Category Archives: Niger
Languages and Education in Africa, Book
Languages and Education in Africa a comparative and transdisciplinary analysis
Edited by BIRGIT BROCK-UTNE &Â INGSE SKATTUM 2009 paperback 356 pages US$64.00 ISBN 978-1-873927-17-5
Languages and Education in Africa: A Comparative and Transdisciplinary Analysis (Bristol Papers in Education)
The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training, language policy, lexical development, harmonization efforts, information technology, oral literature and deaf communities.
The co-existence of these African languages with English, French and Arabic is examined as well. This wide range of languages and subjects builds on recent field work, giving new empirical evidence from 17 countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as to transnational matters like the harmonization of African transborder languages.
As the Editors – a Norwegian social scientist and a Norwegian linguist, both working in Africa – have wanted to give room for African voices, the majority of contributions to this volume come from Africa.
Contents
Foreword (Ayo Bamgbose), 11-12
Series Editor’s Preface (Michael Crossley), 13-14
Ingse Skattum & Birgit Brock-Utne. Introduction, 15-54
PART 1. General Considerations on Language and Education
Martha A.S. Qorro Parents’ and Policy Makers’ Insistence on Foreign Languages as Media of Education in Africa: restricting access to quality education – for whose benefit?, 57-82
Kwesi Kwaa Prah Mother-Tongue Education in Africa for Emancipation and Development: towards the intellectualisation of African languages, 83-104
Hassana Alidou Promoting Multilingual and Multicultural Education in Francophone Africa: challenges and perspectives, 105-131
Rajend Mesthrie Assumptions and Aspirations Regarding African Languages in South African Higher Education: a sociolinguistic appraisal, 133-151
PART 2. Language as a Means of Instruction and as a Subject in Formal Education
Mamadou Lamine Traoré L’utilisation des langues nationales dans le système éducatif malien: historique, défis et perspectives, 155-161
Tal Tamari The Role of National Languages in Mali’s Modernising Islamic Schools (Madrasa), 163-174
Irène Rabenoro National Language Teaching as a Tool for Malagasy Learners’ Integration into Globalisation, 175-188
Mekonnen Alemu Gebre Yohannes Implications of the Use of Mother Tongues versus English as Languages of Instruction for Academic Achievement in Ethiopia, 189-199
Silvester Ron Simango Weaning Africa from Europe: toward a mother-tongue education policy in Southern Africa, 201-212
Lazarus M. Miti & Kemmonye C. Monaka The Training of Teachers of African Languages in Southern Africa with Special Reference to Botswana and Zambia, 213-221
Halima Mohammed Mwinsheikhe Spare No Means: battling with the English/Kiswahili dilemma in Tanzanian secondary school classrooms, 223-234
PART 3. Language Standardisation and Harmonisation
Herbert Chimhundu Language, Dialect and Region: the handling of language variation in Shona dictionaries, 237-252
Nhira Edgar Mberi Harmonisation of the Shona Varieties: Doke revisited, 253-262
Nomalanga Mpofu Adjectives in Shona, 263-273
Samukele Hadebe From Standardisation to Harmonisation: a survey of the sociolinguistic and political conditions for the creation of Nguni in Southern Africa, 275-285
PART 4. Beyond Formal Education
Kristin Vold Lexander La communication médiatisée par les technologies de les technologies de l’information et de la communication: la porte d’accès au domaine de l’éscrit pour les langues africaines?, 289-299
Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye & Cécile Van Den Avenne Comment les langues se mélangent-elles à l’écrit? Pratiques actuelles de deux agriculteurs passés par une école bilingue (franco-bambara) au Mali, 301-312
Foluso O. Okebukola Towards an Enriched Beginning Reading Programme in Yoruba, 313-332
Philemon Akach, Eline Demey, Emily Matabane, Mieke Van Herreweghe & Myriam Vermeerbergen
What is South African Sign Language? What is the South African Deaf Community?, 333-347
Mothers in Niger care for their own health
Free pre-natal checkups
Niger has one of the highest maternal and neo-natal mortality rate in the world. The following article shows how free pre-natal checkups and encouraging mothers to be to seek for expert help with deliveries are helping to address this. These pre-natal clinics also give each mother ‘an insecticide-treated bed net, essential medicine and vaccines to prevent malaria and tetanus, and vitamins and micronutrients to promote a healthy and risk-free pregnancy’.
New DVD: Fulani – Art and Life of a Nomadic People
Jelgobe, Gowabe and Wodaabe Fulani
Christopher Roy announces the release of two new videos (DVDs) of the Fulani people. The first, titled “Fulani: Art and Life of a Nomadic People” (84 minutes) focuses on the Jelgobe and Gowabe Fulani who live in northern Burkina Faso and Mali. There are segments on Fulani architecture, the interior of the home, furniture and equipment, making mats, milking cows and making butter, the market, mosque, a wedding, and music.
The second, titled “Birds of the Wilderness: The Beauty Competition of the Wodaabe People of Niger,” (62 minutes) focuses on the Wodaabe Fulani, who each year stage several beautiful and spectacular dances in which young men paint their faces red or yellow. There are lengthy sequences of Wodaabe camp life, the sacred woman’s table, drawing water, a feast, braiding hairstyles, a young men’s initiation (which I don’t think has ever been filmed before), and a young man named Omar applying his red makeup and costume of white beads, cloth and ostrich feathers. There are long sequences of the Ruume dance of welcome and the Geerewal war dance, when the young men are judged based on beauty and charm by the young women of the competing clan.
Both DVDs can be ordered from either:
Art and Life in Africa (http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/List_of_DVDs/Index.html ) or
“Fulani: Art and life of a Nomadic People” is http://www.createspace.com/243089
“Birds of the Wilderness” is http://www.createspace.com/243866
Each video is $24.95.