Is the African Tower of Babel a Blessing Or a Curse?

Tue Nov 15 16:07:05 UTC 2005

>>From East African Standard  (Nairobi)

ANALYSIS
November 13, 2005

By Dr. Mwenda Mbatiah
Nairobi

The Seventh International Conference on Language and Development was held
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between 26 and 28 October, 2005. The conference
was historic for two related reasons. It was the first time it was held in
Africa since the series of international conferences on language started
in Bangkok in 1993. Secondly, it was the first time the conference brought
to the fore the complexities of the language situation in Africa. Among
the participants there were experts on language, education and
development. There were also representatives from the civil society and
government officials.

The participants numbered over one hundred and twenty and were drawn from
all over the world. It was the British Council that organised the
conference with the support of the United States Agency for International
Development (USAid), the UK's Department for International Development
(DfID) and Ethiopia's Ministry of Education. Although the overriding theme
of the conference was language and development, very interesting debates
on related topics came up in the course of the proceedings. One such topic
was the multiplicity of languages in Africa and the question of whether
this is an asset or an impediment to development.

Several speakers gave detailed descriptions of the language situation in
their countries. It emerged that Sub-Saharan African countries are
multilingual and multicultural to a degree that is not seen in anywhere
else in the world. With 53 countries, the African continent has the
highest number of nation-states. A number of countries have several
hundred languages. The situation of small populations with a myriad of
languages was best captured in the phrase: "Few people, many languages".
In other words, compared to other parts of the world, African countries
have small populations that are made up of very many language groups. An
apt example is that of Cameroon, which has a population of six million
people but over 250 languages.

At one point, the question of how African countries have used the
languages spoken within their boarders took centre stage. Several
observations were made and conclusions drawn. For instance, despite the
fact that African countries were colonised by different European powers in
the course of the 20th Century, the similarity of the colonial legacy from
one country to the other is striking. All African countries have accorded
the colonial language a dominant role in national affairs. From north to
south, east to west, European languages occupy the pre-eminent role of
official languages. African languages are relegated to the periphery.

They are mostly used within their localities and are rarely given official
recognition. In nearly all cases, the colonial languages are used as the
media of instruction in the education systems. One of the obvious reasons
why European languages continue to dominate in the affairs of
"independent" African countries is that the process of decolonisation was
never concluded. Swahili scholars have sometimes used the term uhuru wa
bendera to describe the dubious nature of the independence that we got. It
amounted to a flag that symbolised nationhood and nothing more. The
colonial structures were left intact. These include the economy,
administration, defence, education and most importantly, language.

Real independence would have given us a totally transformed nation-state
that used indigenous resources, including languages, to respond to the
needs of the majority population. When people talk of the underdevelopment
of African countries, they mostly refer to the economy. But this is to
oversimplify matters. Underlying our material poverty is our cultural
poverty that is powerfully symbolised by our continued dependence on
foreign languages. One discussant after another lamented the fact that
African governments have failed to formulate and implement language
policies that recognise the importance of African languages. Even where
such policies are in place, nothing is done to promote and develop African
languages.

It was observed that although African governments have continued to view
the multiplicity of languages in Africa as a curse, it is in fact, a
blessing. Languages are carriers of communal wisdom, philosophy and art.
If Africa harnessed the wealth of her languages, she would have a firm
foundation on which to build economic prosperity. True, it is practically
impossible to develop all our languages to the same level. But we have
strong lingua francas that can be used within and beyond our borders to
communicate among many language groups.

In Ethiopia they have Amharic, in West Africa they have Hausa and in East
and Central Africa we have Kiswahili. As one of those who have been
advocating the recognition, promotion and development of Kiswahili,
particularly in Kenya, I emerged out of the conference with two important
lessons. First, the world is now awake to the fact that the monopoly of
foreign languages like English in the affairs of African countries has
only succeeded in creating urban elites who are far removed from the
impoverished rural masses. The solution in a region like East Africa is to
deliberately design a bilingual system.

Kiswahili would be an official language that is used alongside English as
a medium of instruction in education. Kiswahili would also have a greater
role in the mass media, parliament, judiciary and government business.
Other African languages would be used within their localities. However,
they need explicit official recognition and support. The second lesson is
that in comparative terms, Kenya has not done so badly in matters of
language policy and implementation. Since independence, Kiswahili was made
the national language. Its diffusion and development over the years has
been remarkable despite the scant material support and the predominance of
English.

Since the 1980s when the 8-4-4 system of education was instituted,
Kiswahili was made a compulsory subject in schools. Few other countries on
the continent have an African language taught and examined as seriously as
Kiswahili is in Kenya. Moreover, the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture
and Social Services has been doing commendable work in the preservation
and development of indigenous languages. It has set up district language
committees that will coordinate language matters in their localities.
Provincial language committees are now being formed.

The Nairobi Province Committee was launched on September 1, 2005. Finally,
the Proposed New Constitution, the so-called Wako Draft, has explicit
provisions for Kiswahili. Under the subheading of language in Chapter Two,
it says: "The official languages of Kenya are Kiswahili and English and
all official documents shall be made available in both languages". If this
document gets the approval of the people in the forthcoming referendum and
becomes the supreme law of the land, the role of Kiswahili in this country
will be dramatically transformed.

This will be in line with the recommendations of the Seventh International
Language and Development Conference.

The writer is the Chairman, Department of Linguistics and Languages,
University of Nairobi.

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