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- 143 THE LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION IN AFRICA THE LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION CONUNDRUM IN AFRICA By Kwesi Kwaa Prah Introduction Of all the problems we face in African education today, the most nettlesome appears to be the question of language of instruction. In concrete terms, it boils down to the option between a colonially introduced language and a local language, preferably the mother tongue. This is an issue about which Birgit Brock-Utne (1993, 2000a, 2001, 2005, 2007) has persistently laboured and had a lot to say and debate about. The question she has in one of her papers trenchantly asked in the title is Education for All, in Whose Language? (Brock-Utne 2000b, 2001). In that paper, she observes that in as far as African languages as languages of instruction are concerned, two distinct trends are discernible. Firstly, there is “a strengthening of dominant languages which, in the context of Africa, means the former colonial languages” (Brock-Utne 2000b: iv). Secondly, there is also, “a growing concern among African ministers of education and some intellectuals for a preservation and revival of African languages as languages of instruction in at least the primary schools in Africa” (Brock-Utne 2000b: iv). She rightly argued that these two situations are in tension. The relevance of this issue is underscored by Martha Qorro’s sparkling witticism that; “to want to give education without considering the medium of instruction is like wanting to give water to a village but not considering the pipes” (quoted here from Brock-Utne 2006: 21). Martha Qorro (2009) belaboured this point further in her key note address at the LEA (Languages and Education in Africa) conference which took place in Oslo in June 2006. Malekela (2003: 111) makes the decisive judgement that; “To continue using English as a medium of instruction in post-primary education is a torture to most of our children; and it is unfair.” - 144 Why is it Right to Educate English-Speaking but Wrong to Educate African Language Speaking Children Through their Mother Tongue? In whose language should we pursue African education (Brock-Utne 2001)? The issue has been also taken up by Zubeida Desai (2003: 46) who points out that; “In South Africa too, mother tongue education is seen as a given for English-speaking, and to a lesser extent, Afrikaans-speaking, learners. It is taken for granted that these learners will learn the best through their primary languages. However, when it comes to speakers of African languages, the debate rages furiously. Why is this right then so wrong for the majority of learners in African countries such as South Africa?” The problem has variously, to equal measure, been amply laid bare by all these and other observers. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, nowhere else in the world, but in Africa, do we in all seriousness ask ourselves this question. To pose this question in France, Norway, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia or most other places in the world would be almost laughable. Why is this still an issue when it comes to Africa and Africans? Why is, what is considered to be common sense to the rest of the world a great and endlessly continuing issue of debate and dissension in Africa? Africaproper(non-ArabicAfrica)istheonlyareaoftheworldwheretheoverwhelming majorities (90 percent and often more), half a century after the departure of the colonial powers, continue to use the languages of their former colonial masters to increasing degrees as languages of instruction. This extended lease on life of the colonial languages is possible largely because those groups and social elements in charge of African societies, the elites, want to keep the colonial languages and want to use these languages as languages of instruction. In cultural and linguistic terms, the African elites are generally closely tied to the cultures and languages of their erstwhile masters. Invariably they speak, read and write the languages of their previous masters and only have oral command over their own home languages, although these latter are the languages spoken by the overwhelming majorities of their societies. Many are thus illiterate in their own languages. Their leadership and status in their societies are culturally maintained, singularly, on the basis of the fact that they enjoy relative mastery of the colonial languages, above the masses. They therefore have a built-in tendency, in order to protect their social interests, to protect the hegemony of the colonial languages. Let us trace the underpinnings of this African...

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