The following item from the Nairobi daily The Nation was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200505020555.html . (I would add that one university not mentioned in the article, Michigan State, has been particularly strong over the years in the range and quality of its African language curricula.) .. DZO
How African Languages Are Penetrating the U.S. The Nation (Nairobi) http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/ OPINION May 1, 2005 Posted to the web May 2, 2005 Kimani Njogu Nairobi Prof Mazrui: "Think about brain gain" During a recent conference in Nairobi, Prof Ali Mazrui argued that instead of lamenting about the brain-drain that seems to characterise most of Africa, it might be more worthwhile to start thinking about brain gain. This latter term invokes the benefits that accrue from our human resources being "exported" to the West. These benefits include better opportunities for education as well as the financial advantages the country gets when Kenyans living abroad support family members and invest back home. The United States is undertaking another strategy: Providing scholarships to young people from high schools in developing countries. Most of these young people are unlikely to return to their home nations on completion of university education. Given the challenges of higher education in many of our countries, these brilliant minds cannot be denied the opportunity to study abroad but it is important to encourage them to stay connected to their countries. The notion of brain gain implies that we ought to start embracing our brothers and sisters who live abroad instead of blaming them for "running away" as is currently the case. This view, of course, has implications on the call for a dual citizenship arrangement suggested in the initial Draft Constitution. My thoughts about Kenyans living abroad have intensified during a recent meeting on African languages. The African Language Teachers' Association (ALTA) held the 9th annual conference at Yale University. We were there to talk about African languages in Africa and in America. The Programme in African Languages had been given the responsibility of ensuring the success of this meeting by ALTA, whose current president is Professor Alwiya Omar of Indiana University. The hosts for the Conference were Professors Kiarie wa Njogu and Sandra Sanneh. African languages are taught in the United States for a number of reasons. Our languages are important in the world because, by studying them, we are able to appreciate human capabilities and they may open a path through which we might know how the human brain works. Knowing them satisfies an intellectual curiosity. But they also allow the learner to interact more efficiently in the world. The Programmes in African Languages in the United States were initiated in the 1950s as part of the National Defence Educational Act of 1958 that set up African and Area Studies Centres across a number of universities. In many cases, they are administered by people in African studies affiliated to other departments, such as linguistics, history and anthropology. For instance, the current Chair of the Yale Council in African Studies is Prof Robert Harms, an historian. In order to deal with the many problems facing teachers of African languages, ALTA was established in 1987. A number of programmes in community colleges, four year colleges, and research universities teach African languages. Some are offered for one year while others are offered for four or five years. Some languages are taught regularly while others are taught on demand. At Yale university, Kiswahili and Zulu are a big thing. Kiswahili is also taught at Indiana, University of California in Los Angeles and at Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Ohio State, Florida, Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio university and in many other universities. It will be recalled that with the decolonisation of Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s, President John Kennedy launched a series of educational and exchange programmes in 1961, such as the airlifts and Peace Corps. President Kennedy had challenged his countrymen and women: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." He urged them to be engaged with the rest of the world and its environment in the process of creating a new world of law. Prior to their movement to African countries, the Peace Corps learnt African languages so that they could function more effectively in African. By 1989, at least 3,000 volunteers were living in 27 African countries. Another contributing factor to the development of African languages in America was the civil rights and "Black Power" Movement of the 1960s. The movement created the necessary link between African languages and the study of African-American literature and history. Martin Luther King and Malcom X urged their compatriots to study their history and to link with Africa more directly. Furthermore, the launching of the Annual Conference in African Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970 opened opportunities to discuss African languages theoretically and pedagogically. The conference generated more interest in African languages. In the case of Africa, many things have been going on. English has been penetrating the continent aggressively, but a few African languages, especially Kiswahili, Yoruba and Hausa have also been answering the West albeit not to the same extent. Within the continent, there is a greater consciousness on why we ought to develop our languages. Indigenous languages can be key to enhancing the national market, mobilising workers and peasants, disseminating information on basic rights that have a bearing on production and providing economic solutions that challenge the phenomenon of dependence on the West. Thus, as African nations seek to de-link themselves from the fetters of cultural and economic dependence, they are likely to entrench certain African languages. For instance, the African Union passed a resolution making Kiswahili one of the organisation's official languages in July 2002 and it was implemented at the General Assembly in Addis Ababa in July 2004. In addition, Article 119(d) of the treaty for the establishment of the East African Community provides for the development and promotion of indigenous languages, especially Kiswahili as the region's lingua franca. Consequently the 3rd East African Tripartite Commission held in November 2001 directed the Secretariat to facilitate the formation of an East African Kiswahili Council which would serve such purposes asharmonisation of vocabulary, promotion of Kiswahili literature and advocacy of the language's use in the international fora. To ensure that the three East African nations work together in developing and promoting Kiswahili, the East African Committee on Education, Culture and Sports set up a task force to expedite the process of establishing the East African Kiswahili Council by November 2005. Earlier, the 8th Meeting of the Council of Ministers in the East African Community had urged individual countries of the Community to expedite the formation of the national Kiswahili councils at any rate not later than June 30, 2005. These are important requirements. We are able to correct the historical anomalies brought to us by colonialism by giving more emphasis to our languages. We can also market our languages globally. There is something we can learn from the way African languages are penetrating the West: That there is true value in indigenous knowledge encapsulated in our languages. Prof Kimani Njogu is the Chairman of CHAKITA-Kenya, the National Kiswahili Association -- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
