Local languages, global futures: language, learning, and sustainability in Africa

Abstract

This editorial introduction tries to clarify, in summary fashion, the position taken regarding the importance of local languages for learning and sustainability in an African context.

We see language as a building block of both cognitive and affective (or emotive) intelligence. We also see learning as a multidimensional process, that involves both informal and formal language use in several ways. To help our understanding of all this, we start with the distinction that has been proposed between language as discerned and language as designed. In Africa, like elsewhere, education systems should try to reach as many children as possible. One key insight is that this can be done more effectively and more efficiently if the designed language that is taught and employed for this education is not too different from the discerned language or languages that the children already know and use efficiently. The latter is often the child’s mother tongue (MT) or first language (FL). What we see around the world is that one formalized or designed language can serve the needs of speakers of several related discerned languages.

It is unfortunate that this is still not the case in most parts of Africa. This is also relevant from the point of view of transmitting indigenous knowledges and cultural norms: speakers of related languages or dialects often also share a common reservoir of indigenous knowledge and similar cultural ideas and values. Without education, long-term sustainability will be almost impossible to achieve. A decolonial position means that obstacles to learning – such as the requirement to learn in a very different language from one’s own – need to be removed. Receiving education in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way is no longer a ‘mere’ human rights issue – it becomes imperative from the point of view of the long-term sustainability of mankind. In Africa, there is tremendous scope – and need – for further expansion of higher education. However, such a tremendous expansion can only be achieved if students can access higher education in a designed language that is close to a language they already know. A transition from the current use of former colonial languages to African languages as medium of instruction is therefore going to be needed, if education in Africa is to expand so that the potential of the continent is fully used. Africans will still learn English and other world languages – but these will be taught mainly as subjects, instead of always being the medium of instruction. The chapters in this volume are based on papers presented at the 2023 European Conference on African Studies or at the 2024 Conference of the Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD). Seven out of the eight authors are female; five are based in African Universities. This book challenges dominant, often Western-centric, language policies in African education systems and argues for recognizing African languages as valid and powerful tools for knowledge creation and dissemination. The reconfiguration moves beyond colonial frameworks and affirms African epistemologies and linguistic realities.