Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
Pat Hall wrote: ...is there something else going on here - perhaps the language policies of Nigeria have led to the education system favouring English? In response to Pat, Europeans carved up Africa without seriously integrating the polarizational issue of tribe and hence culture. Let us not make the same mistake with ICT. Ideally, Africans should learn to read/write in their everyday spoken language. I believe there is a school of thought that strongly views this as advantageous. Unfortunately, many to most African countries have a different tribal language every few miles. Moreover, each tribe views its language as the best and that it should be the national language if there were to be one. Thus for a country like Nigeria, counting only the big three; should it be Ibo, Hausa or Yoruba. Presumably one would want this teaching to start at elementary schools and onwards. Try teaching Yoruba to an Ibo child--even if it would be for the good of the country. Should one then limit it to only tribal members? Who is going to fund all these regional programmes? The national government that is striving for unity?. One cannot even do it on a regional level because there are children from different areas living and attending school within a particular region -- even though they may not be a majority. There are a few country exceptions that come to mind where a national language can be the village language also and the idea may work better, (Central African Republic, Madagascar to name a few), but this is rare. Consequently, English and French were chosen through the colonial rulers because of its tribal-neutrality and ease of communication with the outside world. In conclusion, the idea in itself is a good one; but like many Western-inspired projects, it does not integrate enough the dimension and complexity of a seemingly mundane African issue called my village. Ivo Njosa Information and Communication Technology This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
Regarding intermediaries, and the use of written English amongst Yoruba speaking people, Pat Hall asked me to explain more about the situation in Oke-Ogun: Pam, is there something else going on here - perhaps the language policies of Nigeria have led to the education system favouring English? The answer is Yes. I will give some examples of how things are. - In Oke-Ogun English is the main written language, and the main language of education (and, I believe, administration) whilst Yoruba is the main spoken language. - The late founder of CAWD/OOCD, Peter Adetunji Oyawale, told me that he did not learn to read and write Yoruba until the last few years of his secondary education - and it was against all the odds that he managed to continue his education beyond primary level. It was a source of disappointment to him that he could write English better than he could write Yoruba, but he was not able to express himself in English as well as he could express himself in Yoruba. The reason he wanted to include community radio alongside his proposed CDICs (Community Digital Information Centres) was so that the OOCD 2000+ project could Speak, speak to people in the language they understand. He was particularly concerned for people like his parents and his friends from primary school. (OOCD community radio is on hold, as our partner organisation for community radio has been waiting over a year for a license to be granted) - Peter's widow Agnita and I do not speak Yoruba. The letters we get from Ago-Are are written in English for our benefit. - Before the memorial service for Peter, which was held in London in 2001, Peter's younger brother sent an email with a Yoruba message which he suggested could be read at the service. A well educated friend from Ogun state tried to translate it for Agnita and me. (He is another person with Yoruba as his first spoken language but English as his written language) He struggled with it almost as if it was in code. He kept going back over the individual sections. He seemed to be trying out different possibilities of how the words might flow together, before he could get the meaning, in order to express it in English. Don Osborn of Bisharat, who is a contributor to this list, could explain better than I can the importance of tonal marks in written Yoruba, the related problems regarding email, and work being done to address the problems. - At Peter's school there was a sign - No vernacular beyond this point. - At the secondary school in Ago-Are there is a sign To achieve total success always speak English - My first awareness of Yoruba speakers not writing Yoruba came when I was teaching in Peckham, in South London. One of my colleagues, whom I admired as a teacher, was a Nigerian. I was interested in some aspects fo her culture, and asked her to write down some Yoruba words she had used in her descriptions. I was intrigued when she hesitated and was obviously creating the written form of the words from knowledge of how written Yoruba is constructed (i.e. I think probably). Her writing was not based on knowing how to write the words through familiarity with their written form. - I have the impression that this is gradually changing and the use of written Yoruba is becoming more prevalent. - I have seen a Yoruba reading book in a primary school in Oke-Ogun. It was in June 2002 when I was in a school just outside Ago-Are. The children were jostling to get their photos taken and were waving various classroom objects in front of the camera to atract my attention. One pupil had a tattered commercially published book. It was in Yoruba. - Last Christmas I was discussing the use of Yoruba with an English VSO volunteer who had been working at a school in Nigeria. He told me that Yoruba literacy is now on the primary curriculum, but other lessons are still taught in English. - Two of my Nigerian contacts have mentioned a professor at Ibadan who is encouraging the use of Yoruba in higher education. As I recall he has accepted (or is going to accept) a dissertation writen in Yoruba, which I understand is a very unusual thing to happen. Pat also says: The nice thing about speech communication as in telephones and the voice-letters suggested by Vickram is that the technology does not favour any one language and literacy is not a prerequisite to the use of the technology. I agree, that is a great potential benefit. We need the right tools for the job and there are many different jobs to be done. I will point to a kitchen analogy. It is now a little outdated as kitchen fashions have moved on and what were once known as white goods on account of their white metal cabinets (i.e. cookers, washing machines, tumbledriers, dishwashers, fridges and freezers) have changed their appearance. However the analogy still stands. The white goods had to be chosen after deciding what purpose the electrically powered labour saving device should serve. Even now, the greatest high-tech
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
Pat Hall's questions for Pam McLean open up a whole range of issues regarding the intersection of sociolinguistics, and language and education policies with ICT policy that are pertinent to the discussion but probably need to be explored in depth elsewhere. I'll let Pam reply on the particular case of Yoruba with which she is more familar than I, but the general situation in African educational systems has been to favor the official languages inherited from colonization even though these are no one's maternal languages. Many countries where English is used have policies for some African language instruction at lower grades shifting to English later, though I've heard that application is uneven at best, while the general rule where French is the official language has long been a French-only (from day one) approach. Although a few people manage to excel under (or despite?) these type of systems, many others end up with limited skills in their maternal language (e.g., can't write it, don't have as wide a range of expression as they might) and limited skills in the official language (in which, at least in the typical Francophone model, learning is by rote). One wonders if this isn't an underappreciated dimension to the development struggles of the continent: the means haven't been there or allocated to developing and applying effective bilingual education, hence the majority of school leavers don't end up with an optimal set of language skills and all that would go with that. On the ICT side, one of the reasons for pushing for multilingual capacities on computer systems and African language content on Internet for the continent, is to open up the possibility for use of and expression in - and indeed learning of/in - the mother tongues and vehicular languages, whatever does or doesn't happen in the educational systems (regarding the latter, there are some hopeful developments in some places like in Mali). But because even literate people may not be multiliterate, and also because of the importance of oral tradition, innovation - regarding audio especially, as many of us are saying - would seem to be an essential part of the strategy ... As well as a way to avoid having someone translate Yoruba to English to write in a letter/e-mail and perhaps someone else translate English to Yoruba on the receiving end. Don Osborn Bisharat.net This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
I read Raphael Marambii's post with interest, in particular: Although cryptography is complicated, we should not under-estimate the intelligence of people to quickly grasp the basic concepts (snip) It would be great fun and very empowering to teach villagers about ciphers and the art of cryptography (snip). For example, we could start with the simple one of wrapping a strip of cloth or paper around a certain sized stick, then writing a message across, then removing the stick, then showing the message can only be read by winding it around a similar sized stick. etc. I think there is something to be gained from not only bringing the IT technologies to people but also teaching some of the supposedly difficult concepts of computer science that underpin the technologies. I like this particular teaching idea because it combines a good locally available Visual Aid with IT awareness. I also like the fact that Raphael Marambii is interested in ways of teaching the supposedly difficult concepts of computer science. David Mutua and I are developing ICT awareness courses for people in Ago-Are. We have a slightly unusual approach to ICT awareness because of the history of our project. Our late founder, Peter Adetunji Oyawale, was an IT professional in the UK, but that happened against all the odds, because he was also the son of poor illiterate peasant farmers. Despite Peter's education and skills he kept the ability to look at the world through the eyes of (to use his description) an ignorant peasant. This means that he was continually recognising information and opportunities that would make life easier or better for his people back home in Oke-Ogun. Many of these opportunities related to the effective use of ICTs. When Peter was killed we lost from our project his unique ability to look at the world, simultaneously, through the eyes of an IT professional and an ignorant peasant. I believe most sincerely that when it comes to designing computer applications of any kind it is much easier for someone who is an expert in a soft system to learn sufficient about computers, than it is for someone who is an expert in the computer side of things to learn sufficient about the soft system. Therefore since Peter's death I have been looking forward to a time when some of his ignorant peasants (i.e. small scale farmers in Oke-Ogun who have lacked educational opportunity) would know sufficient about ICTs to be able to see things more through Peter's eyes, and suggest how ICTs can best be useful. So you will understand that when I talk about developing ICT awareness courses in Oke-Ogun I am not thinking about training people to be computer operators of some kind - I'm talking about seeing things Peter's way and giving a community an empowering relationship with the potential of technology. Raphael Marambii seems to have a similar philosophy, I hope we will be able to explore some ideas further... I know a youth in Ago-Are called Toby, who wants to study computer science, but has no money to go away and be a student. He stays with David, doing house-boy chores, in order to be around when there are opportunities to learn about computers. There are lots of chores to be done when electricity and running water are scarce and there are no labour saving gadgets. Toby helps me too when I'm in Ago-Are and I would like to help him in return. Any more ideas like the encryption stick to share with Toby? Pam McLean CAWD UK Volunteer on behalf of Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000 Plus This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
On the issue of intermediaries, while acknowledging the very valid concerns pointed out by Don Osborne, I'd just like to add that some work has been done to try and get around some of these problems. The voices in their hands project by a Philips Researcher, Paul Rankin http://www.stanford.edu/~prankin/eng/, a Reuters Digital vision Fellow at Stanford 2002-2003, addresses those very issues in almost exactly the way Osborne envisions it should, i.e. use of handhelds (modified MP3 player), used as a service, a voice e-mail store and forward device, privacy, leveraging use of Telecenter. It just struck me how great minds think alike in solving problems. Admittedly there may still be technical issues to work around. It's a work in progress. Please visit the site for more information and send any queries to Paul Rankin. Other solutions could be variations on this theme. Don Osborne wrote: I'm not at all comfortable with the notion of person-to-person or web-to-individual(s) information being mediated where it's not absolutely necessary, and then only as a temporary strategy and with as few transformations as possible - i.e., if as a service, more like a postal relay (can what the sender says be recorded and transmitted exactly as such through the media to the receiver?) than like the traditional letter writer in much of Africa who hears in one language, translates into another, and writes a letter that may have to be back-translated on the other end. Maybe handhelds will help in this regard. Kind regards, Raphael Kaume Marambii Microsoft Fellow Reuters Digital Vision fellowship Program Stanford University Cordura Hall 210 Panama Street Stanford, CA 94305-4115 +1 650 724 9258 or 9259 (tel) + 1 650 861 0241 (mobile) +1 650 724 4076 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://reuters.stanford.edu This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
[GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
Regarding the messages of Herman Wasserman and Cliff Missen, this is interesting but there is a danger I think in any strategy that seeks to rely on intermediaries. Cliff uses the word griot but in fact it may be more like marabout or priest (although these latter analogies are not perfect either) - a class of more educated people to mediate between common folk and the knowledge (technology), and by extension do the interpreting for them. Cliff is right to point out the use of notes and more knowledgeable or mobile intermediaries in communications. Long before internet, of course, there were some people who would help their illiterate neighbors to write letters. But such is no one's ideal, just something that works. Likewise for e-mail etc. Access is the issue and that has 2 parts in the case of computers intenet: the physical aspect (are you in proximity and can you afford to log on?) and the meaningful or soft aspect (if you had physical access and found yourself seated in front of a connected computer, would anything make sense?). The latter overlaps with user skills of course (basic literacy again, and now computer literacy) but depends also on the user interface, design of software, content, and language. The fact is that even, say, the old lady who grilled kebabs and fried sliced yams in front of the Binnta cybercafé in Bamako - and most of the passers by who would sit and eat on the corner there - would have to send something through an intermediary not because of distance (assuming for a moment that access fee inside was not a problem) but because the technology would not facilitate their use of their first language, written, or provide for mailing an audio message (for the lady and others among them who were not literate). I'm not at all comfortable with the notion of person-to-person or web-to-individual(s) information being mediated where it's not absolutely necessary, and then only as a temporary strategy and with as few transformations as possible - i.e., if as a service, more like a postal relay (can what the sender says be recorded and transmitted exactly as such through the media to the receiver?) than like the traditional letter writer in much of Africa who hears in one language, translates into another, and writes a letter that may have to be back-translated on the other end. Maybe handhelds will help in this regard. On another level some internet for development efforts have relied on people who surf and translate (e.g., in connection with a local community radio) - in effect another kind of intermediary. This is certainly helpful, but if the vision does not extend to developing at least some content that bypasses the need for such intermediation (and interpretation), then it risks institutionalizing a relationship that by its nature keeps some people marginalized. Don Osborn Bisharat.net This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
