I just posted this to Togo-L earlier today and forward it in case it is of any interest. It rambles a bit having been written at different times, but hopefully the points are clear.... Don Osborn
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "d_z_o" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Almost a year ago there was a posting on Togo-L (message #2075, 17 Aug. 05) under the title "NEWS: Intensify teaching of French; launch of book 'The Ewe of Togo and Benin' (GNA)" in which Prof. Raymond Bagulo Bening of the University of Ghana was quoted as calling for "re-introduction of both English and French languages as compulsory subjects for studies in West African schools to enhance regional integration." This was part of a speech on the occasion of a launch of a book "The Ewe of Togo and Benin" in which he went further to note what he saw as "the urgent need to make citizens of the region bilingual." Part of the reason he made this statement was observation from work on the book that "one of the more frustrating legacies of European colonialism in the Volta-mono region is the creation of two almost autonomous Ewe-speaking communities of scholars - Francophone in Togo and Anglophone in Ghana." Three things struck me about this and prompted some reflection and some work on a response that I left off and am only now coming back to. They are: 1) On the face of it, it seems reasonable to hope for expanded language abilities in the two main official languages of the region, English and French. 2) Most people in the region are already bilingual or even multilingual, though few in these two languages (and some in neither of them). 3) It seems odd to discuss a divide in the "Ewe-speaking community" between "Anglophone" and "Francophone" without further discussion of the language that unites them, how it was or wasn't used in the event in question, and how it might be in the future. Taken together these seemed to reflect the low status and consideration given African languages. (I should preface these comments by saying that none of what I write is meant to diminish the importance of the work whose launch was the setting for statements I'm reacting to, and certainly no disrespect is meant towards Profs. Bening or Lawrence.) To begin with the third observation, while one legacy of colonization has been the exclusion of languages like Ewe from primary roles in formal education and research in favor of European languages, African languages are certainly capable of such use. This is not to get into the economics or politics of the issue, but linguistically speaking (from all I've heard and read) such a language can be / could have been used more prominently in various forms of learning and expansion knowledge in contemporary contexts. (Terminology or lack of same is a typical issue people raise in objection, but it's something encountered in any language.) It is worth noting that Ewe has been written for some time and although there is no scholarly literature (that I'm aware of) in it, there is something of a written tradition, even if it might not be as vigorous now as it once was. Moreover, looking at the issue from outside, it seems odd to conduct and publish research on a people and its neighbors, and that none of it is done (or even abstracted?) in the their maternal language. Especially for a group of such numerical importance. Please note that I am not arguing to replace English and French with Ewe, but noting what seems to be an anomalous situation compared with what one sees in other regions. Currently I'm based in China (though on business in the US), and I know that although there are articles and studies on the country that are not in Chinese, there are a lot that are. It would be unimaginable that all such work be done in other languages. Some would naturally point out that the number of Chinese speakers is huge compared to Ewephones, and Chinese has an ancient written tradition, etc. But it's a difference of degree and history, not of principle. Another example more appropriate perhaps is a conference in Lithuania on "Language, Culture & Technologies" (Kaunas, Lithuania, May 2006 http://www.ktu.lt/en/conf2006.html) in which submissions were permitted in Lithuanian as well as in English, Russian, French and German (another recent conference there, "Language, Diversity and Integration in the Enlarged EU," I believe also accepted submissions in Lithuanian http://www.vdu.lt/LTcourses/?pg=112〈=2&menu_id=57 ) . According to Ethnologue the number of total speakers of Lithuanian is about the same as those of Ewe (around 3 million). There are a number of differences between Togo & Ghana on one hand and Lithuania on the other, but in both cases the lands and peoples were subject to conquest and rule by external peoples who introduced another tongue for administrative and academic purposes. Could a colloquium or academic collaboration on study of Ewe and neighboring peoples permit discourse and publication in Ewe as well as in English and French? (And perhaps in other African languages as well?) Or even encourage same? I'll leave this particular item here with two questions: Is Africa going to entirely abandon its own tongues for advanced learning, even for self study? If so, what would be the outcome? Continuing in reverse order (#2), Prof. Bening's call for "bilingual" citizens - meaning English and French - echoes something that Senegalese Pres. Abdoulaye Wade said 3 years or so ago after a conference in Abuja about aspects of regional collaboration: "Helas! nos peuples ne sont pas bilingues." To me, again as an outsider, these statements sound like more than just semantic slips. Pres. Wade and Prof. Bening are not thinking of African languages at all in this calculus, which is in itself revealing. African languages don't count? Africa's linguistic situation is of course complex, no one would deny it. Lots of languages however they are counted, multilingual societies, interspersed language communities, many languages with relatively few speakers, etc. Languages inherited from the colonial powers facilitated communication across wider areas (and internationally) - particularly among elites - while at the same time creating some new social divisions. The borders imposed by colonization as a general rule split virtually all major language communities (and many smaller ones), often, as is the case with Ewe, under different European languages. The combined effect has been to hinder the development of use of indigenous tongues for various purposes. The cost of this for the continent's development has not to my knowledge been calculated (though there are some works that discuss it, such as Mazrui & Mazrui's _Power of Babel_), but it is certainly under-acknowledged. Another colonial legacy is the notion that African languages are inferior or "primitive" - in some colonial literature they were not even called languages but something else (e.g., there were French documents early in the mandate of Togo referring only to "idioms" and never "langues" spoken by the people). One still hears echoes of this erroneous dismissal today. Nevertheless, there are other approaches and programs for using Africa's maternal languages. In Cameroon I think it was, there was discussion of "trilingual" education (which incidentally was also a theme at UNESCO at one point). In many other countries of the continent, "bilingual" primary education, beginning with the first language and transitioning to the official language, is being (re) instituted. And there are various initiatives and movements to use African languages in one way or another (including one I'm connected with - localization of information and communication technology). Finally (#1) the point about increasing education in English and French is hard to argue with. However, the deeper you look at communication patterns etc. in Africa, the less of a fix-all it seems. When he was president of Mali, Secretary of the AU, A.O. KonarĂ© discussed the particular role of cross-border languages in uniting the continent. Indeed on local and subregional levels, they have long played this role without much official attention. Ewe in Togo is one of those languages. So, when bilingualism, multilingualism, regional integration, development, and indeed research get discussed, it might make sense to remember the cross-border languages. It's not as neat and simple a solution as English and French for all appears to be, but the multilingual character of Africa (1) doesn't seem to conform to such a simple formula and (2) seems to need more creative solutions that take more account of its linguistic heritage and potentialities. Anyway, that's the way it looks to one interested outsider... Don Osborn Antrac, AmlamĂ© 79-81 & various other points since --- End forwarded message --- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
