Page 72 - Languages Victoria December 2019

Languages Victoria
language” since independence, Swahili is now the “official national language”. Whether the constitution in Kenya has been translated into Swahili, I do not know, but I would assume it has. But for most countries in Africa, the constitution is written only in the languages of the former colonial rulers, i.e. in English, French or Portuguese. And this also applies to the education system, especially for secondary and higher education, the universities: everything is taught and written in non-African languages.
In your recent publications, you use the term "mental decolonisation". What does that mean?
I owe this term to the famous Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, who has written an influential book entitled "Decolonising the mind". He regards the imposition of a foreign language as a prime means of colonial subjugation. Other authors speak of "linguistic imperialism". Language is the medium through which knowledge — and thus also power relations and worldviews — are transported. It is through language that we influence the deep content of teaching and learning. In recent sociological discourse, this system of power and knowledge is referred to as "coloniality". It means that our current knowledge system was shaped by 500 years of European colonialism. Power is attached to this, and it carries a value hierarchy: on the upper scales are the “developed” peoples with their “superior” languages and “sophisticated” civilizations (i.e. Europeans/“whites” of the Global North), and on the lower scales are the “underdeveloped” peoples (i.e. “coloureds” and ”blacks” of the Global South) with their “primitive” cultures, who, not the least because of their purportedly “backward” languages, were considered “inferior”, not able to develop their own “modern” worldviews.
This reflects a current discussion that was actually initiated in South America, which was then picked up in Australia, and is now carrying on in South Africa and the entire African continent. Especially in South African universities, “decolonisation” is currently hotly debated. The entire education system, which totally rests on Western thought and knowledge systems, is being questioned. They ask: What about our indigenous knowledge systems? Are experiences from our own cultures worth nothing? Clearly: In universities and secondary schools, their own cultural roots are completely ignored, and so are the languages in which these cultures are best expressed.
So, in educational institutions, especially in higher education, only the languages of the former colonial rulers are being used?
Yes. It goes so far that at a higher educational level, a country like Ethiopia uses English only. Ethiopia is one of two countries in Africa that has never been a colony; it has its own language of power, namely Amharic, through
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