Building Capacity: Using TEFL and African Languages as Development-oriented Literacy Tools

Appendix. Literacy texts

162 Appendix Literacy texts The various texts we propose below are meant to be used in high schools as language teaching material. The teacher should adapt them to his/her own classroom situation, depending on the goals of his/her language class: e.g., finding specific information in a text, skimming a text, organizing a dialogue out of a text, rewriting a text by introducing extraneous information, improving or updating the contents of the text, etc. We also hope that such texts can be translated in local languages and be used as literacy texts and, most importantly, be presented to peasants who might find them useful in that they address their real needs. These texts would thus constitute a bridge between formal education and real life as experimented in African villages. 163 Appendix Help from traditional medicine P. MUTAKA, L. ATTIA, & N. KIMBI One observation Nathan Kimbi who is a biomedical specialist in Cameroon made (personal communication) is that people living in the villages do not always have recourse to medication found in pharmacies. When they are sick, they always find relief from the use of medicinal plants. As reported in Wish I had know (Mutaka and Bolima 2004:202), Kimbi has succeeded to treat a number of AIDS patients using traditional medicine. As indicated in the book, there are 26 opportunistic diseases related to the HIV/AIDS virus that he also treats. We thought it worthwhile to interview him in order to obtain information how to treat common diseases. Since we intend the contents of this paper to be available to village people and to be translated in local languages, we will be writing the instructions we collected from him under subtitles of diseases that he treats with traditional medicine. Just in the case where he is not the source of a given treatment, we mention our source for it. We also mention some medicinal plants or products that are useful for treating several diseases. Cough caused by cold Buy a small red fruit called Ndong in Basaa and which contains black seeds that taste like pepper when you crack them. Take 3 to 5 seeds, eat them. These ndong seeds contain medication that relieve the chest and help a great deal with a cough. They do not treat catarrh though. Incidentally, as reported in Wish I had known, these seeds are also used as aphrodisiacs to help a man maintain a penile erection during lovemaking. Cough Grind ginger and garlic, boil until the liquid has dried off, let it cool. You can mix it with honey and lick it as often as possible. It is said to be a local antibiotic. (Source: Lilian Attia) Treating impotence Use the root of a banana plantain, pound it, boil it, and squeeze the juice out of it and drink it. Snake bite Use the hard skin of a coconut, light it in fire and use the black ash. Also, note that what is usually called “la pierre noire”, that is the black rock that treats snake wounds is basically made of the horn or certain animals (like the cow) as it contains calcium. The Lord God put calcium in horns to help treat these snake wounds 164 Tooth decay If a tooth decays, take the pit of an avocado, scrape it and make a paste from the scrapings. It is such a paste that you will be putting regularly on the decayed tooth. This medication contains ingredients that fight efficiently the germs that cause the tooth decay. It helps the flesh around the tooth grow again and thus allows the root of the tooth to get deeper into the body. High blood pressure Use groundnut peelings, boil them and squeeze them. When you leave them for a little while, they become brownish. Sift them in a cloth and drink the water squeezed out of those peelings. An alternative treatment is to use orange flowers. You can also use tender leaves of the orange tree. Boil them and drink them. You may also use the peelings of an orange, boil them and drink them. The water thus obtained stimulates circulation of blood in the body. This concoction of orange peelings is also used to fight the stones in the blood, that is, the clots that prevent the circulation of the blood in the body. Also, make sure you eat the correct food. For example, eat palm crude oil. Do not eat...