Beautiful thread.
I'm totally with Farooq, particularly on the call to teach university courses in Hausa, which is exactly what the Muslim North does not need.
What the region needs is more intensive education in English.
Why?
Having belonged to various Yahoo and Google groups dominated by Northern Nigerians and frequented the Facebook walls and groups of members of that demographic, its clear that English fluency cannot be taken for granted in that location as it can often be in the South for contributors who are able to be active online, English, in its various forms as used in Nigeria, being the unifying language of the South. Hausa is often a major language of communication in the Muslim North, even being used actively when its speakers are in discussions involving those who cannot speak Hausa.
This situation helps to consolidate the deep social differences between the Muslim North and other Nigerians, differences amplified by the region's dominance by right wing Islam and right wing politics, differences that have negatively shaped Nigerian history from before independence.
In terms of development generally, the reality is that English is the language of modernity. Take it or leave it, it makes no difference. The Asians etc are scrambling to learn English. Why? The 20th century onward is dominated by Anglo-American civilization, as demonstrated by the cultural sweep of this civilization, as suggested even by the origins of this medium in which we are communicating.
A disproportionate degree of the world's knowledge is inaccessible without mastery of English. As far as I can see, the most productive knowledge centres- educational institutions, publishers etc- are based in the West, of which English is the dominant language, and the sheer sea of knowledge they are churning out is of such scope I wonder how most of the world will catch up.
These cognitive networks are like refineries used in refining crude oil. All countries have rich cognitive potential, but not all are equally developed to harness their own potential. Insisting on tertiary education in Nigeria in a Nigerian language is akin to trying to fly before crawling. I wont pretend to be able to assess the success of such a country as Israel in using Hebrew as its official language and perhaps language of instruction, but, for Nigeria, where most native languages are weak in a written tradition and in which the Northern Hausa speaking population is so seriously challenged in modern non-Islamic education, to pursue such a policy would amount almost to self attack.
It seems to me that learning English alongside native languages is the way to go and in Nigeria, emphasizing English mastery in education while the native language learning is reinforced by both study in school, perhaps up to tertiary level and in social life.
thanks
toyin
On 19 March 2017 at 02:08, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
"When I enrolled as an undergraduate at the Bayero University in Kano many years ago, I didn't speak a word of Hausa. There are thousands of undergraduates and professors from other parts of Nigeria in northern universities who don't speak Hausa." Kperogi
As far as I know, there are lots of Hausa language tapes and grammar texts, available for people to learn the language - not to mention numerous Hausa speakers.
Pedagogical exclusivism, epistemic isolationism and educational apartheid take place when you prioritize English as being the only possible language on the planet for instruction. Add to these wonderful concepts, linguistic imperialism and hegemony - of a former colonizer.
You don't have to be Hausa to speak the language, no more than you have to be Chinese to speak Chinese, as your post implies, somewhat. The same applies for all local languages. Professor Buba can choose to specialize in English- but that does not negate the essential fact that local languages, including Hausa, can be effective and desirable vehicles of instruction at various levels, along with, or, instead of, English. It is not about you or me, but about foundations for the future in terms of development and communication strategy.
I find Olayinka's bilingual and trilingual models innovative and attractive.
Professor Gloria EmeagwaliGloria Emeagwali's Documentaries onAfrica and the African Diaspora8608322815 Phone8608322804 Fax
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2017 9:15 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - "An advice, " "a good news": Errors of Pluralization in Nigerian EnglishOn Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 12:45 PM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
My own take, which I argued in Sokoto where I told them to use Hausa to teach all disciplines at the university level, is not about the ability or otherwise to use correct English but how best to access and use knowledge.
That's extreme pedagogical exclusivism, and it's a recipe not just for dialogic catastrophe on northern Nigerian university campuses but for unwarranted epistemic isolationism. This suggestion assumes that everyone (students and professors) at Usmanu Danfodiyo University--and other far northern universities--is Hausa. That's flat-out inaccurate. When I enrolled as an undergraduate at the Bayero University in Kano many years ago, I didn't speak a word of Hausa. There are thousands of undergraduates and professors from other parts of Nigeria in northern universities who don't speak Hausa. Are you suggesting that non-Hausa-speaking Nigerians have no place in universities in the far north?
If your suggestion is executed, several southern professors in northern universities (and they are many) would be fired since most of them can't teach in Hausa. More than half of the senior professors in my department in BUK were from the south. Why should money from the federation account fund this de facto educational apartheid?
Would you go the whole hog and suggest that every university in Nigeria should instruct its students in the local language of the community in which it'situated? How practicable is that? Or is this recommendation exclusive to Hausaphone Nigeria? If yes, why should Hausa-speaking Nigerians be treated differently from the rest of Nigeria?
There are just so many problems with this suggestion. For me, it's an indirect way to say Hausa-speaking Nigeria should secede from Nigeria since English is the adhesive that bonds together the disparate fragments of Nigeria.
Farooq
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorJournalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogAuthor of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment