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- 196 INDIGENOUS PEDAGOGIES AND LANGUAGES FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT By Ladislaus M. Semali Stories of the hunt will be stories of glory until the animals have their own historians (Zimbawean proverb cited in BrockUtne 2002: 237). Learning to listen to different voices, hearing different speech, challenges the notion that we must all assimilate — share a single similar talk — in educational institutions. Language reflects the culture from which we emerge. To deny ourselves daily use of speech patterns that are common and familiar, that embody the unique and distinctive aspect of our self, is one of the ways we become estranged and alienated from our past. (Hooks 1989: 79-80). Introduction The language question is about power—a political choice that lies with governments and global players of geopolitics—aimed at redistributing power, privilege, and resources internationally as well as within an African country. Understanding the language-power nexus in our schools and institutions of higher education exposes the tensions throughout history, that have characterised the quiet struggle between those who speak the language and those who wield political power (Alexander 2000, Brock-Utne 2008). At times, this struggle bubbles up in a variety of scenarios, from national crisis to an all - out threat to peace. Our current times are not different or an exception. The 1976 riots in Soweto, South Africa, are a constant reminder of the tenuous situation in which tension hovers around fragile peace, social development and equally in which human wellbeing hang in the balance of identity politics and language. Peace is threatened and social development is tenuous when cultural context and the politics of language and identity are ignored. The Soweto riots were triggered by the South African government’s proposed law saying that all students must speak and learn Afrikaans in school. The intention was to impose Afrikaans’ culture into the native Africans’ lives (Suzman 1993). However, native school children did not want to learn or speak the language of their oppressors. For them, it was a difficult tongue to understand and to grasp. Besides, the students liked the old system with the blacks’ own languages and English. Furthermore, the 2007 post-election riots in Kenya is yet another reminder of this tension, where the political dispute degenerated into ethnic violence nationwide, reigniting divisions along ethnic and - 197 linguistic fault lines, pitting Kibaki’s influential Kikuyus against Odinga’s Luos and other tribal communities (Kenya 2007). These tensions hone in the axiom that languages do not exist independently from the people, families and communities that use them. Language and ethno-cultural identity and existence are inextricably linked. For example, Fishman reminds us that when students lose their native language to English, they do not become Anglos and obtain social acceptance. By doing so, they lose their language as a tool for accessing the help that their families and communities could give them (Fishman 1994: 69). As explained by Court (1997), language plays a very important role in the development of thinking, speech and memory. It originates in a community of people who use it to mediate their communication. A community’s language will reflect its specific view of the world. So, why would any nation deny its peoples this inalienable right? Babs Fafunwa (1982:9) suggested that “no study of the history of education in Africa is complete or meaningful without adequate knowledge of the traditional or indigenous educational system prevalent in Africa prior to the introduction of Islam and Christianity.” This chapter focuses on the epistemology of language and indigenous pedagogies for peace and development. From my own perspective, as someone who is primarily interested in language and literacy, I recognize we now live in challenging times that demand first and foremost, an understanding of the nature of language. All of us need to examine the important differences in the ways that people use language in their attempt to become active participants in their own lives and the lives of those around them. In this essay, I offer my thoughts as to why valuing local language literacy and indigenous knowledge are important to today’s educators and policy makers. Local Language Literacy in the African Socio-Cultural Context In their discussion of human language, both Vygotsky (1972) and the members of the Bakhtin Circle (1981) argue that a language will be inscribed with the unique meanings provided by a given social context with its unique economic, historical, and social relationships. Voloshinov (1973) extends Vygotsky...

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