<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="">Mbulungeni Madiba calls for the Intellectualisation of African Languages at the Launch of <i>Interviews with Neville Alexander</i></h2>
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by Adele on Sep 11th, 2014
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<p align="center"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/booksa/14879092429" title="Mbulungeni Madiba, Karen Press and Lungisile Ntsebeza by Books LIVE, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5590/14879092429_0111837c14.jpg" alt="Mbulungeni Madiba, Karen Press and Lungisile Ntsebeza" height="333" width="500"></a></p>
<p><a href="http://bookslive.co.za/bookfinder/ean/9781869142773"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/bZ7t5Um.jpg" alt="Interviews with Neville Alexander" align="left" height="100"></a>Mbulungeni Madiba, co-ordinator of the <a href="http://www.ched.uct.ac.za/project/mep/" target="_blank">Multilingualism Education Project</a> (MEP) and chairperson of the <a href="http://www.pansalb.org.za/" target="_blank">Pan South African Language Board</a>, spoke recently at the <a href="http://ukznpress.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/09/04/family-friends-and-colleagues-celebrate-interviews-with-neville-alexander-at-the-centre-for-african-studies/" target="_blank">launch</a> of <i><a href="http://bookslive.co.za/bookfinder/ean/9781869142773">Interviews with Neville Alexander: The Power of Languages Against the Language of Power</a></i> about the intellectualisation of indigenous African languages.</p>
<p><a href="http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2012/08/27/neville-alexander-rip/" target="_blank">Alexander, a revolutionary and struggle hero, passed away in 2012</a>, at the age of 75, after a long battle with cancer, but his memory was very much alive at the launch of the book.</p>
<p>Read Liesl Jobson’s tweets from the event, and Madiba’s thoughts after the jump:</p><p><strong>eville Alexander’s Perspectives and Paradigms on Language and Education by Mbulungeni Madiba</strong>
</p><p>Dr Neville Alexander was one of South Africa’s leading and
independent scholars with a critical voice. He was someone with a
razor-sharp mind that was able to analyse and clarify issues in an
extraordinary way. He always wanted people to engage and debate his
perspectives and paradigms. On the back cover of one of his latest
books, he has the following to say: </p>
<p>“My sincere wish is that readers will consider these thoughts, take a
step back and try to get a perspective on what has actually been
happening since 1990, when the new South Africa began. Even more
optimistically, I hope that such a rethink will inspire the reader to
want to find a point of engagement …”</p>
<p>Alexander’ scholarly work is multifaceted and one cannot do justice
to try to give a full reflection of all his contributions in just 30
minutes. I will therefore only focus on his contribution to
multilingualism and African languages, and more specifically his
perspectives and paradigms on these two issues. </p>
<p>Alexander was highly committed and passionate about multilingualism
and the development of African languages. His recently published book
was an effort to recap on some of the core issues and concerns that he
dealt with in his life as a political activist and a scholar. It is
important to note that the issue of multilingualism, African languages
and the national question runs through the book like a golden thread.
Alexander’s book raises some serious questions and concerns about our
state of education which he describes as a ‘crisis’ and about the role
that language planning can play in this regard:</p>
<p><strong>Some critical questions</strong></p>
<p>1. How can we, through language planning and other interventions,
initiate or reinforce changes in the patterns of development and in the
dominant social relations?</p>
<p>2. What factors determine, or at least influence, changes in individuals’ attitudes and behaviour?</p>
<p>3. How do we assist in the decolonisation of the mind of the billions
of people who are held in thrall by the demonstrable “superiority” of
the global languages as propagated and prioritised by their own ruling
groups and strata? </p>
<p>4. How can we make the move from the existing situation where the
former colonial languages dominate to one where the indigenous languages
of Africa become dominant?</p>
<p>Although all these questions are relevant for our engagement with the
book, I will only focus on the last question. This question is very
pertinent as not much progress has been made on the implementation of
language policy for schools and higher education in the last 20 years.
As Alexander rightly pointed out, while we have developed good language
in education policies, there are no implementation plans to give effect
to these policies. </p>
<p>In fact, the existing language-in-education policies, language
curricula and language practices in schools and universities show
government’s ambivalence towards the use of indigenous African languages
in education. While the policy promotes additive
bilingualism/multilingualism, that is the maintenance of home language
and the learning of at least one additional language, it is not being
implemented as many schools have no language policies, and those schools
or institutions that have developed language policies, they have no
implementation plans. </p>
<p>Alexander’s recent book emphasises his firm belief in additive
mother-tongue based bilingual education and the role of translation in
the intellectualisation of indigenous African languages. </p>
<p><u>Book details</u></p>
<ul><li><i>Interviews with Neville Alexander: The Power of Languages Against the Language of Power</i> by Brigitta Busch, Lucijan Busch and Karen Press<br>
<b><a href="http://bookslive.co.za/bookfinder/ean/9781869142773">!</a></b>
</li></ul><a href="http://ukznpress.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/09/11/mbulungeni-madiba-calls-for-the-intellectualisation-of-african-languages-at-the-launch-of-interviews-with-neville-alexander/">http://ukznpress.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/09/11/mbulungeni-madiba-calls-for-the-intellectualisation-of-african-languages-at-the-launch-of-interviews-with-neville-alexander/</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************
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