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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
 Posted - 05 Dec 2005 : 22:47:42
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The best way to enslave a person is to teach him/her a new language, make him/her believe that his/her mother tongue is unscientific and worthless. That’s why the early Europeans that visited Africa before and shortly after independence described Africans as immature. And that Africa needed to be saved from its own childishness and made civilized. If the difference between maturity and immaturity is measured by the capacity to communicate then one is most matured by communicating in ones own mother tongue. Those Europeans that referred to Africa and Africans as immature would be immature themselves if they had to learn an African language to be able to communicate with the Africans.
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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ylowe
USA
217 Posts |
Posted - 06 Dec 2005 : 04:35:24
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| If we africans chose not to listen to the late Kwame Krumah about using Swahili and because of the fact that we have alot of tribes in Africa maybe we need a foreign language to communicate with each other and the rest of the world. |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 06 Dec 2005 : 11:25:56
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| The African renaissance lies in the indigenous languages made formally official. One of the arguments that legitimate a colonial language to be the lingua –Franca in Africa is that the diversity of languages in Africa makes them unpractical as if the European continent speaks one and the same language. Today we know better, equipped with historical facts we know diversity is an advantage and not a disadvantage, that diversity is a resource and not a hinder. The lingua –Franca, English which is supposed to bring the people closer instead tears them apart not only from each other but also from the realities of everyday life. |
Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 06 Dec 2005 : 23:37:28
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Language and value
We use language to express our needs, desires and to communicate our abilities. It gives us a direct contact to our history and our immediate surrounding. In other words language connects us to our past and provides us with the means by which we identify and express the realties in the here and now. Words are not just abstract sounds; words are actions, they structure and shape everyday lived life, the daily practices. Speaking English is practicing English customs and traditions therefore the ones who speak the mother tongue are alienated from the administrators who speak English. And this alienation creates a conflict between the values and realities of the mother tongue and English.
Words make meanings, meanings become objects and objects form the environment around us. It is through language we, feel, identify and know our environment. Every language has its history (habitués) that makes it unique in its particular location. Therefore the problems of a people can not be defined by another language with a different history (habitués) and from another place.
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Intermeddler
Germany
3 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2005 : 04:04:44
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| Interesting topic and thread! Let me contribute with a quote from Ngugi Wa Thiongo, a Kenyan writer and author of "Decolonising the Mind", who wrote "The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation." As I get it, the idea of Africa returning to indigenous languages is often rejected with the argument, that it would turn into an "African Babel." But than, how many languages are spoken in Europe? Still, Tanzania and Madagacar tried to actually return to their indigenous languages, but failed because it proofed to be too costy. And this will probably be the reason, that it will never be. I am always astounded, that too many parents choose to pick an English or French for child naming, instead of an traditional one. Since language cannot be separated from culture, tradition and identity, than what about names and identity! This again seems to strenghten the point of corrupted culture. |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2005 : 13:32:11
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| Linguists now estimate that half of the more than 6,000 languages currently spoken in the world will become extinct by the end of this century. There are numerous efforts to slow the dieing off, from graduate students heading into the field to compile dictionaries; to charitable foundations devoted to the cause, like the Endangered Language Fund; to transnational agencies like the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages. Chile started a modest program save Kawesqar (Ka-WES-kar) and Yaghan, the last two native languages of southern Chile. |
Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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kajaw
70 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2005 : 00:53:04
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It is true that the use of foreign languages has indeed been an impediment to our progress if anything it has contributed to a sense of inferiority. However, there are countless countries who were barely colonized and retained their native language and still did not do better. Ethopia is a good example. So is many Arab countries.
Let us set aside the idealism for a little while and consider the fact that very few African countries have a common language all could communicate in . Kenya Tanzania and to a lesser extent Uganda and the Congo have Swahilli. The fact of the matter is that those idealistic african leaders who called for the use of indiginious languages never considered the practicalities of doing so. Take Gambia for example. What will be your official language? Mandinka? wolof? Jola.... How much will it cost to transilate all of our government documents in the choosen language? how much would it cost to translate all the textbooks we need in to that native language. It is a giant almost impossible in the current atmosphere. Africa is faced with other more pressing issues such as malaria, Aids and a host of other problems.
I understand the centiments. I am mandinka i have been learning to speak english since i was 5 and i still do not consider myself fluent enough in it. I would have much prefered to read and write in mandinka. Yet i understand that there are somethings in life that i cannot undoe however unplasent they may be.
However, like most of you, i am concerned with the fact that some languages are going to go extinct. That is indeed a tragidy. One thing we failed to do since we got our independaic is that we failed incoperate the teaching of our local languages in our education system. One thing i suggest could have been done was to make sure that when one is in highschool, one is thought a language that is not the one you spoke at home. So that students are made to choose a second language. For instance, if you are Mandinka and speak mandinka at home, the corriculumn should be such that you are required to learn Pular, Jola, Sererre Wolof, Soninke Manjak.... and if you are wolof learn jola or Serrer. In this way, we would improve communication in our communities as well as help preserve our languages. Institutionalizing these languages will also help in improving their writing as well as stimulate cultural preservation. for instance, growing up, my grand parents told me many stories relating to my heritage stories about Jankeh wally and Musa Molo as well as songs ....Writing it, teaching it, and studying it has more cultural value to me than reading Macbet. |
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Sister Omega
United Kingdom
2085 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2005 : 01:40:17
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Thanks janko for introducing this interesting thread. 
Hi kajaw hasn't always been the case in Gambia that people from ethnic groups can speak more than one or two local languages  For example the Fula's I've met can speak Wolof & Mandinka. The mandinka's I've met can speak Serehoulies, Jola speak Mandinka etc.
I think its more productive to use mother tongue languages to reinforce foreign languages while acquiring them. That way the mother tongue remains utilitarian and will survive.
Also there is a perpetuated myth that African languages cannot be transcribed, as with pulaar language, N'ko script, wolof these can all be written down. Therefore scholars could be given the opportunity to take exams in these languages as they would do in European languages.
Just imagine if indigenous language was given as much attention as foreign languages are its not too late. Reflecting on history European Adventurers had to learn the local languages of Africa to be able to divide and conquer it. Just imagine using the same tools to strengthen it.
On the other side of the coin all being said and done we are all tapping on our keyboards on three sides of the Atlantic in the major international language of English. Ironic but true- I think the lesson is that if we were to have more bilingual and trilingual books made available in different languages then this would help to build bridges and assist progress.
Peace
Sister Omega
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Sister Omega
United Kingdom
2085 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2005 : 02:28:42
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quote:
Originally posted by Janko
The best way to enslave a person is to teach him/her a new language, make him/her believe that his/her mother tongue is unscientific and worthless.
Janko on the surface this statement is so true but on a deeper level it is flawed because it takes out of the equation the realignment of the mind, our DNA and our spiritual connection to our ancestors. It's ironic because since beginning to learn wolof there are some words that are similiar in Jamaican dialect or grammar. For example mom in wolof means he/she. And I remember as a youth my grandparents always got he/she confused. They would call she him and she he obviously not because they could differeniate between the sexes but the grammar was plural. I remember at age 12 playing with words and I remember discoverying the world "dof", this was my buzz word for stupid but it was 25 years later that I learn that in wolof dof means stupid. Also I think its important not to overlook words we have contributed to the English language like banjo, palaver, banana, mumbo jumbo and no mumbo jumbo doesn't mean rubbish for the mumbo jumbo would sort out the disagreements between husband and wife in 18th Century Mankinda Kingdoms. A Palaver was the court set up to decide whether a slave could be sold or not or other civil disputes. In jamaica palaver is a long drawn out dispute or anonyance
Acculturalisation was the process of slaves substituting things they had left behind in Africa with things they were forced to use. For example many slaves became baptists initially because they could related to submerging themselves in water as they may of done in animist rituals. Or those who had converted to Islam before being captured were already aquainted with the prophets they could see the connection between the two faiths.
Even with issues of male circumcision although in Jamaica it is prodominantly Christian male circumision is practiced there by some of the people. With bitter herbs such as cersee in Ghana it is applied externally to ward off bad spirits but in Jamaica we use it internally to cleanse blood, to wash out toxins out of your body and cure constipation. I remember a Gambian friend of mine commenting on how people from the Caribbean suck there teeth within the same context of a continental African would. Even the simplist things like hissing for a taxi in Gambia, I would use the same expression to frighten away cats out of my garden. In both incidences we are using the sound to attack attention. There are many levels to culture yes language is an important part of it but culture runs deeper than language and also language takes many forms.
Peace
Sister Omega
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2005 : 11:56:23
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Thank you Omega12, Kajaw, Intermeddler- It is through discussion that we find a common ground, your points are very well noted
Rome was not built in a day and development is a process that takes focus, courage, patience and determination therefore it is better too late than never. The development of a people lies in their own mother language. They can never define the problems of their society with another language. It would take time for Gambian indigenous languages to become official but that does not mean the work of getting there should not start today. It took The West decades of reforms, experiment and discussion to become what it is today. The day Gambia is able to define her problems with her languages she would do the world a big favour by contributing to the advancement of mankind. Because she would contribute with her knowledge, her knowledge no one knows better. Her knowledge buried in her cultures and traditions passed onto her children through her languages. |
Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 09 Dec 2005 : 17:18:59
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| The cradle of European national awareness is its languages. Language is the cornerstone of European nationalism which would never have happened if the official language of the respective European countries was Latin or Greek. Africa has never felt the same noble sense of national awareness or romantic in the same calibre as the Europeans. Because African official languages are foreign and the instrument of government is formulated and written by colonialists in colonial languages that have no relation to the glory of the African past. |
Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Drammehkangi
Sweden
40 Posts |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 11 Dec 2005 : 11:29:02
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Thanks Drammehkangi for opening up this door
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 11 Dec 2005 : 11:31:47
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| How does Gambia bridge the gap between administrator and voter, between English and Gambian languages? One way is to give Gambian languages a central roll in shaping the political discuss, understanding language as an economic instrument, an advantage. And to involve the Gambian languages in the democratic process as a step to gambianize democracy and learn whether it defines our problems better. |
Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
Posted - 12 Dec 2005 : 11:14:43
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The Businessman who does his negotiations in another language is less successful than the businessman who does his negotiations in his mother tongue. Let’s assume that a businessman from The Gambia on a business trip to London without hesitation speaks English and not his mother tongue limits his/her chances long before the negotiations begin. A better chance for the Gambian would have been to get an interpreter to interpret to English.
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Formby
United Kingdom
246 Posts |
Posted - 12 Dec 2005 : 16:39:51
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| Which is the oldest of the Gambian languages used there currently? Anybody know? |
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