What Science Can You Teach Without Language? A Conversation with Timothy Wangusa

Abstract

This biographical dialogue with Timothy Wangusa explores the interface between indigenous culture, Christianity and education in Uganda, how this disrupted the indigenous cultural base and practice and continued to inform and impact lives and culture in Uganda. It interrogates the binary colonial–cultural contestation and disorientation of indigenous identities from an existential base rooted in the body, the spirit and the land. It acknowledges tensions of identity for the African writer as a product of multiple heritages and the challenge of emboldening it in contestation of manifold historical and structural peripherisations in education and national development policies and interventions. In response to the general national emphasis on science in education and development, Wangusa highlights, through his example, the function of language in education and the value of an inclusive curriculum. He decolonises the definitional scope of science to a more inclusive and relational application as a function of civilisation and education. The word, ‘language’, remains central as an enabler in the understanding and pursuit of development and human civilisation.

This interview, conducted on 6 July 2022, was a commemoration of Professor Timothy Wangusa at 80 years and part of the Department of Literature’s activities during Makerere University Centennial celebrations, 2022.

KEYWORDS:

• Bible
• culture
• drama
• education
• government
• HIV/AIDS
• language
• literature
• theatre

Acknowledgement

My sincere thanks to the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Department of Literature, Makerere University (Dr Edgar Nabutanyi, Prof. Susan Nalugwa Kiguli, and Dr Isaac Tibasiima) for enabling this conversation. And to Nekesa Patricia Mangeni for interview transcription support.

Disclosure Statement

There are no competing interests to declare.