible monolingual pan-African lingua
franca. Swahili as a Kreole made of some African languages, English, and
Arabic and has more academic prominence than any other African language.
For example, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia where Swahili enjoys official
language status may have better universities than the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and most of the countries in the region . But the
Democratic Republic of the Congo's variety of Swahili  called Kingwana is
not in the discussion. The fact that Swahili is well established in the
Western educational system, that is, has a well established international
media and a well respected  academic literary work compared to
other African languages should not make it 'the chosen language'. There
are many languages with significant numbers of speakers that could also
have developed to this prominence if "existential justice" (Balosa, 2022b)
were applied to them as well.  Wa Thiong'o (1986) has discussed the lack of
support for African/indigenoius languages. Some international media and
African governments have been anti-development agents for these languages.
For example, most of the African politico-economic elites and their
children don't speak African languages, especially if these languages are
categorized as rural languages.  Of course this elite class can only choose
the easier way out when it comes to language policy.

My point is that modern language policies throughout the world should no
longer be determined by politico-economic officials but by means of
referendums.  Let people decide which languages should represent them ,
that is, their experience, their lives, their existence.
Thanks, EL.
David

-- 
David M. Balosa, Ph.D.
Language, Literacy, & Culture
Interculturality GSO President 2012-2013
*University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
**1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250*

https://llc.umbc.edu/home/news-events/?id=56945
https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/tag/david-balosa/

The world would be a better place if we all strive for existential unity:
communities' prosperity, social justice, peace, faith, global solidarity
and diversity, human rights, and human dignity for all. -David Balosa
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/edling/attachments/20220218/b8c4d607/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------


_______________________________________________
Edling mailing list
Edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu
https://lists.mail.umbc.edu/mailman/listinfo/edling