REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING IMPLEMENTATION OF MOTHER TONGUE EDUCATION POLICIES
2.4.1 The Colonial Legacy
The fact that most African countries were once under colonial rule can best explain the language situation in Africa. As Ngugi (1993) notes, during the colonial era, the imperialists introduced various language policies whose major aim was to dominate the African communities. The colonial governments established institutions known as Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) with the exclusive intention to facilitate the total obliteration of African languages and cultures. Ngugi (1993) observes that, inasmuch as the gun made it possible the mining of gold and the political captivity of their owners, it was language that was used to hold captive their cultures, values and minds. In former French colonies like the Ivory Coast and Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) among others, French was the official language. According to Kelly (1982) although the French allowed the use of indigenous languages for the first three years of schooling in a few colonies, in a majority of them, especially in urban schools of West Africa, there was insistence by the authorities on the use of French throughout, as they believed that in this way, they could strengthen their control and shape the minds of the subsequent generations. The use of French as the official language and as the medium of instruction meant that the colonialists used language to shape the minds of the captives. They regarded the French language as a unifying force for the colonial territory which was but an annexe of metropolitan France.
19 In British colonies like Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi among others, English was imposed as the official language and medium of instruction in all European schools. Phillipson (1992) asserts that, unlike the French, the British encouraged the extensive use of local languages in the early years of primary schooling. Roy –Campbell (2001) also confirms that in many African countries, local languages were used as mediums of instruction for the initial years of schooling. This legacy still remains because Makoni et al (2003) report that nearly half a century after the 1953 UNESCO policy on mother tongue education, mother tongue in most African countries continue to mean only a few years of using indigenous languages as mediums of instruction, rather than indigenous languages throughout the whole educational system.
As such, in countries like Uganda, Malawi and Zambia the reported practice is that beyond Grade four, there is a switch to English as the medium of instruction. Benson (2004b) notes that hesitance to adopt mother tongue policies might be due to hundreds of years of colonial thinking that devalues indigenous languages. The colonial experience also led to what Phillipson (1992) calls linguistic imperialism and this has had indelible effects on how African indigenous languages are viewed in this post colonial era. (I will discuss the Theory of Linguistic Imperialism in depth in Chapter 4). Thus, the legacy of colonialism still prevails because the same practice was introduced to these countries by the former colonial masters.
For countries like Mozambique which were colonised by the Portuguese, the colonialists used language to hold captive indigenous peoples’ cultures, values and minds through their policy of assimilation (assimilado). In order to achieve this, the imperialists first suppressed the indigenous languages of the captive nations (Ngugi, 1993). As such, the use of indigenous languages was abolished in all Portuguese colonies in a bid to make the captives fail to have their own mirrors which they could use to observe themselves as well as their enemies (Ngugi, 1993). The suppression of indigenous languages occurred simultaneously with the elevation of Portuguese as the language of all communication. Even at school, pupils were punished if they were caught speaking their own African languages because the aim of the colonisers was to remove the minds of indigenous people from the world and history carried by their languages (Ngugi, 1993). This would ensure the complete economic and political domination of these captives.
Education through the colonial master’s language meant access to white collar jobs because adeptness in these languages was a precondition to access employment. Awoniyi (1982) asserts that those who studied indigenous African languages did not have the assurance of getting
20 better paying jobs in the future; instead, those who studied English were certain that they would access good jobs and other prominent posts in the political arena as well as in trade and business. As such, Africans were told in a subtle way that their languages were uncouth and primitive and could not be considered worthy of scientific analysis and study. This legacy still remains because according to Awoniyi (1982) many Africans still attach a tag of inferiority on indigenous languages. Many Africans still believe that African languages are incapable of expressing scientific terms and still regard foreign languages highly. Dawe (2014) contends that the knowledge of the English Language has always been associated with better quality education, national and international competitiveness and better employment opportunities.
Thondlana (2002) observes that in Zimbabwe, English is still a prerequisite for accessing employment. As such, this colonial legacy impedes MTE policy implementation in many countries
The issue of using the colonial masters’ language throughout the education system is still evident in most urban schools especially former Group ‘A’ schools (the schools that were exclusively for the whites during the colonial period. According to Awoniyi (1982) during the colonial period some school administrators put up notices on the walls such as ‘No vernacular here.’ This practice is still evident in many schools in South Africa, Zambia and Uganda among others where it is made clear the medium of all communication is English. This shows that in most post-colonial states, the English language is still regarded highly to an extent that it is prestigious to send one’s child to an all English speaking school. This leaves a lot of questions on how teachers are experiencing the use of Shangani which according to Mabaso (2007) is a minority language.
Cummins (1984) observes that critics can understand issues of language policy implementation better if they use the historical perspective. As such, historical antecedents may influence the language of instruction in schools. The colonial history of a country can largely influence the language that is used as MOI despite the fact that the language policy might be saying something different. Makoni, et al (2003) observe that English, Portuguese and French, each a remnant of the colonial legacy, is still the dominant language of instruction in many African countries. This is because Phillipson (1992) asserts that in British colonies, for example, local languages were only used in lower grades in preparation for the transition to education through the English medium because local languages were never given a high status in any colonial society.
21 As such, during the colonial era, most Africans mistakenly thought that formal education meant being competent in the English Language –they wanted to be equal to their colonial masters in all respects (Awoniyi, 1982). Prah(2000)notes that things have not changed in post-colonial Africa because Africans still have a high regard of these former colonial languages to an extent that they are regarded as prestigious and vehicles that enable access to higher education and employment to those with proficiency in them. For example, in Tanzania the colonial legacy remains strong because as reported by Roy-Campbell (2001) the policy of using Kiswahili as the MOI throughout the primary school was mandated in 1968. However, the political leadership remains hesitant to make Kiswahili the MOI beyond the primary level more than thirty years after plans for this move were announced. One of the arguments is that Kiswahili lacks adequate linguistic complexity to replicate high status knowledge, chiefly the sciences (Roy-Campbell, 2001).This is the mentality that prevails in many post colonial nations and this has hindered the implementation of mother tongue policies in countries like Uganda and Kenya, among others. It remains to be established by this research if these historical antecedents are also not hindering the implementation of the Zimbabwean 2006 MTE policy on the use of Shangani and other Zimbabwean indigenous languages for imparting knowledge at the elementary level.
Since the colonial master’s language was foreign to Africans, only a few could master it. Using the foreign languages was one of the strategies that the colonialists used to create a small group of elites that would be used as a link between them and the rest of the African people.
According to Prah (2000) the use of colonial languages resulted in the appearance of two major groups in those societies: a few elite who lived in the colonial masters’ languages while the rest of the indigenous population operated in their local languages and culture. Thus, Meyer (1998) asserts that the colonial educators utilised education through the English language to maintain unequal power relations based on race and class. As a result of this, he goes on to state that the Zimbabwean educational history reveals that Africans have always regarded an African curriculum through African languages as less valuable than a European curriculum through English. This is because proficiency in the colonial masters’ language was associated with upward social mobility, so the captives had no option but to regard the colonial master’s language highly at the expense of their own languages.
Moyana (1988) concludes that due to the colonial legacy, victims of cultural imperialism end up seeing their own culture as an object of scorn and derision to an extent that they feel ashamed to be associated with their own languages and culture. She adds that victims of cultural
22 imperialism admire the imperialists and try as much as possible to imitate them. This legacy still prevails in countries where many people still regard the former colonial master’s language highly, despite the inability by many Africans to achieve competence in the languages for them to be able to succeed in their studies and get better jobs. Prah (2000) reports that only 4 % of Zaire’s (now Democratic Republic of Congo) population can speak French fluently and between 5 and 20 % of Zambia’s population have competence in English. This means that the colonial legacy of creating a minority of indigenous elites through the imposition of former colonial master’s languages still prevails in many African nations. These elites created by the former colonial masters assumed leadership at the independence of most of the African nations and have used the avoidance strategy in making policy statements so as to maintain the economic, social and political distance between them and the majority of the population.