Issues in Current Studies on African Languages
Issues in Current Studies on African Languages
Credit: Prof L. O. Adewole
Yoruba for academic purpose
1.
INTRODUCTION[1]
In
Bamgbose (1995), the author discusses what he calls the “Three Decades of
African Linguistics”. In the paper, he touches upon the status of African
Linguistics from the 1960’s to 1980”s and limits itself to work done in Africa
on African Languages. This paper will be a take off from the paper. In line
with the theme of this conference, “Language, Education and Globalization”, it
will be concerned with the recent studies on African languages and areas
researchers still need to look into.
2. RECENT
DEVELOPMENTS
It is gratifying to note that with
the internet and other modern information and communication (ICT), many online
dictionaries of African Languages have been developed. The production of the
dictionaries began with the Kamusi Project on the Kiswahili dictionary.
This Living dictionary in Kiswahili-English was completed in 1995. The
dictionary was called a living dictionary because users could contribute to the
dictionary.
Apart from the Kiswahili-English online dictionary, there
are also the Edeyede Yoruba living dictionary, the online Sotho (Sesotho so
Leboa-English) online dictionary, Hausa online dictionary, Ciluba-French and
Ciluba-Brazilian Portuguese online dictionaries and the Kasahorow, an online
dictionary of standard written Akan, among others.
3..
BRAIN-GAIN
The
production of these online dictionaries have shown that instead of lamenting
about brain-drain, we should actually be thinking of brain-gain for African
languages. This is because all the online dictionaries produced so far are
produced abroad. Yale University produced the Kiswahili and Akan online
dictionaries, Georgian Southern University produced the Yoruba online
dictionary and the Universitat Wien in Austria produced the Hausa online
dictionary.
In addition to online dictionaries, there are various other websites in African
languages. Gumercom; Barka da zuwa filin Hausa is a website entirely in
Hausa. At least two sites – www.africast.com and mailafrica.net - have
started offering e-mail services in African Languages. Google, the search
machine, is now available in Arabic, Lingela, Sesotho, Shona, Somali, Twi and
Yoruba. The Google-Yoruba search machine is at www.google.com/intl/yo/.
Nokia has also introduced Arabic, Swahili, Amhari, Hausa,
Igbo and Yoruba as options on their mobile phones. In so doing, Nokia has
connected millions more people in Africa. Ahmad (2006) even writes a paper on
‘Cell Phone Communication in Hausa: Challenges and Opportunities”. In the
paper, he discusses the impact of the GSM technology on Hausa and examines how
the GSM challenges are handled by the language. including its attempt to
accommodate such services as voice-dependent, graphic, digital and text-based
operations. The study also examines the expansion strategies employed by Hausa
in its attempt to accommodate this new technology.
Another innovative approach to the teaching and learning of African languages
is the Hausa online project described by Chekaraou (2006). The online course
combines technology-enhanced language teaching features with elements of
authentic materials for the development of the four language skills – reading,
listening, speaking and writing. The materials are designed to meet the need of
the more career oriented students of today. In a paper, titled, “African
Immigrants and the Spread of Kiswahili in the United State”, Gatimu (2006)
states that
Interest
in and influence of Kiswahili have gained significant momentum in the last
decade both in formal and informal sectors of academic, private and public
programs and cultural activities… Quick examples of the influence and spread of
Kiswahili are seen in, for instance, the Kiswahili celebrations which feature
Kiswahili vocabulary; restraunts in neighborhoods in United State will
advertise nyama choma on their menu. There are African Churches in US where the
sermon and bulletin announcements are presented in Kiswahili.
Also talking about the “Little Lagos in South London,” Robin white (2005), the
former editor of the BBC’s focus on Africa, states that
Peckham
in South London, for instance, looks very like Lagos. I used to live there, and
over the past ten years, it has been transformed into a Yoruba heartland.
Many
of the shops are Yoruba owned and you can but any Yoruba food you want –and
it’s fresh from a farm near Lagos.
Nigerian
Churches and mosques flourish and compete for worshippers.
Between 10th and 11th June, 2006, “African Village: New Haven festival of Arts
and Ideas” was held at Connecticut, USA by the African Community of Connecticut
and people were invited to come and share African tradition and they were
requested to wear their beautiful African outfits to show their supports. Some
of the communities that performed at the village were the Sudanese, Ethopian
and Guinean Communities.
There is
also a non-profit organization called Voices of the World. The organization is
based in Denmark and is sponsored by the Danish Government and the UN. It
has an international media project on endangered languages. It intends to
create a database of all the world languages via he internet. It is still
calling for contributions from individuals.
Some of the other organizations which are interested in
funding research on African Languages or endangered languages are the African
Academy of Languages, foundation for Endangered Languages, Endangered Languages
funds, the NSF/NEH program on Documenting Endangered Languages, the
Volkswagonstiftung DOBES funding and the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages
project.
This is not to say that nothing is being done in
Africa to promote the languages. Even in Nigeria, UNESCO is working with the
Federal Ministry of Culture on what it calls the Living Human Cultures
Project. The project, sponsored by the Norwegian Government, is designed
to recognize experienced persons who possess, to a very high degree, knowledge
and skills for performing or creating special elements of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage.
The Nigerian government has sponsored the translation of its constitution into
Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. The metalanguage to be used in teaching linguistics,
literature and education in schools and the legislative terms to be used in the
National Assembly have also been published in the three languages by the
government.
A grant of about $4.4 million has recently been awarded by the National Science
Foundation to save endangered languages. Out of this, a grant of $17,767
was awarded to a scholar called Rebecca Cover for the study of Badiaranke, an
endangered language of Niger-Congo phylum spoken in Guinea and Guinea Bissau.
She did a good job there.
There is also an attempt to save Dahaaiik, a language spoken in Eriteria.
Before 1996, no one had heard of Dahaaiik. Although it is close to Arabic
and Tigre, its phonetic, morphology and syntax are different. Its origin
is unknown and it is dying out as it is presently been spoken by about 300
people on obscure Isles off the port of Massawa.
In
South Africa, the government embraces and finances its eleven official
languages. The languages are taught in primary, secondary and tertiary
institutions. As a matter of fact, Pallo Jordan, the South African arts
and culture minister, this year, presented a budget close to R70 million on
languages programme and activities that promote linguistic diversity. The
government also allocated financial resources for the translation of all
documentation of national language departments into the 11 official languages.
The Pan South African Language Board also urged people who felt that their
linguistic right were being violated to register complaint with them. Namibia,
despite her small population, promotes all her thirteen languages. Even
Eritrea, African’s newest nation (it became on nation in 1993) is implementing
one of the most enlightened language policies in Africa. The country has no
official language but supports the use and development of all nine of its
languages with children attending primary school through fifth grade in their
mother tongue.
There is also a centre for Linguistic and Historical Studies
by Oral Tradition (CELHTO) in Niamey, Niger whose objectives, among others, are
- to contribute to
the promotion of practical texts in African languages,
-
to undertake linguistic, historical and sociological studies of African
communities,
-
to produce, to safeguard and to preserve sounding written, photographic and audio-visual
referential documents in oral tradition,
-
to ensure systematic distribution of existing documents
-
to develop conviviality programmes between Africa and its diasporas; and
-
to implement strategies authentically African for prevention, management,
resolution of conflicts and conservation of peace.
At its 6th ordinary session on 26/1/2006, African Union declared
2006 the Year of African Languages. During the declaration, the Union underlined
the importance of African languages as instrumental tools for education and
culture. This is in line with the claims made by Ngugi wa Thoing’o. when asked
about his position on African languages, he said.
It is very important that African people do not lose their languages. If they
lose their languages, they lose their identity and the wisdom carried in them.
He
goes further,
We tend to think that European languages are the way to universal and wisdom,
which is not. Because of our colonial past, we are not only proud of knowing
European languages but are more proud of the fact that our children do not know
our languages.
“I am not against European languages”, Ngugi says, “I am
against the choice of those languages to be our primary tongues to the
neglect and total abuse of our African languages”. He explains that his writing
in Gikuyu is meant to tell people that what can be done in Gikuyu language can
also be done in any other African language.
Problems
The
problems with African languages start with the classification of the languages.
Most scholars divide African languages into four major language families of
Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Kordofanian and Khoi-San. In such division,
the Austronesian languages of Madagascar or Malagasy are excluded.
Scholars may want to justify the exclusion of this language family from their
own classification on the ground that Austronesian language family is not
confined to Africa. But so is the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic which is
spoken in Africa as well as Asia.
The sub-classification of individual languages under these families is another
problem. Yoruba was classified as a member of Kwa language group by
Greenberg (1963) but another scholar classified the language under the Sudanic
branch of Niger-Congo (see http://bercho.net/page 99/99 en-afr-languages.
html) while a recent classification placed Yoruba under the Defoid (Èdè+Ifè%+oid)
group of Benue-Congo.
The names giving to these languages and their dialects can be confusing at
times. None of the classifications of Yoruba dialects by Delano (1955),
Adetugbo (1967), Oyelaran (1976) and Awobuluyi (1988) mentioned Mò%fò%lí.
Yet Mò%fò%li is the name of a Yoruba dialect
in Benin Republic on which Fabunmi (2006) based his PhD thesis. Another
language variously called Ogori, O%ko%, Ògòrì-Màgón gó,
Òko-E%ni-Ó%sànyen was called Óko-Ó%sànyen
by Salawu (2006). Fula is called Ful, Fulfulde, Fulani and Futa Jalon.
The use of many names for a single language is not limited
to Nigerian languages. Bambara, a Mande language spoken mainly in Mali is also
called Bamana. Rurdi, a Bantu language, is also called Kirundi or Urundi in
Burundi and Rwanda, Rwanda-Rundi or Kinyarwanda in Rwanda.
Languages such as Akan, Fante, Twi and Ashante which are mutually intelligible
are often considered as separate languages whereas, two or more varieties of
what is usually considered the same language are not mutually intelligible
especially across language families.
Pluriligualism is another problem with Africa itself, as a continent. This is a
situation where a country or continent has many languages. Many of these
languages are dying. Languages such as Latin, ancient Greek and Sanskrit died
too. But they are kept alive through writing and for liturgical purposes. The
situation with African Languages is different from this. They were not reduced
to writing before they became non-existent. A friend told me sometime ago
that in about a decade or two from now, anyone who wants to carry out a serious
research on African languages would need to go abroad. What he said then is now
coming to pass because there is no centre in Africa that has the types of
extensive archival and library holdings on Africa that are available in SOAS in
England, INALCO in France and even Hamburg in Germany. It is a sorry case
indeed.
It is true that all Africa languages are disadvantaged in relation to the
former colonial languages but languages with few speakers are also
disadvantaged in relation to such languages as Kiswahili, Yoruba and Hausa.
These languages are killing local languages. The promotion of these languages
are leading to the neglect of many others. Even Scholars themselves show more
concern to animal and plaint species threatened by extinction than language.
And this should not be so because UNESCO says that languages highlight the
roots, philosophy and culture of an ethnic community. They help people to trace
their heritage and tradition.
Except for Ngugi, many scholars do not realise the importance of promoting
their mother tongue. “A poet”, according to Johann Herder, “cannot be a true
poet until he writes in his own mother tongue”. Whereas, the Icelandic
novelist, Halldor Laxness won the literature Nobel prize in 1955 with the work
he wrote in Icelandic, a language spoken by about 230, 000 people, it was only
on April 2, 2006 that Chinua Achebe approved the proposal, via an email, that
Isaac Umunna, the general editor of Africa Today, be permitted to
translate his work into Igbo. When Chinua Achebe was asked why the novel had
been translated into more than 30 languages but not in Igbo, the author’s
mother tongue, he said, “Igbo exists in numerous dialects… differing from
village to village”. One then wonders why the work had not been translated into
at least one of these Igbo dialects. This is inspite of the fact, according to
Nwachukwu (2006), that the Igbo novel dates back to 1857.
In any case, one would not blame Achebe because, according
to Nwachukwu (2006),
today I understand that Things fall Apart has
been translated into more then fifty-five languages and it also now has a
translation in Yoruba. If you have the same book in Igbo and you ask Igbo man
to buy, which one do you think he will buy? Of course he will buy the English
edition. He will tell you that he can’t read the Igbo version. That is the
irony.
Languages benefit from translation into them and out
of them. The translation of some Shakespeare’s plays into Swahili by President
Nyerere increased the vocabulary of the language. The same thing applies when
the Nigerian constitution was translated into Nigerian languages recently.
A language dies when the last speaker dies. Bruce Connell
was a colleague of mine when I was studying for my PhD at the University of
Edinburgh. He was doing some fieldwork in the Mambila region of Cameroon on a
language called Kasabe which no westerner had studied before. There was a man
called Bogon who could speak the language. He had no time on that visit to find
out much about the language. He decided to return to Cameroon a year later. He
arrived at mid-November only to learn that Bogon died on November 5. On
November 4, Kasabe existed as one of the worlds languages; on Nov 6, it did
not.
Bureaucratic decisions can also make a language
non-existent. This happened to the Walyita prople of Southern Ethopia. In 1997,
the local government. banned their language, Walyita, and replaced it with a
hybrid called “Wogagoda’. Wogagoda was a synthesis of four language - Walyita,
Gamo, Hofa and Dawro. According to the local government, since these four
languages. were so similar, a new language encompassing all should be made.
Apart from the two examples cited above, the following are some of the reasons
many minority languages are disappearing (i) they are not being passed to
younger generations (ii) the national language is putting a lot of pressure on
them (iii) people are migrating away from the homeland (iv) there is no
specific budget for minority language policies in many countries; and (v)
non-broadcast of the indigenous language by the media.
WAY FORWARD
The suggestions made in the language plan of action for
Africa by the African Union are what I think we should fall back on. The aims
and objectives of this plan are
a. to
encourage each and every Member State to have a clearly defined language
policy;
b. to ensure
that all languages within the boundaries of Member States are recognised and
accepted as a source of mutual enrichment;
c. to
liberate the African peoples from undue reliance on the utilization of
non-indigenous languages as the dominant, official languages of the state in
favour of the gradual take-over of appropriate and carefully selected
indigenous African languages in its domain.
d. to ensure
that African languages, by appropriate legal provision and practical promotion,
assume their rightful role as the means of official communication in the public
affairs of each Member State, in replacement of European languages, which have
hitherto played this role;
e. to
encourage the increased use of African languages as vehicles of instruction at
all educational levels;
f. to
ensure that all the sectors of the political and socio-economic systems of each
Member State is mobilized in such a manner that they play their due part in
ensuring that the African language(s) prescribed as official language(s) assume
their intended role in the shortest time possible; and
g. to foster
and promote national, regional and continental linguistic unity in Africa, in
the context of the multilingualism prevailing in most African countries.
If this programme of action is carried out to the letter,
the problems that are presently confronting African languages will be solved to
a great extent.
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[1]This
paper was published as Adewole, L.O. (2007), ‘Issues in Current Studies on
African Languages’, in Rethinking the Humanities in Africa, edited by
Sola Akinrinade, Dipo Fashina, David Ogungbile and J.O. Famakinwa, pp. 335-346.
Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University. The full
bibliography could be got from that publication.
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