Re: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Farooq, Funmi and Yona

On Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 7:52 PM, 'M Buba' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Embedded in our (African) languages and cultures are these shared  essences - 'a person is a person through other persons' - in need of recovery. Once recovered, they could be used to organise a curriculum, for example. The Japanese are said to owe their rapid development to their awareness of such core belief, roughly translated as 'earnestness'.

The notion that indigenous epistemologies through indigenous language instruction is the only way to engender development in peripheral countries is nothing more than sentimental essentialism. It has no basis in evidence. Singapore is one of the world's most successful and prosperous nations. Although more than 70 percent of Singaporeans are ethnically and linguistically Chinese, English is the language of instruction at all levels of education in the country--courtesy of its British colonial legacy. The "foreignness" of the language of instruction in the country didn't stunt its growth. There are vast swathes of people in the world who are enormously successful and transformational even when they weren't educated in languages that are indigenous to them. Until the 17th century, most of Europe was educated in Latin, which wasn't indigenous to the people.

Universities in Italy, Germany, Israel, and in so many other countries in Europe and Asia are switching to English as the sole language of instruction in their schools (see https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/21/italian-university-joins-international-colleges-embracing-english-language). I don't think people in these countries are stupid. English offers an enormous window to the vast corpus of knowledge in today's world in ways no other language does. To shut it out in the name of some vague notions of romantic linguistic nationalism would be counterproductive. Now, English won't always be the dominant language and receptacle of vast and varied systems of knowledge that it is today. The next language to have that prestige and dominance may be Itsekri or Akan or Mandarin or Hindi. When that happens, it would also be counterproductive to ignore it in the name indigenous epistemology.

Farooq

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author 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

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