Language Ideologies and the Politics of Language in Post-Colonial Africa

Abstract

Africa is highly ideologised in terms of two antagonistic positions. Facing two extreme ideological positions, namely what one might call '19th century European nation state-ideology' vs '20th/21st century African Renaissance-ideology', language planners and decision-makers in Africa are caught in a complex dilemma. The paper begins by sketching out salient differences between the two positions: (1) Ideologies based on European historical-cultural experience, which gave rise to a particular 'Western' mind-set; this mind-set is built on convictions regarding European exceptionalism and on notions linked to linguistically and culturally homogenous nations. (2) Ideologies informed by anticolonialist struggle and anti-imperialist philosophy which, further, rest on the recognition of sociolinguistic realities in Africa that are different from 'the West', i.e. being characterised by extreme ethnolinguistic plurality and diversity. While the first position continues to have considerable impact on academic and political discourse in terms of prevailing Eurocentric perspective and attitudes infested by Orientalism, the second is rooted in idealistic romanticism relating to notions of Universal Human Linguistic Rights and of African Identity and Personality. Political strategies embedded in any of these apparently mutually exclusive ideological positions have been and still are widely discussed in academic and political circles across Africa. A third position and the one adhered to in this presentation, is that of bridging this ideological divide by advocating multilingual policies for Africa, which would combine indigenous languages of local and regional relevance with imported languages of global reach towards the strategic goal of mother tongue-based multilingualism (MTBML). Interestingly, the ongoing highly controversial debate in Africa tends to overlook the fact that MTBML is exactly the 'language(s)-ineducation policy' that most so-called developed countries, including the former colonial powers of Europe, have long since installed to best serve their own political interests and economic progress. Therefore, it remains somewhat paradoxical that African postcolonial governments copy from European models those features that are incompatible with sociolinguistic facts on the ground, like monolingual policies in the face of extensive multilingualism, but do not copy features that would be beneficial in Africa as well, like operating professional foreign language teaching and learning through a familiar medium of instruction.

Bridging the asymmetries? African students’ mobility to China

“…in order to meet the models provided by 'Western civilization.' 19 The effect is double-fold. Colonial languages are hegemonic in Africa's education system and that works to maintain former colonial powers as the centers and standard-bearers of Africa's education thereby legitimizing Western prescriptions and interventions in Africa's politics and economies.…”

Language Policy and Conflict as Learning Barriers: The Plight of Linguistic Minority Schoolchildren in Darfur, Sudan

“…The quest for actualising African-specific ideologies draws its legitimacy from internal motives which are often reminiscent of Africa under colonial rule; and intrinsic to that quest is the resistance of the African intelligentsias to colonial languages (Kamwangamalu, 2016;Wolff, 2017). The most workable mechanisms the post-colonial elites employed to eliminate that 'stigma' was to mesmerise the populace by mega-propagandising against the legacy of the colonial languages which were, paradoxically, officialised in many countries.…”

“…The most workable mechanisms the post-colonial elites employed to eliminate that 'stigma' was to mesmerise the populace by mega-propagandising against the legacy of the colonial languages which were, paradoxically, officialised in many countries. In a sense, the over-decolonisation zeal appears to be moving nowhere, for it is argued that post-colonial multilingual education model-makers in their desire for building modernist nations and management of their internal differences replicated the colonisers' practices of creating ethnic identities and ideological divisions among Africans (Garcia, 2009;Evans and Cleghorn, 2012;Lin, 2015;Wolff, 2017).…”

“…The resistance to colonial languages in Africa in essence emerged on the ground that the ex-colonial official languages would dilute the time-honoured social structures of multilingual and multicultural societies (Wolff, 2017). In consequence, the shift towards education in mother tongue in contemporary Africa has been based on the premise that local cultures can be reserved by mother tongue literacy (Holmes, 2008).…”

Language and (in)hospitality

“…Although it remains unclear whether the terms "patois", "dialect" and "my/ our language" index the interviewees' vernacular or vehicular languages -different for some speakers -they undoubtedly refer to an African language. This reflects a colonial legacy according to which non-European languages were generally referred to as dialect (in the non-linguistic sense) or patois (Wolff, 2017).…”