Afrikan Innovation and Afrikan Language Systems – by Simphiwe Dana
The Department of Linguistics in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology says – “If development is seen as the sustainable socio-cultural, economic & technological transformation of society, then language is important. Language is a granary, a repository of the world-view of its speakers, it is this particular language that best contains and expresses the indigenous belief systems of any society. New belief systems are immediately related to these existing systems. Then it goes without saying that a successful conceptualization and implementation of the societal transformation that is development can only be achieved through the use of the mother-tongues or the languages indigenous to the society.” In other words the knowledge of how a people’s world operates is contained in their languages, thousands of years of innovation contained in something as simple and unassuming as a language. Language permeates every sphere of our existence; how we relate to each other, culture; how we understand the divine within all of us and the unseeing eye, religion/spirituality, how we innovate and evolve, philosophy/science/commerce/education. MSC Okolo says – “The most virulent element working against the repackaging of the Afrikan personality is the vision of Afrika in colonial languages. Of all human inventions, language alone affects, structures, defines, interprets all other aspects of human life. Beliefs, ideas, ideologies, culture, knowledge, experience, values, prejudice are acquired & conveyed through language” Kwesi Kwaa Prah contends – “No society in the world has developed in a sustained and democratic fashion on the basis of a borrowed colonial language. Underdeveloped Afrika remains so partly on the account of cultural alienation structured in the context of the use of colonial languages.” In other words, the tragedy of Afrika is that it has thrown off its identity and ideas in the pursuit of colonial excellence, discarding thousands of years of crucial information without which Afrika is just a dumping ground for the evolutionary ideas of others. Others who have no idea of the Afrikan interpretation of our world and its value to said world. And finally Ali Mazrui asks – “Can any country take off if it relies on foreign languages for its discourse on development & transformation?” I quote these scholars to give weight to my argument that the key to African development and excellence lies in the knowledge systems contained in our languages. Western Culture has always had a superiority complex. If you do not fit into it’s definition of what intelligence is then you are deemed of inferior intelligence. This has seen it play a paternal role and it is responsible for the genocide of a lot of cultures, in Afrika and elsewhere. The argument that English is the language of business globally does not really hold water. China, the biggest economy in the world today, does just fine without Anglicizing their society. In fact China has been able to innovate because, even though it has assimilated ideas of other cultures, it has remained steadfast in upholding Chinese language and thus culture. I believe that even its political system, which has been criticized a lot, is influenced by Chinese culture. What is important is that it works for them and has boosted their economy tremendously. The development of Afrika was curtailed by the advent of colonialism, which brought and enforced new concepts of being and new knowledge systems that were at odds with Afrikan knowledge systems. This is not to say that Afrika should have rejected all foreign knowledge – but I say Afrika should have rejected the wholesale cultural enforcement whose sole intention was to replace her own – and she tried and failed. It is difficult to say no when there’s a gun pointed to your head. Civilizing Afrika has been the excuse of many a colonialist as they raped and plundered the continent, building monuments and leaving broken societies in their wake. That is still the case today with regards to our approach to education and specifically the languages of communication. We are still civilizing Afrika, because we believe that Afrika on her own has nothing of value to offer the world. This is the reason why we have not built on Afrika’s achievements. These achievements are confined in our languages, our worldview. We are living on borrowed , supposedly superior cultures. To kill a tree you must cut off it’s roots, if you only cut off the branches the tree will grow new branches come springtime. To kill a society you must disassociate them from what informs their worldview – their culture, their language, their identity. Then they shall forever be willing slaves to your agenda. Exploring Africa on their website says - A world-view can be thought of as a system of values, attitudes, and beliefs, which provide people with a mechanism to understand the world in which they live and everyday events and occurrences. Maybe we can think of a world-view as being like a language. Can you imagine how hard it would be to explain or understand everyday events and occurrences if we did not have language-words? Words are essential tools that help us explain and understand events and occurrences. Words and their meanings help shape the way we see, and therefore how we explain, events. Similarly, the world-view (values, attitudes, beliefs) that an individual learns from the time she is a baby provides a mechanism that influences how she understands all that happens to her, her community and the world in which she lives. What is meant when we speak of knowledge systems? South Africa is the last Afrikan country to gain independence from colonialism, albeit a compromise independence. I say compromise independence because we had to concede that since we had not won the battle, things could not go back to the way they were before colonialism. In actual fact, we had to concede, amongst other things, our identity to keep the peace. This is the reason why we are meeting today. This arrangement is not working out for all of us. Our education system is a defining case in point. All the other Afrikan countries that gained independence before South Afrika have not faired well. South Afrika might be the richest country in Afrika but this is not because the previously disadvantaged have made strides towards economic emancipation, but because of the compromise agreements that made sure it was business as usual after 1994. The compromise agreements more or less maintained the apartheid status quo. BEE is crumbs off the table, crumbs are only accessible to the few. The reason why Afrikan countries have, after independence, not done well is because they have not done away with colonial culture. I put it to you that Afrika has so internalized the inferiority complex inferred upon it by colonialism that they have feared to break away from colonial knowledge systems. Those ones who had the capacity to lead us back to ourselves were systematically cut out of the Afrikan discourse. Steve Bantu Biko, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Ken Saro-Wiwa to mention a few. That I’m mentioning males only, does not in anyway prove that there were no female activists, it merely proves that Afrika had its own problems even before colonialism. Patriarchy; which is a global problematic phenomenon. Can we blame Afrika for not trusting her own intelligence? Psychologists say that if you’ve been abused for long enough, without reprieve, you start to internalize the hate abuse comes with. You start to believe it is for your own good. You indeed start to see your abuser as saving you from yourself. You begin to distrust yourself and you lose yourself. Losing yourself has psychological ramifications. You cannot run away from yourself forever, the self-loathing will eventually catch up with you. Xenophobia, or more correctly put, Afrophobia is a case in point. So in Afrika, one by one countries are crumbling because they sought to maintain colonial systems instead of redreaming Afrika. By colonial systems I mean systems of governance, education systems, religious systems, language systems, cultural systems. Of course all these can be encompassed under language systems, as language is a repository of the way of being of its speakers. The systems are crumbling because the knowledge systems they are based on are foreign to the Afrikan landscape and thus the Afrikan cannot innovate based on them. It is in this context that in South Afrika those who benefited from apartheid can sometimes be heard complaining that the Afrikan government is taking the country to the dogs. Not only are they talking about corruption, I mean they were/are corrupt themselves, but mainly the mismanagement of the perfect system that they handed over to the Afrikan government. It should come as no surprise based on this why the Western Cape would be the most well run province even as it marginalizes Afrikans, Coloureds and Indians. The system can best be run by those whose knowledge systems it stems out of - and the system best serves those who know how to work it. That in no ways makes the Afrikan incapable, but sadly enough, everyone, including the Afrikan, believes it does. Look at the issue of education in South Afrika for instance. Government spends the most money on education, yet year after year the education crisis deepens. Yes we understand that despite the huge budgets there are still not enough resources to properly equip black schools that were disadvantaged by apartheid. We understand that the changes in the curriculum and their improper implementation have killed the morale of both teacher and learner. Here is something interesting though. Between 1953 and 1976 the apartheid government slowly phased in mother tongue education and for 8 years in a learner’s life they were taught in their mother tongue. This improved the matric pass rate significantly. The abolishment of mother tongue education is what led to the Soweto Uprising. Thereafter the pass rate dropped to as low as 44% (Heugh, 1999). I believe that the introduction of mother tongue education alone would drastically improve learner results. To be able to have, explained to you, complex concepts in a language you understand and a language based on your worldview gives you an advantage. Currently those who have an advantage in our education systems are only those who are descendants of or have adopted the colonial culture and language. This further entrenches inferiority and superiority complexes. Now you may say that Afrikan languages have not developed enough in the past decades to carry complex concepts encompassed in our education. I would agree with you; but would say it is an easily remedied problem if our linguists are willing to play ball. For the development of language is not merely Afrikanising European terms, but finding ways to explain them within the world view of its speakers. For example you cannot translate television by calling it ithelevizhin. You must explain it within the context of the worldview of its speakers. Call it umabonakude, that which shows things that are not in your immediate environment. Coming to the Afrikan worldview. I believe that when Bantu Steve Biko spoke of Afrika giving the world a more human face he was referring to the harmonious, spiritual understanding and interaction of the Afrikan with her world, the reverence given to nature and the social cohesiveness as enshrined in the Ubuntu philosophy. But to give a human face to the world Afrika must first rediscover her own humanity. Biko spoke of this at length. That the aggressive dehumanization that blacks, particularly Afrikans suffered had to be met with an equally aggressive rehumanization, to infuse back life into the empty husk of the black man. What is this self-love he spoke of? Is it not the love for what makes an Afrikan human? What informs the humanity of an Afrikan? Is it not her worldview - her knowledge systems - her spirituality? Would it then not be fair to say that the beginning of the emancipation of an Afrikan starts with embracing her knowledge systems and her worldview? If language is the repository of the worldview of it’s speakers, let South Afrika speak, be taught and do business in an Afrikan language. If development is seen as the sustainable socio-cultural, economic & technological transformation of society, let South Afrika speak, be taught and do business in an Afrikan language. If no society in the world has developed in a sustained and democratic fashion on the basis of a borrowed colonial language, let South Afrika speak, be taught and do business in an Afrikan language. I believe that any Afrikan language carries the worldview of all Afrikan ethnic groupings. It is the worldview that gave birth to language. I say this because across the Afrikan landscape cultural practices, devoid of colonial intrusion, are the same, of course give or take some slight differences. This is not to say that Afrikans live and have always lived in harmonious existence. It would be naïve to believe so. History belies the fact that tribes across the globe have always had their conflicts. This however does not dismiss the fact that tribes of Afrika, as with tribes of Europe, have strong cultural ties that bind. Our worldview as Afrika has given birth to our knowledge systems and our culture. These are the ties that bind. To strengthen them is to strengthen and fast track development. Ethnocentricity will not help the development of South Africa. We need to remember that we were Bantu way before we were Zulu, Venda, Tsonga, Sotho etc. Deny it if you will, but English is what brings us together as the people of South Africa – and English is eroding all the other languages and eroding African culture. We have a wealth of information that we are not tapping into. Afrika is a rich continent yet its inhabitants are poor. It is poor because we want to be importers of knowledge and innovation instead of exporters of such. This is a sure path to neocolonialism, and this time we will have no one but ourselves to blame if opportunists ransack and pillage our continent a second time while we continue to have famine in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia. While we continue to have majority of Afrikans living on R550 a month. While we continue to have 500 000 unfilled vacancies because of a lack of skills. [1] Ultimately education in Afrika can only be seen in this context for it to have any real impact on our overall evolution. Education must teach Afrikan Excellence in a language that has the ability to carry the worldview from which stems thousands of years of Afrika’s knowledge. At the World Conference on Science held in Budapest, July 1999 - the acknowledgement and endorsement by the global scientific community of the relevance of indigenous knowledge speaks to this vacuum we have left in the global community by our involuntary, and now increasingly voluntary, abandonment of our knowledge systems. Spiritually we do not know why we are here on earth. We do not know how or why we developed in such diverse ways – but increasingly we are finding that our individual cultural uniqueness puts us in a position to have information that the other does not have. We are finding that to keep our planet not only progressive; but healthy we all need to contribute to the global information pool. We are finding that to keep humanity healthy of mind and body we all need to contribute to the global spiritual pool. The question then is, what does Afrika currently have to contribute to the world? In conclusion; and bringing it home to South Afrika, the issue of language has reached significant proportions of importance. Our education system is in a mess because we insist on disadvantaging the majority of our children. It is grossly unfair that we force English, and in some small instances Afrikaans, down the throats of those to whom they are not mother tongues. Any child from anywhere would suffer greatly were they to be educated in a foreign language. Imagine that your English-speaking child were to be thrown into an education system that was solely rigged around the Xhosa culture and language. That child would feel very lost for the first few years, thus developing an inferiority complex that would stay with them into adulthood. I had the privilege of visiting a few black schools countrywide. This is where and when the impact of foreign languages within the schooling system was revealed to me. The learners could express themselves openly and passionately in their mother tongues, because this is the language of their birth. I would ask them a question in English and they would all of a sudden be tongue tied and stupid. This of course translates to their conduct as adults. We are voluntarily further entrenching inferiority complexes and we don’t need to. What surprises me is that even the majority of teachers do not see English as the driving force behind the spectacular scholastic failure of our children. We are all so intoxicated by the perceived superiority of colonial languages even as our children drown in it. The only way to have our children succeed within this colonial culture is if from the very beginning we forfeit Afrikan culture and language and raise them within a colonial culture. Already most of us living in the cities are doing this. We’re raising little European kids. But what of the thousands of years of knowledge and innovation locked in our indigenous languages? Do we value this so much less that we are willing for the world never to enjoy the fruits of our innovation? Do we really believe that we have nothing to offer the world except within the confines of colonial innovation? Let’s face it Afrikaans and English do nothing for Afrikan innovation, at best they further entrench a colonial culture. This is not to say its speakers don’t deserve the right to speak their mother tongue. But innovation through them contributes nothing new to the world knowledge pool, it just regurgitates a European culture, a culture that has already made its strides and can perhaps offer nothing of relevance in the Afrikan context. Afrika must still have its moment, Afrika must still influence how the world is shaped and the secret lies in how it innovates. The sciences must still be understood from the perspective of Afrikan innovation. This is the human face that Afrika must still exhibit to the world. There is, indeed, an underlying psychological effect that has rendered African academics incapacitated when it comes to pushing for African innovations and excellence. There seems to be unwillingness on their part to let go of Eurocentric ideas of excellence; an unwillingness to embrace and build on African knowledge systems. This is evident in the failure to implement a well-researched and well-known, ideology that mother tongue education is best. This might be the biggest blunder that our education system has made. Thus out of 1.4 million learners that enter the education system only 100 000 come out equipped for the job market. Again, Kwesi Kwaa Prah contends – “No society in the world has developed in a sustained and democratic fashion on the basis of a borrowed colonial language. Underdeveloped Afrika remains so partly on the account of cultural alienation structured in the context of the use of colonial languages.” I will now apologize for my address being in English, had I been able to explain some of these complex philosophies in my own language I would have. Alas the conditioning goes very deep. I await your questions and thank you for your time. _____ [1] Afrikan Innovation and Afrikan Language Systems – by Simphiwe Dana -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
