SocioLingo Africa

Language and poetry

If you were to write a poem, what language would you write it in? Does that sound like a question with an obvious answer?

For me, I’m English so I write in English. But, for a young African person in Mali, for example, the question of which language to write in could be complex.

Let’s take the example of a young Minianka man in the south of Mali. Minianka is also called Mamara and is one of Mali’s national languages. He wants to write a poem for a competition. He has a number of choices.

• Does he write in French which he doesn’t speak or write very well but which he learnt at school?
• Does he write in Bambara which he learnt to write in a literacy class. Bambara is the language which he uses when working in the large town, and which is widely understood in Mali? Or,
• Does he write in Minianka, the language of his heart, which he learnt to write through his primary school class but which is not used outside of his local area?

Perhaps his choice would be influenced by the competition. If it was a competition proposed by the local radio station maybe a submission in Minianka would be accepted. Even if the competition was a national one Minianka might be accepted because it is one of the ‘national’ languages of Mali. But then he may have limited readers – who can read Minianka outside of the south of Mali? Perhaps for that reason he might choose to write in Bambara, one of the more widely used languages of Mali, or even French. Perhaps he would even go to the extent of writing the poem in Minianka, but translate it into French and send both versions into the competition.

You see? In many African countries it is not easy!

An older article in the journal of African Travel-Writing discusses this issue of the creative process and language. It looks at all sides of the argument and if you are interested in sociolinguistics or language use I think you’ll find it interesting.

Look at  Mother Tongue: Interviews with Musaemura B. Zimunya and Solomon Mutswairo and see what you think.

Suggested Books

• Kujibizana: Questions of Language and Power in Nineteenth- And Twentieth-Century Poetry in Kiswahili (African Series, 4)

• The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry: Fifth Edition (Penguin Classics)

• Bending the Bow: An Anthology of African Love Poetry

• West African Poetry: A Critical History<

CD

• Dombaa Folee: Minianka Medicine Music of Mali

This is a call for proposals for a Festschrift in Honour of Prof. Kola Owolabi on the theme Linguistics and the Glocalisation of African Languages for Sustainable Development.

Proposals are hereby invited from scholars across the globe who may wish to contribute to a festschrift being planned in honour of Professor Kola Owolabi, a renowned linguist, who has been in the vanguard of engineering the indigenous Nigerian languages, particularly the Yoruba language, to meet the demands of the modern world. The festschrift is to address the broad theme: Linguistics and the Glocalisation of African Languages for Sustainable Development.

Background Information:

Globalisation has been described, in general terms, as a comprehensive term for the emergence of a global society in which
economic, political, environmental and cultural events in different parts of the world have significance for people in other parts of the world. It describes the growing economic, political technological and cultural linkages that connect individuals, communities, businesses and governments around the world. Although it is expected that different countries should participate equally and consequently mutually enjoy the benefits of globalisation, the reality of the situation reveals lopsidedness in both the contributions to and benefits from the process by different countries.

As it were, the gains of the globalisation process have been in favour of the advanced countries of Western Europe, America and Asia and to a great extent to the detriment of the less developed countries of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of participation, the developed countries, beyond the indices of Gross National Product (GNP) have showcased, stable political polity, creative and adaptive technology, economic buoyancy and social security, reproductive and recycling consumerism and increased originality in human education and capacity for development. Their benefits have, of course, been the control of global power and dictation of modalities of economic production, distribution and consumption. In contrast, the less developed nations have been bedeviled by political instability; lack of creative or adaptive technology; economic indebtedness; social insecurity and evils of corruption; ethnic rivalries and religious bigotry; lack of basic amenities of social welfare; educational failure; and incapacitation of human development potentials. To a great extent, many of these and other problems of underdeveloped nations have been attributed variously to the circumstances of colonial and neo-colonial history; bad and unpatriotic leadership; inconsiderate and greedy elite; and restless rustic and illiterate followership. So long as these problems persist, the benefits of globalisation shall continue to elude third world countries and they shall remain unequal partners in business, dancing to the tune of their superiors.

While interrogating the problems of underdeveloped/developing nations, linguists have come to the conclusion that language plays a major role in human and national development and, thus, cannot beneglected in attempting to find solutions to them. Being a peculiar creative resource for accessing the world, classifying, expressing, recording and re-creating the world, the extent to which it is well cultivated and utilised by individuals, groups and government determines the extent of advancement of the users. It has been observed that apart from developing their native languages for personal, local and national uses and harnessing the originality and inherent creative potentials, developed countries have utilised enormous resources to promote their languages across the world for dominant purposes. After consolidating the status of their languages as world languages, some developed countries have even gone a step further to acquire the languages of other peoples of the world in order to perpetuate dominance through multilingualism-multiculturalism. In contrast, the people of the less developed nations have jettisoned their native languages in favour of foreign ones for personal, social and national communication and are negotiating the world through the borrowed lenses of the foreign languages. As they fail to cultivate and use their languages purposefully, the languages suffer from attrition and die with all the inherent original values, beliefs and creative resources that should have benefitted the owners and the world. The owners thus, for lack of creativity, rehash opinions and make second rate contributions to the global world in different areas of knowledge. In the context of the above discussion, glocalisation implies that African languages (by implication, all languages in operation in Africa) are essential tools that can facilitate meaningful and sustainable development in Africa. To do this, the languages need to be operational, to be planned, to be engineered –  native/indigenous languages to be developed, utilized and promoted and foreign languages to be domesticated – to meet the demands of their immediate (local) and wider (international) contexts. Linguists and all those connected with language studies are major stakeholders in the business of ensuring enduring development in all ramifications, especially in the context of developing nations; hence the rationale for the focus of this festschrift.

Proposal Guidelines:

Prospective authors are to submit proposals (500words) on basic, applied, action and evaluation research on language policy, language planning, language advocacy and language implementation issues in respect of any of the following sub-themes:

• African languages in transition: historical, philosophical and cultural perspectives
• African languages vis-à-vis foreign languages in the continent: status, forms and functions
• The facets of African languages in social life: education, health, agriculture, law, fine art, science and technology, finance, administration, religion, politics and governance
• African languages and social communication: the media (electronic, print and symbolic), advertising, music and entertainment and conflict mediation
• Computerisation of African languages
• The nexus of African languages and literatures
• African languages and literatures pedagogy
• Language policy, planning, advocacy and implementation: Lessons from projects in (a) Africa and (b) outside Africa
• Translation/Interpreting in a multilingual context: challenges and prospects

Each proposal is expected to reflect research problem, aim/purpose and objectives, methodology (data base and theoretical perspective), expected findings/ demonstration/ application, conclusion and references.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 30 Novenber, 2011.

Further information will be communicated to the authors of successful proposals thereafter.

Proposals are to be forwarded to any of the following:

1. Prof. Wale Adegbite, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (adewaleadegbite@yahoo.com;
aadegbit@oauife.edu.ng); 2348034840633, 2348058968456.

2. Dr  Ayo Ogunsiji, Department of English, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria (ogunsijioa@yahoo.com); 2348033939032.

3. Dr Oye Taiwo, Department of Linguistics and African Languages, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria (oyepaultaiwo@gmail.com);
2348130821578, 234853506069.