Kenya: English's Successes Have Also Resulted in Its Setbacks

[Harold Schiffman]

Kenya: English's Successes Have Also Resulted in Its Setbacks

The East African Standard (Nairobi)

ANALYSIS
23 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008

Ali Mazrui
Nairobi

The struggle against apartheid was a Pan-Africanising experience,
creating a sense of solidarity among black people in Africa and
worldwide. Pan-Africanism often flourished, paradoxically, through the
unifying force of European languages. Figures like W E B DuBois and
Marcus Garvey would never have become founding fathers of
trans-Atlantic Pan-Africanism without the mediation of the English
language. Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor would not have become
founding fathers of Negritude movement without the French language.
Racism and apartheid in South Africa helped to consolidate the
solidarity.

But a new contradiction emerged with the end of political apartheid.
Governance in South Africa itself was more Africanised almost by
definition as Mr Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress
assumed control. But across the African continent, the end of
political apartheid was an experience in dis-Pan-Africanisation. A
major stimulus of solidarity was diffused. Pan-Africanism was wounded
by its own success. And yet narrower forms of African nationalism,
less dependent on European languages, began to assert themselves.
Ethnic nationalism among black South Africans and elsewhere became a
new manifest destiny. What are the implications of this shift for
European languages like English?

With the end of political apartheid in South Africa, the English
language has clearly gained. Although South Africa has declared eleven
official languages (theoretically reducing English to one-eleventh of
the official status), in reality the new policy demotes Afrikaans, the
historic rival to English in South Africa.

Before the 1990s, English was officially the co-equal of Afrikaans.
But the end of political apartheid has raised the question of whether
Afrikaans should be treated in the same camp as the nine indigenous
languages. Should Afrikaans be treated as just another 'vernacular'?
Distribution of language resources for the media for education is at
stake.

The end of political apartheid in South Africa represents triumph of a
particular kind of African nationalism: The struggle against overt
racial oppression and cultural denial. Paradoxically, this struggle
(but not its triumph) sometimes enhanced the status of the English
language among the oppressed. English became not just a language of
oppression but also, by a strange destiny, a language of liberation.
This was true not just in Africa but also in other parts of the
British Empire.

While on balance the English language has been truly triumphant as a
world language, there is a tendency to overlook its setbacks within
the grand picture. What has English been up against? Sometimes its
successes have resulted in its own setbacks.

Although French has been a bigger loser than English since World War
II, there are other areas where English has also received setbacks.

Firstly, there have been the post-colonial indigenisation policies.
Some former colonies of Britain have attempted to reduce the role of
English in their societies. Originally the Indian Constitution
envisaged replacing English completely with Hindi as the official and
national language. This ambition was not realised partly because of
objections from Southern India.

Promoting local institutions

Tanzania has pursued policies of increased Swahilisation deliberately
at the expense of English in education, the media and politics. South
Africa, after apartheid, is experimenting with a policy of eleven
official languages. What do they mean as official languages? South
Africans are grappling with that problem.

Hong Kong is a special case where the use of English is declining
since the country ceased to be a British colony. English is also
declining in spite of Hong Kong's expanding role as one of the major
financial markets of Asia, if not the world. Among the main reasons
for the decline of English is Hong Kong's incorporation into the
People's Republic of China since 1997. People are now learning the
second Chinese language (Cantonese vs Mandarin).

Then there are the post-colonial or post-revolutionary policies of
Islamisation or Arabisation. These policies sometime result in the
reduced role of the imperial language and the promotion of the Arabic
language (or Persian) sometime. This is what has been happening in the
Sudan since the 1990s as the Arabic language has been promoted as the
medium of instruction at almost all levels of education, including
most departments at universities. Previously English was the main
medium of instruction at the University of Khartoum.

In post-Shah Iran, English has lost some ground against the increased
use of Persian (Farsi) and Arabic in the reformed educational syllabi
within the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran. However, in
international relations, Iran has used English more than any other
language in a bid to influence political and diplomatic trends in
Africa. Iran has resorted to English language more than any other
language when attempting to reach fellow Muslim militants. In Islam,
Arabic is the chosen language of God; but in the politics of the 20th
century, English is the chosen secular language of global diplomacy.
Another setback for English is the rise of the numerate culture
(culture of numbers), as the aftermath of the colonial experience.

As people communicate in fewer words and greater numbers, English and
other literate languages pay part of the price. The debate about
Ebonics (Black English) is a case in point in countries like Nigeria,
Ghana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Sierra Leone. While West Africa has
evolved its own dialect and pidgin of English, East and Southern
Africa have not.

East and Southern Africa's closer approximation to Standard English
has been influenced by stronger presence of white settlers. More
recent colonisation of Eastern Africa (covering only Jomo Kenyatta's
lifetime) and the more dynamic indigenous cultures of West Africa have
imposed their own personality on English in a manner as yet
underdeveloped in Eastern and Southern Africa.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200803240154.html
-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
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. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************