[AfricanLanguages] "Kiswahili Comes of Age as Tongue for Decolonisation" (Kenya)

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 05:32:10 -0700

FYI, the following (long) column focuses on Swahili but also deals with a number of other African language issues. It was published in the Nairobi daily The Nation and weblished on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200607030536.html . The author, Prof. Kimani Njogu, has written a number of pieces for news publications in the region and some of the earlier ones have been reposted to AfricanLanguages as well.  DZO
 

Kenya: Kiswahili Comes Of Age As Tongue For Decolonisation
 
The Nation (Nairobi)
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/
OPINION
July 2, 2006
Posted to the web July 3, 2006
 
Kimani Njogu
Nairobi
 
There is an aura of excitement among Kiswahili scholars because seeds planted many decades ago have flowered and are beginning to bear fruit.
 
The language is now common in offices, in the streets and homes. It is robust in the informal sector and has become an engine of economic regeneration. Official business is being transacted in the language and it is no longer viewed as "low status" to speak it.
 
Listening to Kenyan politicians, one recognises that they have seen the power of language in attaining presence and legitimacy.
 
It is still, however, disappointing that a big number of our national leaders have to resort to English even when it is quite clear that the audience would feel more comfortable if addressed in a Kenyan language.
 
But linguistic flexibility and sensitivity is slowly asserting itself in our national psyche as it allows for ease in communication and interaction.
 
Mode of communication
 
But language is not just a mode of communication, it also defines who we are by giving us identity and a sense of belonging.
 
It is a form of cultural _expression_ and a carrier of memory and history. Languages play an important role in resisting injustices and regenerating more just, meaningful, and ecologically balanced lives.
 
Through the facility of language, localities are able to develop and nurture vibrant, innovative and dynamic social processes.
 
Languages facilitate self-organising - the coming together of people in organic, contextual ways. They create self and collective efficacy which is vital for social transformation by injecting faith in one's ability - individually and with others - to move things forward.
 
Our interest in indigenous languages such as Kiswahili is sound and well motivated; it is an attempt to increase the memory of the African continent and to release it from the constraints of the past and the present.
 
Ali Mazrui and Alamin Mazrui have, in The Tower of Babel [NB- the actual title is: The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in the African Experience. - DZO], drawn our attention to the fact that although Asia was also colonised, nobody has divided it into zones on the basis of the imperial languages.
 
Yet we talk of Anglophone Africa, Lusophone Africa and Francophone Africa. Through this strange division of Africa, we witness a linguistic anomaly indicative of Africa's levels of dependence. According to these scholars, the difference between Asia and Africa "lies in the scale of political dependence on the imperial language, linking them much more firmly to the African countries, and their identities, than to the former Asian colonies of European powers".
 
It is time to we started creating a larger space for 'Swahiliphone Africa' and extending its borders!
 
The struggle for indigenous languages to survive is interconnected with the larger struggles for democracy, access to justice, rights, freedom and economic well being.
 
Whereas there has been a strong sense of linguistic nationalism in Asian countries, the same cannot be said of many African nations.
 
But there have been significant moments in East Africa when Pan Africans have urged that the central role occupied by Queen's English be reconsidered. They push for the development of 'Englishes' and celebrate linguistic diversity.
 
But how do we develop a language policy that would both accommodate the languages inherited from the colonial experience while at the same time creating an important space for the development and promotion of indigenous languages?
 
Colonialism presented two scenarios for Africa vis-a'-vis the language question: Whereas the British system of indirect rule made use of traditional systems of knowledge and governance, whenever possible, by making local languages important for the colonial administrator, the French policy of assimilation gave little regard to indigenous languages, prioritising instead the French language and culture.
 
Towards the end of the colonial era, the British government in the colonies seems to have accelerated the use of English among the people as a way of preparing the local elite to take over and to perpetuate and protect British interests.
 
The presence of languages that are in competition with each other in Africa - with some being more prestigious and powerful than others - creates a situation of contestation and the urge to realign the relations.
 
In a discussion on linguistic descriptions and language planning in Africa, Paulis Djite argues for the ecological approach to language planning, in which standardisation and uniformity of speech types are questioned.
 
Instead linguistic diversity, as a way of maintaining cultural, biological and environmental diversity, is presented as the most viable for Africa.
 
The position advanced by Djite is similar, to a significant degree, to the one proposed by many Kenyan linguists such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Okoth Okombo, Mohammed Abdulaziz, Alamin Mazrui and myself, among others.
 
We see the promotion and development of African languages as a necessary prerequisite to political, economic, social and cultural emancipation.
 
We link language with the decolonisation of the African continent in all domains of life; a position that has been articulated consistently in CHAKITA-Kenya (Kiswahili national association).
 
It is broadly recognised that a key feature of Eastern African countries is their triglossic nature; a consequence of the colonial encounter, which also assigned prestige and status to the acquisition of foreign languages and deliberately discouraged the teaching and learning of African languages, except for evangelical purposes and basic functions of interpersonal communication.
 
There are, naturally, pedagogical and instrumental constraints and facilitation to the proposal of anchoring African languages; some of which may be located in the colonial experience as well as the phenomenon of globalisation, information technology and economic constraints.
 
In view of limited resources in Africa, for instance, how can we develop a set of languages while keeping linguistic diversity alive?
 
Despite the constraints, how are African languages creating a place for themselves? How are they responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by the process of globalisation? How are they dealing with the threat of loss?
 
Although globalisation - a process of cultural interconnectedness, homogeneity, integration, and disintegration - is contributing to language loss, there are other factors that might also accelerate to the loss of some Kenyan languages, such as Suba, Ogiek, El Molo and so forth.
 
One factor is that languages which do not have a systematic and vibrant writing and reading tradition and which rely heavily on orality, are likely to die out if one generation fails to learn them.
 
Current generations are not learning, reading or working in the languages of their parents. There is need to develop reading materials for children in local languages.
 
Also, within the context of language loss, Kenyan linguists are urging the government to rigorously and consistently support the development of indigenous languages through structural actions and functional facilitation.
 
Another area of concern to us is national development. Currently, 57 per cent of Kenyans live below the poverty line but by addressing issues of language we may change this pattern.
 
In my view, Kenya's failure to address the language question in national development, consistently and deliberately, has contributed in the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.
 
Increased school dropout and transition rates, rising poverty and socio-economic inequities, and unemployment demand of us to think creatively about imparting relevant knowledge and skills in the languages available to the bulk of the people.
 
Most school leavers operate within the nation-state, and not internationally, and greater proficiency in national languages would make them more productive than is currently the case.
 
According to a 2000 World Bank Human Development Report, Africa's future economic growth "will depend less on its natural resources, and more on its labour skills and its ability to accelerate a demographic transition".
 
Also, the continent will require to invest in people in order to promote their individual development. In order to achieve these, we need education, health, flexibility and a certain amount of economic security.
 
But in the context of HIV/Aids, war and conflict, drought, urbanisation, unemployment, and massive poverty, the situation does look grim.
 
Yet by focusing on protection against vulnerability, Africa can solve its crisis. In view of the dismal levels of literacy, it is becoming quite important to explore if using African languages as engines of development can help solve the problem.
 
Bolster cross-border trade
 
They might open possibilities for the bulk of the people to be engaged in productive labour, and participate in politics and economic activities.
 
African Regional languages, such as Kiswahili, Zulu and Hausa, could be used to bolster cross-border trade, widen access to services especially for the rural people and increase community involvement in construction, maintenance and management of the infrastructure.
 
Indeed, the link between languages and cultures on development cannot be ignored. The Ghanaian scholar Kwesi Prah is right when he says that language and culture constitute the matrix and vehicular forms in which development endeavours are meaningfully undertaken.
 
If development in Africa is to be achieved, then this has to be inaugurated in the languages of mass society. The interest shown by the United Nations General Assembly in declaring the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012) is indicative of some of the opportunities provided by world bodies for the growth of African languages.
 
In the context of the forces of globalisation and the tendency to embrace the homogenising yet stratifying forces, can African languages raise their heads? I think so. But in order for them to be effective, more work will need to be done.
 
At CHAKITA-Kenya we believe that Kiswahili should be declared an official language in the truly "Wanjiku" constitution. The language is one of the official languages at the African Union and a lingua franca in the envisaged East African Community.
 
With the establishment of the East African Kiswahili Council in 2006, the region will be ready for a vibrant linguistic scenario.
 

Prof Kimani Njogu is the chairman of CHAKITA-Kenya and a member of the Task Force for the East Africa Kiswahili Council
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