SWAPO MP Jerry Ekandjo was recently quoted by The Namibian as saying “there is no reason to grant official status to indigenous languages”.
This is disappointing if not objectionable to say the least.
For someone who has taken a hard-line stance on western values but supports a western language, it smacks of hypocrisy.
Ekandjo’s statement is what is referred to as “elite closure” in sociolinguistics.
American linguist Carol Myers-Scotton describes elite closure as a type of social mobilisation strategy through which those in power establish or maintain their powers and privileges via linguistic choices.
In essence, it is when the elite successfully employ official language policies and their own non-formalised language usage patterns to limit access of non-elite groups to political positions and socioeconomic development.
By being indifferent to indigenous languages, Ekandjo is dismissing the most important marker of being African.
Without language, you essentially have no identity.
Declaring all local African languages official not only preserves and promotes them but also instils a sense of love and pride in us.
DEVELOPMENT
Ekandjo appears to display intellectual vacuity when it comes to the importance of language in national development.
As stated by Congolese linguist Salikoko Mufwene, “no country has ever developed using foreign languages as either official or as a medium of instruction”.
Smaller European countries such as Estonia (Estonian), Lithuania (Lithuanian), Latvia (Latvian), Luxembourg (Luxembourgish) enjoy a decent standard of living because of their love and use of their native tongues in governance.
Every year these smaller countries produce thousands of engineers, doctors, and other professionals trained in their languages.
Breizinger (1991) posits that the use of European languages has been mostly restricted to certain domains – such as higher education, politics and business and to a small number of people.
Only 10% or less of Africa’s rural population have considerable competence in European languages.
ROOTS
The struggle for the demarginalisation of African languages began in earnest as far back as the 1950s.
Influential philosopher, revolutionary and author, Frantz Fanon, recognised that African people could be mobilised to confront colonialism using African languages.
Fanon’s writing on the struggles of the oppressed is regarded as contributing to the understanding of the issue of language and the post-colonial era.
Interestingly, decolonisation through African languages is gathering pace elsewhere in Africa.
A few years ago, Zimbabwe made 16 local languages officials. Each is accorded constitutional protection.
Tanzania replaced English as the language of its courts. Somalia and Ethiopia use Somali and Amhara as the official languages of the state.
Mali recently removed French as an official language and replaced it with four indigenous ones.
In Nigeria, Hausa is the official language of the northern regions.
Countries with a history of neglecting indigenous languages such as Angola and Mozambique are now embracing local languages.
Angola recently made it mandatory for citizens to learn local languages up to secondary level.
Senegal has a Wolof language TV station and allows parliamentary debates in the language. There is also a movement, mostly by young Senegalese, to replace French with Wolof.
INCLUSION
Namibia often prides itself on being a product of international solidarity and is a member of African and other groupings moving towards adopting African languages as official working languages.
In this vein, the reluctance to make local languages official is mindboggling.
SADC and the AU recently adopted Kiswahili as one of their official languages.
The official language provision in the Constitution, as Ekandjo argues, is covered under Article 3 (a), but sub-clauses (b) and (c) render this provision derogable.
In addition, language rights are covered in Article 19.
These are sufficient premises the government can invoke to officialise local languages.
Moreover, by virtue of Article 144 – even though international law only applies to Namibia insofar as it is not in conflict with domestic law – Namibia is party to a number of treaties that obligate the country to promote and protect local languages.
Given that he is a polyglot, we urge tate Ekandjo to reconsider his disdain towards officialising indigenous languages.
For a scandalously unequal country like Namibia, inclusive development stands to benefit from embracing and promoting indigenous languages.
- Christian Harris is a legal scholar; Ellison Tjirera is a sociologist
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