LANGUAGE allows people to communicate ideas, to describe the world around them and to conceptualise its various dimensions.
Colonisation brought in foreign European languages: English in so-called Anglophone countries, French in Francophone countries and Portuguese in the Lusophone states.
Even with deliberate schooling, the overwhelming majority of Africans have not mastered the colonial languages to a level that allows them to conduct day to day business in these languages.
Any development initiatives that are crafted, documented and implemented using the medium of a foreign languages such as English in the case of Zimbabwe, literally exclude the majority of people.
Language has been used to alienate Africans from their cultural roots.
The so-called educated Africans shun African customs, dress styles and the indigenous languages.
Effectively they are no longer capable of leading the development of the masses who they look down upon.
But if truth be told, science whether natural or social, is not language.
And yet there is a perception that we cannot do things in Shona or Ndebele or other indigenous languages; we must use English.
The same view prevails in Government: all documentation, meetings and other communications are in the colonial language, English.
The majority of citizens look in through the fence, largely dissociated due to the language barrier.
For our former colonisers, the whites yes, they did not bother to learn our local languages.
If they had tried to use our languages to rule us, they would have failed miserably.
Because they had better command of their indigenous language, English, they imposed it on us and used it for all communication.
How does the development process differ for us Africans who are now in charge of our destiny?
Do we expect to ‘develop’ in English as it were?
If we persist in trying to do that we shall fail miserably.
The majority of our people will remain marginalised by the English language that even the so-called educated struggle with.
Sit in any workshop and notice how much time is wasted as people argue about the meaning of various English technical terms!
These are the guys who passed Ordinary Level English struggling with ‘chirungu’. What of the rest of the povo?
Adoption of colonial languages was not voluntary for Africans.
They were forced to adopt the foreign languages.
At school prefects and class monitors kept a record of all pupils who spoke in the local language.
The culprits were severely punished.
I remember my days as pupil at Mnene Boarding Primary School in Mberengwa district in the mid-1960s.
If you spoke in Shona within earshot of a monitor or prefect, he would shout out the word ‘spoken’ and immediately jot your name down in the book of language ‘sinners’.
On Saturday those caught speaking in the mother tongue received their punishment.
Their names were read out in front of all other pupils.
The punishment often constituted heavy manual work. Eventually the message sank into our skulls: English ndizvo!
That punishment for speaking the mother tongue was so effective that even when pupils left the school bounds to hunt for mazhanje fruits in the nearby forest, with no monitors in sight, they continued to speak in English.
The barrier between the ‘educated’ and the unschooled at home was being built and consolidated!
The ability to speak and write English became the single most important achievement for African pupils, parents and teachers.
This situation also obtained in other former European colonies where the independence African governments adopted the colonial language as the official language.
That language policy has effectively divided African populations into what may be termed the ‘educated elite’ on one hand and the masses on the other hand. Stringent conditions have been put in place for people to cross from the ‘uneducated’ majority to the ‘educated’ minority class who have mastered the white man’s language.
The obsession of Zimbabwean parents to send children to pre-schools where English language and culture are emphasised is a reflection of the same appetite for things European.
The aim is to move as far away as possible from things ‘indigenous’.
The Zimbabwe Government policy demands all pupils who aspire to further their education in tertiary (post-secondary) institutions to first pass 5 ‘O’ Level subjects including English.
This policy was the cornerstone of the colonial Smith regime geared to prevent Africans from accessing higher education.
It must surely be at variance with our independence ethos!
But how can the education of a whole nation be tied to passing a foreign language, even if that language is declared to be official?
When whites introduced English to the colonies it was primarily to facilitate their communication with their black servants.
It enabled black workers to receive instructions, to read labels and generally to service the colonial government systems.
English was the language of the master. All who aspired to find employment in Rhodesia were bound to learn English to enhance chances of employment.
Today many so-called educated African parents ‘force’ their children to
speak in English and discourage them to speak in the indigenous languages. These children have difficulty conversing with grandparents and other non-English speaking relatives.
The majority of our radio stations broadcast programs in English relegating indigenous languages to short snippets that allow broadcast staff to occasionally slide back into the comfort of their mother tongues.
The television stations are no exception.
Local news are broadcast in Shona and Ndebele at designated times only.
The main news both in the morning and evening are broadcast exclusively in English a foreign.
While the constitution lists 16 languages for Zimbabwe, effectively English is the de facto official language of business, commerce and academic instruction.
The fact that the majority of our people speak their own indigenous languages other than English means that our public education and communication services grossly discriminate against the majority ordinary citizens.
The ‘povo’ not only feel left out of mainstream business and economic activity, they are literally abandoned.
The education system is geared to create an exclusive English-speaking elite class where passing ‘O’ Level English is the entry visa.
The question arises: if our education system creates an elite class defined by ability to speak and write in English, how do we bring the rest of the citizens into the development process?
If we use English as the main medium of instruction, how will our children develop their talents?
Is the English language not the official barrier to development?
Given the high ‘failure’ rate at ‘O’ level in English, what chances does Zimbabwe have of mainstreaming its development programs among non-English speaking citizens.
I posit here that our adoption and use of English as the official language of instruction in schools and colleges, in Government and in commerce is the single greatest barrier to our economic and social development. All citizens who are not English speakers have to struggle with just understanding the material presented in English. Many spend their lives mimicking the European and American cultures that are expressed in white peoples’ indigenous languages.
Our Zim dancehall music including the names that the young musicians give themselves point to a colonised yet to be liberated population.
Many artistes think their music becomes genuine when it is sung in English or their name is Anglicised!
Not their fault; we are still heavily colonised.
We need to break out and be ourselves!
Let the world know that there are Venda, Kalanga, Shona and Ndebele singers out there in Zimbabwe!
By their language you shall know them! The days of apologising for being African or being black are gone!
Let us stand up and be counted as unique people with our own languages!
We shall not talk about politicians who gather people under a fig (muonde) tree and pontificate to them in English.
We are amazed that various leaders and various levels continue to struggle with English as they try to communicate with the citizens.
We must boldly seize the opportunity to develop our own languages to be languages of business, commerce, politics and science.
This way we can mobilise the whole population to participate in the development process.
That is what all other developed countries have done. In an earlier article I made reference to how the English first used Latin as the official language as a relic of their 400 years of Roman colonisation.
They abandoned Latin after realising that the majority were not on board.
They then used French, always considered by the English to be a language for elites.
Again they abandoned French because there was no way all English people could attain the proficiency levels required for national development. Eventually Britain settled for their own indigenous English.
The Koreans did the same as did the Indians.
The Malaysians embarked on a massive program to develop their local language to be the language of science and commerce. The so-called Asian tiger economies have all benefitted from using their indigenous languages as a major cornerstone for their economic development.
Zimbabwe can take a leaf from the experiences of these emerging economies. Let us through adoption of local languages bring vana Museyamwa on the development board.
After all ndiwo anhu acho!
The educated English-speaking elite cannot on themselves develop this country. It requires inclusivity. Language will do the trick!
In the next episode we shall look at science and language to see how our science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiative can benefit from adoption of indigenous languages as media of instruction and business communication locally.