Education‐medium and African linguistic rights in the context of globalisation

Abstract

In the context of globalisation, European languages, especially English, continue to be the favoured medium of official communication and are valued and promoted as the dominant languages of commerce, international communication, education and scientific knowledge. In this paper, I argue that European educational language medium policies perpetuate the hegemonic influence of western languages and their corresponding forms of knowledge. I further argue that these policies have also devalued and marginalised indigenous languages, knowledge systems and cultural identities in sub‐Saharan Africa. I explore the social justice implications of these policies for indigenous language communities in the region.

Keywords:

• indigenous language
• indigenous knowledge
• cultural identity
• globalisation
• educational‐medium
• social justice

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Tanja Sargent, Assistant Professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, for her guidance in creating this piece. Most of all, I would like to thank my wife Jennifer, my daughter Isabella and my son Sebastian, for their endless love and support and for making endeavours such as this possible.

Notes

1. Quoting Lord Macaulay with regards to education in India during English rule, the purpose of colonial education was to produce: ‘A class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect’ (From Phillipson 2001, 189).

2. In Mah's experiences in Somalia, western curriculum, knowledge systems and language‐medium were Italian‐based.

3. Not only do institutions such as the World Bank encourage the consolidation of European languages in African education, but also any considerations of the possibility of the ‘Africanisation’ of education is completely ignored when considering policies to revitalize African education at all levels (Mazrui 1997, 39; Phillipson 2001, 190).

4. As much as £6 billion per annum during the 1980s, and much more today (Phillipson 2001, 191).

5. Bgoya (2001) points out that English‐medium education in countries such as Tanzania has been an economic boon to English‐language publishers in both the UK and the US (especially text book publishers), while simultaneously under‐developing African‐based indigenous language publishing industries. In 1995, in South Africa, for example, African language publications number only 14.36% of total titles published in that country – and this is spread amongst the country's nine official African languages (Bgoya 2001, 290). For comparison, English titles published in South Africa that year made up almost 54% of the total for 1995, and Afrikaans titles – a language spoken by only 10% of the population – still had nearly 34% of the total (Bgoya 2001, 290).

6. Kwesi Kwaa Prah (2000) reinforces this point, adding that: ‘No society in the world has developed in a sustained and democratic fashion on the basis of a borrowed or colonial language… Underdeveloped countries in Africa remain under‐developed partly on account of the cultural alienation which is structured in the context of the use of colonial languages’ (Brock‐Utne 2003, 76–7).

7. In these contexts, since teachers have to teach in the dominant language as a rule, they resort to tactics such as code‐switching (switching languages between indigenous language and dominant language between sentences) and/or code‐mixing (switching languages mid‐sentence) (Brock‐Utne and Holmarsdottir 2004, 75). This further impedes a student's ability to obtain proficiency in foreign languages (Brock‐Utne and Holmarsdottir 2004, 75).

8. See also Brock‐Utne (2003, 72).

9. In addition, dominant language‐medium polices have been shown not produce national unity, continues to exacerbate inequalities, are not cost‐efficient, and does not lead to economic development for indigenous language‐speaking majorities (Alexander 1997, 88).

10. In Tanzania for instance, Kiswahili – which, along with English, is an official language – is almost exclusively utilized in Parliament as the official language of government (Brock‐Utne 2003). According to Brock‐Utne (2003), bills that come to Parliament are always discussed in Kiswahili. In KwaZulu‐Natal in South Africa, programs are in place that requires proficiency in the Zulu language for civil service jobs in the province (Kamwangamalu 1997, 248). In both cases, indigenous language is given the status and value it deserves as both a language of political and economic participation.