An Overview
Sometimes in the 1980s, the department of Literature at the University of Nairobi erupted into an interesting but curious debate at the centre of which was the question: “In which language do you dream?” If your answer to this question was that you dreamt in any of the indigenous African languages, you were perceived to be ‘mentally decolonised'; if you dreamt in English, French or any other non-African language, you were deemed ‘mentally colonised' .
This debate underscores the role of language in identity formation. It goes into the realm of dreams and seeks to anchor the definition of oneself in the subconscious. In this respect, identity is not defined by the cosmetic worn on the outside, but that which is inside.
In this paper, I raise key issues that underpin the question of language and African identity. I note that in global Africa (inclusive of the African continent and Africans in the diaspora), the languages of communication are European. Save for Kiswahili, with a limited base in Eastern Africa , no other African language has an appeal across African geopolitical boundaries. This is to say, global Africa finds itself in the trap of increasingly defining itself using foreign languages, which is the same as using a foreign mirror to look at itself. I agree with various scholars in the fields of cultural studies, sociology, literature and linguistics, who have argued that language is the vessel for communicating identity. They argue that communicating in a 'foreign' language either dilutes, or alienates one from her/his true identity.
While commenting the issue of language use in global Africa and the communication of identity, I am using the following guiding questions: Can the use of (an) African language(s) across global Africa mainstream the voices of the ‘subaltern' (global Africa ) in the global dialogue of languages? By encouraging (an) indigenous African language(s) in global Africa , can we contribute towards restoring our dehumanisation? Can Kiswahili or any other indigenous African language, be developed to 'narrate' the identity of global Africa ?
I borrow the definition of indigenous language as used by Ali Mazrui and Alamin Mazrui which posits that “an indigenous African language is one whose origins lie in the African continent and whose structure is derived from or bears affinity to one or more other languages associated with Africa” ( Swahili State and Society , 100).
This paper is informed by the post(-)colonial approach to cultural and social studies. Post(-)colonial studies challenge Eurocentricism and celebrate diversity and multiplicity of identities, cultures, and languages. The
post(-)colonial argument rejects the mainstreaming of European cultures and languages on the global arena. In this paper, my standpoint is that communicating in European languages, involves acquiescence in colonial structures. But I am aware of the post(-)colonial reality of Global Africa's double, hybrid or unstable, fluid identities.
Types of languages
Mazrui and Mazrui provide an important distinction between four types of languages – communal, national, regional and world languages:
A communal language is one which is indigenous to only a section of a
particular country(s) and has not been adopted as an official language.
Examples include Luganda, Provencal, Kikamba, Zulu, and Welsh. An
official language is defined as a medium used in conducting the affairs of
one or more departments of government. A national language is uni-
national – confined to one country and may or may not have been
adopted as the official language of that country alone. Examples include
Somali, Czech, Turkish, Japanese, and Persian. A regional language is
widely spoken by both natives and non-natives of a particular
geographically contiguous region and has been adopted as an official
language by at least two or more countries. Examples of regional
languages include Arabic, German, and Kiswahili. A world language is
one which has spread beyond its own continent of birth, is widely
understood in at least two continents, and is the official language of
several states in these continents. English and French are widely
recognized as such (101)
The fact that Kiswahili is a regional language is encouraging. It means that developing, fortifying and expanding this language to take on a bigger diasporic mandate is possible, realistic and achievable.
Defining diaspora
According to Robin Cohen's framework, diaspora consists of the following:
- Dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically, to two or more foreign regions;
- The expansion from a homeland in search of work, in pursuit of trade or to further colonial ambitions;
- A collective memory and myth about the homeland, including its location, history and achievements;
- An idealization of the putative ancestral home and a collective commitment to its maintenance, restoration, safety, prosperity, even to its creation;
- The development of a return movement that gains collective approbation;
- A strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time and based on a sense of distinctiveness, a common history and the belief in a common fate;
- A troubled relationship with host societies, suggesting a lack of acceptance at the least of the possibility that another calamity might befall the group;
- A sense of empathy and solidarity with co-ethnic members in other countries of settlement; and
- The possibility of a distinctive creative, enriching life in host countries with a tolerance for pluralism (qtd. in Giles Mohan and Zack-William, 8)
While agreeing with Cohen, Giles Mohan and Zack-William observe that:
“ these questions of identity and of diffuse and overlapping diasporas
raise the issue of diasporas and networks. Diaspora implies some kind of
shared consciousness and of deterritorialised 'belonging', which in turn
generates and enables common political, cultural or economic
endeavours. However, there is evidence that suggests that such cultural
constructs do not always prevail. The ties that bind may be much weaker
and more ephemeral than the notion of diaspora allows for. That is not
to say that some form of identification operates, but it may not be as
solid or long-term as that found in a well-established diaspora. In these
cases we see networks of, for example, country folk, ethnic grouping or
race which effect tangible economic and political gains, but which are
not of a diaspora. This is why we have argued that diasporas are fragile
and deterritorialised communities whose identities are shifting, multiple
and overlapping (12)
Global Africa measures up to the above definition of diaspora. The experience of slavery saw the dispersal of many Africans to the United States , the Caribbeans, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East . Today, Africans are leaving the continent to settle all over the world. In the Caribbeans, the Rastafarian movement has lit up the flame of an idealized Africa , which echoes the earlier campaigns of Marcus Garvy, W.E.B Dubois, and the ongoing efforts by Louis Farrakhan. I also concur with the realistic picture painted by the Cohen, that of many people in Africa and the African diaspora, who may not share an ethnic empathy and solidarity with each other, owing to long and painful years of separation and different geo-political experiences.
The status of Kiswahili language
After defining the African diaspora, we are bound to examine the issues of language and identity formation. Mazrui and Mazrui assert that Kiswahili is the most international and most important of all indigenous languages of the African continent or of the black people as a whole. Actually, it is the only truly international language, which the African continent has produced for itself. Its status as Africa 's most international language is now irreversible (101).
Mazrui and Mazrui place the origin of Kiswahili sometime after 500 AD. They suggest that by the ninth century, an early form of Kiswahili was in use throughout much of the East African coast. The language remained overwhelmingly a coastal phenomenon until two hundred years ago when Sultan Seyyid Said consolidated his rule over the region and expanded trade with the interior. The two scholars further note that the Arabs and their African trading partners used Kiswahili in slave trade, and during this early period, the spread of the language was independent of schools and other structures of training and education (35).
The initial writing in Kiswahili was in Arabic orthography but the Germans and British who ruled Tanzania at different times changed it to Roman orthography. The formation of the Inter-territorial Language Committee in 1930, saw the standardization of the language across East Africa by the choice of the Zanzibar dialect over the Mombasa dialect (Mazrui and Mazrui, 45).
The well-known history of European colonial -- political and economic -- expansion and conquest was also the history of expansion of European languages in Africa . This expansion relegated indigenous African languages to the periphery and effectively marked the linguistic colonization of Africa .
Because of this colonial legacy, East Africa has a multi-lingual situation. East Africans use English, Kiswahili and indigenous African languages (mother tongues). In Kenya and Uganda , English and Kiswahili are co-official languages in government business. In both countries, English is also the main language of instruction in the education system right from primary to higher levels. As Mazrui and Mazrui aptly say, African governments had themselves decided that a European language was best suited for training the mind and capturing the soul (60).
The situation is markedly different in Tanzania . According to Mohammed Abdulaziz, “the Arusha declaration of 1967 saw Kiswahili become the official medium of instruction at primary level and the sole official language of government administration and parliamentary debate. English, on the other hand, became the language of instruction at secondary level and above as well as the co-official language (together with Kiswahili) of commerce, banking, insurance, international travel and tourism” (392).
While amplifying this point, Mazrui and Mazrui add that through this declaration, Julius Nyerere (first president of Tanzania) implemented the policy of ‘Education for Self-Reliance', designed to provide education for life that would be relevant to the needs of the Tanzanian nation and which would not alienate the educated from the masses (61).
To this end, it is important to draw an interesting connection between language and socio-economic organization in East Africa . According to Musimbi Kanyoro “… while Kenya opted for capitalism, Tanzania adopted Ujamaa (Socialism), which are different socio-economic systems. Kenya 's capitalistic system, whose success depends on foreign investments, creates a climate for dependence on English language. Because English is acquired through the rigorous education system, it excludes the majority of the Kenyans from participating in the development of their own country. By contrast, Tanzania 's Ujamaa sees Kiswahili as the language of the people” (415).
Kiswahili has spread in East Africa largely as an economic medium, in the fields of employment, trade, and in the whole process of urbanization. Similarly, in Kenya and Tanzania and, to a lesser extent, in Uganda , Kiswahili is widely used as a medium for vertical integration of the people (linking the people with the rulers) and for national cohesion among diverse ethnic communities (Mazrui and Mazrui, 65).
Kiswahili is also a vessel and an anchor for cultural nationalism. Mazrui and Mazrui reveal that:
Kiswahili is associated with the whole movement to resurrect aspects of
the cultural heritage of the black people in different parts of the world
and forge new status of dignity in global-cultural arrangements.
Kiswahili commands this kind of symbolic attachment not only among
black Africans but also among sections of African Americans. The
Language is taught in some West African countries like Nigeria and
Ghana partly because it is seen as the medium that could provide a
linguistic substance to black African nationalism. It has been taught in
vastly differing parts of the black world as a major medium for black
cultural renaissance. For African Americans, there is an easy correlation
between cultural nationalism in the racial domain, on the one side, and
the introduction of a cultural symbol like Kiswahili into schools, on the
other (81)
Perhaps it is for the above reason that Kiswahili enjoys special recognition as the most international of all the indigenous languages of the African continent or of the black people as a whole (Mazrui and Mazrui, 100).
It is self evident that European languages in Africa have speeded up the process of detribalization, promoting secularization, enhancing scientific and technological know-how. However, as Mazrui and Mazrui point out, global Africa may want to borrow a leaf from Japan . The emphasis in Japan was on technical and technological techniques of the West rather than on literary and verbal culture. The rallying motto was and has been, ‘Western technique, Japanese spirit', which protected Japan from the danger of cultural dependency on the West. Japan has tamed its language to cope with a wide range of intellectual discourse (127).
In Japan , it is possible for scientists to convene a conference and discuss professional matters almost entirely in Japanese. This much cannot be achieved among African scientists, who must acquire an additional skill called a European language. Almost all black intellectuals conduct their most sophisticated conversations in European languages. Their most complicated thinking has also been done in one European language or another (Mazrui and Mazrui, 128).
This scenario compels me to make a call for the promotion of Kiswahili as a linguistic resource, by making it more elaborate to cope with life and knowledge in our age. I agree with Mazrui and Mazrui that this language should also respond to stimulus from a range of civilizations other than merely to the West. There is need to make more and more Swahili masterpieces available in translation in dominant world languages (129).
Ngugi wa Thiong'o and the language debate
Looking at the linguistic ‘colonisation' in global Africa , I agree with Ngugi wa Thiong'o 's conviction that the African body and soul are dismembered and are in urgent need of ‘re-membering'. Ngugi has gone out of his way to provide practical demonstrations on how global Africa can ‘decolonise' its mind, resurrect its soul and re-member its identity. He has done this by writing in Gikuyu, his indigenous language. Some of the works Ngugi has written in Gikuyu are: C aitaani Mutharabaini (Devil on the Cross), Matigari Ma Njiruungi , Ngaahika Ndeenda , Maitu Njugira (with Ngugi wa Mirii), Njamba Nene na Mbaathi i Mathagu , and Murogi wa Gagogo (The Wizard of the Crow), among others. It should also be mentioned that in keeping with this spirit, Ngugi founded the Kamiriithu community theatre troupe that performed plays in the Gikuyu language.
In Decolonising the Mind , Ngugi declares that :
In 1977, I published Petals of Blood (a novel) and said farewell to English
language as a vehicle of my writing of plays, novels and short stories. All
my subsequent writings have been written directly in Gikuyu language.
Decolonising the Mind (a collection of literary essays), is my farewell to
English as a vehicle for any of my writings. From now on, it is Gikuyu and
Kiswahili all the way… The call for the rediscovery and the resumption of
our language is a call for a regenerative reconnection with …the real
language of humankind (108)
Ngugi further contends that:
“I am lamenting a neo-colonial situation which has meant that one of the European … imperialism's potent weapons is the cultural bomb to
annihilate a people's belief in their names, languages, their
environment, their heritage, their unity and capacity...This makes them
want to identify with other people's languages rather than their own ( Decolonising the Mind, 1). European language and literatures were taking us further and further away from ourselves to other selves, from our world to other worlds. Language was the means of spiritual subjugation ( Decolonising the Mind, 12)
The author is seized of the belief that the colonial and neo-colonial tragedy in Africa has continued to flourish partly because of the linguistic alienation of the people from their indigenous languages. In other words, Africans, having been uprooted from their linguistic roots, have found themselves increasingly tied to the languages of Europe . According to Gillian Gorgle, “The 1885 Berlin Conference imagined artificial boundaries on the African landscape and ever since, Africans have been defined (and continue to define themselves) in terms of the languages of Europe as either English-speaking, French-speaking or Portuguese-speaking countries. Language is power. Language has power to upset, uproot, and shackle … which may explain why much of the
post(-)colonial writing reveals the continuing struggle over the word”(180). In so doing, Europe , according to Ngugi, “planted its memory on top of African memories, its layer on native layer” (qtd in Mkandawire, 158).
As a result, European languages have been raised to the pinnacle of enlightenment alongside the submerging or diminishing of the languages of the (neo)colonized Africans. This scenario also marginalizes the memory that African languages carry. This is to say, Africa's global visibility in European languages has meant Africa 's invisibility in African languages.
Ngugi avers that “If you name the world, you own it… Both the (neo) colonialists and the African elite who succeeded them, see the world through the eyes of the conquering West, effectively burying African memory under European memory ( Public lecture at the UoN , 64).
Today, European and African languages relate to each other not as progressive or backward but in terms of the long history of oppression on the one hand and resistance on the other (Ngugi, Moving the Centre , 35). On the global scene, African languages do not occupy any place of honour: at the United Nations, for instance, no African language features among the official languages (38).
It is instructive to note that there are no journals or magazines published in indigenous African languages in East Africa , save Kiswahili. This means that those who write in African languages are confronted with a dearth of outlets for publication, and therefore, platforms for critical debate among those languages are not available. Kithaka wa Mberia sees this situation in the following words:
It is not fashionable in Kenya to write drama in indigenous languages, though some publications appear in Kiswahili. There is a tendency to see English as the language of choice. Writing in indigenous languages (and sometimes, even Kiswahili), is considered the business of writers who should not be taken seriously. Yet, Kiswahili is the largest language in terms of geographical spread and number of speakers in East Afica (61)
In confronting this disturbing reality, Ngugi appears in sync with the Bakhtinian realism, which sees the literary realist as a professional iconoclast, bent on shattering the false images of his day (qtd in Hirschkop, Bakhtin and Cultural Theory , 33). Ngugi can be seen as echoing Sembene Ousmane's declaration that: “I am a fighter, I know what I want to change in society and this facilitates my work as a writer” (qtd. in Schipper, 151).
Language and identity formation
We have already noted that not only is the African memory asphyxiated but that whatever visibility it has is a function of European linguistic prism. As Frederic Jameson observes:
When nothing is sure, when everything can disappear, when someone's deepest belief is just an accident of history, when no value has the chance of being respected, and when every work of art is just an ephemeral occasion that can be replaced by any other happening, then the individual person as a subject is the loser. What else is left to give one a grip on life, to contribute to the development of self-esteem and to proclaim one's own values as a human being? There is no longer a self, present to do the feeling (qtd in Smiers, 128)
And while admitting the role of art in guiding people in their human existence, as well as in contributing to the development of personal and collective identity, Joast Smiers argues that it is important to reclaim a space for the development of strong stable cultural identities shared by people who live in a particular place or who are connected with each other in some other way. He sees a well-developed cultural identity as encompassing shared strong feeling in common artistic expressions that make people what they want to be and at the same time exclude other artistic expressions that tend to disturb their lives. In other words, identities are the demarcations of differences (123).
In Writers in Politics, Ngugi argues that that:
The choice of language and the use of such language is central to a people's definition of themselves in relation to the entire universe. African countries as colonies and as neo-colonies, came to be defined and to define themselves in terms of the languages of Europe : English- speaking, French-speaking, or Portuguese-speaking African countries (4)… Why not create literary monuments in our own languages? I believe that writing in Gikuyu language is part and parcel of the anti-imperialist struggles of Kenyan and African Peoples (8)… So I would like to contribute towards the restoration of the Kenyan child to his environment (28). With harmony between his environment, his language and himself, he can learn other languages and enjoy other people's literatures (28)
Ngugi appears to see a clear-cut battle line between African and European languages: “ Africa has a past and a culture of dignity and human complexity …True African literature must be written in African languages (24). What we have produced is another hybrid tradition, a minority tradition in transition that can only be termed as Afro-European literature, literature written by Africans in European languages” ( Decolonising the Mind , 26).
The reality of hybridity or hybridization of the African identity appalls Ngugi. On hybridity, Smiers notes that:
No culture is a hermetically sealed entity and certainly not locally bound, thus, arts from all parts of the world fuse, merge and mix. Our existence is explained by a web of times, places, memories and imaginations. All cultures are in a constant flux. Images, texts, and sounds invade from all corners of the world. Our perception of reality has become decentred. We are living in polycentric circles of identity. Purity of form and content is a non-concept; every cultural form is quintessentially hybrid (125)
Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha and Gyan Prakash point out that hybrid identity is:
“… a heritage of the continuing undeniable post(-)colonial situation which should be deconstructed, to change it, to re-read it. This type of view puts identity neither inside nor outside western domination but at a tangent … The task of the post(-)colonial critic is therefore, not to address victimage by assertion of identity, but to tamper with the authority of Europe's storylines … by reversing, displacing and seizing the apparatus of value-coding, especially language (qtd in Parry, 11)
Kiswahili, resistance and identity formation
Ngugi's daring proposal of Kiswahili as the language of the whole world at the expense of English, serves to cement his determination to ‘move the centre' from Europe . In pitting Kiswahili (Afrocentric) against English (Eurocentric), Ngugi appears to incline himself towards resistance ( Moving the Centre , 40).
In describing the role of resistance discourses in identity formation, Neil Lazarus observes that “resistance demands recognition of its own independent status but also presents a serious challenge to the literary codes and canons of the west. The resistance writer, like the guerrilla, is engaged in an urgent historical confrontation”. R esistance identities are normally formed in dangerous unstable situations by excluded groups. Resistance identity is, in fact, a kind of extremist self-expression in circumstances where the possibility of peaceful and dialogue-based relations is denied.
The advocacy by Ngugi and the Mazruis for global African Kiswahili, is a form of Afrocentric resistance discourse. According to Molefi Asante, “Afrocentricity (Africentricity) is a counter discourse that places Africa at the centre of any analysis that involves African culture, identity and behaviour. It accepts and normalises ethnocentricity as positive” (qtd in Davis , 101).
The three advocates of Kiswahili are alive to the words of Edward Said who outlines the work of the post(-)colonial anti-imperialist writer as one who is committed to “recover the place, to re-map it, people it with myths and religion as well as find a language by re-developing the native language ” (qtd in Timothy Reiss, 467).
The quest for identity is also explained by Manuel Castello, on the premise that:
…the unequal flow of wealth, power and images around the globe has
forced some people to search for their identity as a fundamental source
of social meaning. People are now increasingly organising their meaning
not around what they do but on the basis of what they are(Qtd. in
Pluriels)
The same sentiment is shared by Mots Pluriels who contends that “…throughout the world, movements have now emerged to defend national languages … Languages tend to be flexible allowing people to constantly make or remake who they are.” The significant role played by language in defining identity is echoed by John Corbett in his assertion that “Languages are linguistic markers of community identity.”
Critics have pointed out the incapacity of African languages to handle complexities of thought due to their inadequate vocabulary. Ngugi, would, however, hear none of this. He cites the Asmara Declaration, which calls on African states and intellectuals to develop the capacities of African languages for science and technology. To encourage this process, Ngugi points at Africa's own positive examples including Tanzania's successful effort in developing a massive vocabulary of Kiswahili in all branches of learning, Ethiopia's long history of continued scholarship in Amharic and Gatua wa Mbugua's Masters Thesis in the technical field of Crop Science which he wrote in Gikuyu at the University of Cornell (Qtd in Mkandawire, 161).
Both Ngugi and Kithaka agree that countries such as South Korea , Japan , China , Denmark , Sweden and Norway , have continued to use their national languages while at the same time employing English for international transactions - without contradictions. So, the lesson drawn from these examples is that African languages should be developed to communicate African identity, even as we use other world languages for specialized functions. And the foremost among Africa 's many indigenous languages is Kiswahili.
Globalising Kiswahili
One way of giving voice to the ‘voiceless' African diaspora is by expanding the outreach of Kiswahili to embrace global Africa . By ‘speaking' itself using an indigenous African language, global Africa will resuscitate its submerged subjectivity, its unrecognized agency, and its dismembered identity. Roy Boyne says the following about subjectivity:
The concept of subjectivity entails individual human beings who are able
to freely decide upon the actions that they take. A subject is sufficiently
powerful as to be autonomous, discovering and therefore, responsible
for its own actions. The ‘I' is the first cause of its own intentional
actions (5)
In other words, the mission of Kiswahili in global Africa should be that of displacing European languages from their current umbrella status of defining, describing, and naming African identity, languages, cultures and people.
Conclusion
The history of human language has also been the history of the struggle to use language to define people's identity and to shape their resistance to foreign domination. The growing popularity of post(-)colonial studies has seen the centralisation of the language debate in identity discourses. But globalisation and the unparalleled Anglo-Saxon dominance of the world are perhaps the greatest challenges facing the use indigenous languages. In global Africa , Kiswahili is now associated with the whole movement to resurrect aspects of the cultural heritage of the black people, and forge new status of dignity in global-cultural arrangements. While there are many suggestions on how Kiswahili can be enhanced as the main medium of communication in global Africa , the process requires more resources and political will.
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