Uganda: support for Ugandan languages

Uganda’s state minister for Gender, Isanga Nakadama has advised parents to stop forcing their children to speak English.

By Risdel KasasiraThe minister who was presiding over the World Cultural Day in Kampala, says for African cultures to survive, native languages must be protected especially at family level. She says there are families where children are beaten because they speak native languages.Nakadama says this is an unfortunate situation that will kill African languages. Nakadama said Ugandan government is planning to introduce teaching of vernaculars from primary to secondary level in order to help maintain local languages in every locality.The minister of relief and disaster preparedness, Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere proposed that the Institute of Languages at Makerere University, Uganda’s leading public university to work with the ministry of gender, labour and social development to design a national language policy.

Kabwegyere says the policy should be written in all native languages of Uganda.

Ultimate Media

Africa thesis award

The Africa Thesis Award

Are you interested in Africa and have you written your Masters thesis on an African-related subject? The African Studies Centre (ASC), the Netherlands institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) are offering you the chance to win €4000 in The Africa Thesis Award.The award aims to encourage student research and writing on Africa and to promote the study of African cultures and societies. It is presented annually to a student whose Masters thesis has been completed on the basis of research conducted on Africa.The award consists of a prize of €1000 for the winning thesis and an additional €3000 for the writing of a PhD proposal or for fieldwork to update the original data for a wider audience. The winning thesis will be published in the ASC Research Report Series and a summary of the work will be proposed to a CODESRIA journal.

Who can apply

Any final-year student who has completed his/her Masters thesis with distinction (80% or higher or a Dutch rating of at least at a university in Africa or the Netherlands can apply. The thesis has to be based on independent empirical research related to Africa in one of the subjects listed in the following section and must have been examined within one year prior to the deadline for submitting manuscripts (see below).
The ASC, NiZA and CODESRIA specifically encourage students from Africa to submit their theses for this annual competition.

Subject of the thesis

Any thesis thematically related to socio-geographical, economic, political, juridical or anthropological issues or focusing on the humanities such as history, religion and literature (but with the exception of language and/or semiotic studies) can be submitted. For submission to the ASC, its geographical focus should be on Sub-Saharan Africa or its migrant communities elsewhere in the world. For submission to CODESRIA, the geographical focus of the thesis should be on Africa or its migrant communities around the world. The thesis must be socially relevant.

How to submit a thesis

If a student or his/her supervisor feels that a Masters thesis merits an award because of its high quality and originality, the thesis should be submitted either to the ASC-NiZA Awards Committee or the CODESRIA Awards Committee. Every submission must include:

• a signed letter of recommendation from the student’s supervisor containing the grade and details about the quality of the thesis and the educational institution from which the student has graduated, and
• a copy of the thesis as well as a summary of a maximum of 500 words.

Applicants based in the Netherlands are requested to submit 2 hard copies of their thesis. Those based in Africa are welcome to send an electronic version of their thesis by email. If a hard copy of the thesis is submitted, the applicant’s email address must also be included.

The application will not be processed if it is incomplete.
Please note that the initial selection for the award will be made based on the summary, the table of contents and the letter of recommendation.

Where to submit a thesis

Theses can be submitted to the ASC or CODESRIA (but not to both) depending on the following criteria:
- A thesis can be submitted to the ASC if it is written in English, French or Dutch. If the thesis is in Dutch, a five-page English or French summary should also be attached.
- A thesis can be submitted to CODESRIA if it is written in English, French, Portuguese or Arabic. If the thesis is written in Arabic or Portuguese, a five-page English or French summary should be attached.

Quality of the thesis

The ASC, NiZA and CODESRIA seek to attract theses that demonstrate a high quality with regard to the subject matter of the research as well as the way the research has been conducted. The jury attaches importance to an original approach and insight, and the relevance of the research to a scientific understanding of the issues covered. In addition, the jury will consider the significance of the thesis in relation to development-related issues and its interest for the general public.

Time schedule

This year’s deadline for the submission of theses is 15 June 2006. From all the entries submitted to both institutes, a shortlist of three theses will be drawn up from which a joint jury will select the winning thesis. The jury will announce its decision in September 2006. In November 2006, the winner will be invited to present his/her work at a seminar in Leiden and may also be invited to do the same at a seminar hosted by one of CODESRIA’s member institutes in Africa.

The jury

The following researchers are on the jury of the 2006 Africa Thesis Award:

1. Prof. Meine Pieter van Dijk (Erasmus University), (chair)
2. Prof. Eric Aseka (Kenyatta University)
3. Prof. Kwame Boafo-Arthur (University of Ghana)
4. Dr. Rijk van Dijk (African Studies Centre)
5. Dr. Gerti Hesseling (African Studies Centre)
6. Dr. Margreet de Lange (Utrecht University)
7. Mindanda Mohogu (independent economist)
8. Cyril Obi (Nordic African Institute)Ms. Gitty Petit (ASC) (secretary)
   Ms. Chifaou I. Josiane Amzat (CODESRIA) (secretary)

The jury’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Further information

For more information or queries regarding the submission of a thesis, please contact Ms Gitty Petit, the secretary of the ASC-NiZA Awards Committee:
African Studies Centre (ASC)
P.O. Box 9555
2300 RB Leiden
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 3376
Fax: +31(0) 71 527 3344
www.ascleiden.nl
E-mail: petitg@ascleiden.nl

or to Ms Chifaou I. Josiane Amzat, the secretary of the CODESRIA Awards Committee:
CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV,
BP 3304 Dakar
18524, Senegal
Tel: +221 8259814
Fax: +221 8640143
www.codesria.org
E-mail: chifaou.amzat@codesria.sn or chifaou@yahoo.fr

For more information about the presentation of the award in November, please contact: Ms Nathalie Ankersmit
Netherlands institute for Southern Africa (NiZA)
P.O. Box 10707
1001 ES Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)20 520 6210
Fax: +31 (0)20 520 6249
www.niza.nl/scriptie
E-mail: Nathalie.Ankersmit@niza.nl

The African Studies Centre (ASC) is an independent scientific institute that generates and disseminates knowledge on Africa. The ASC’s main aim is to promote a better understanding and insight into historical, current and future societal developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. It publishes books and articles, organizes seminars and has an extensive library that is open to the general public.

The Netherlands institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) is a politically independent organization working towards a democratic southern Africa. NiZA cooperates with organizations in southern Africa that are striving for political, social and/or economic changes and links the southern problems strategically to lobby activities and public campaigns in the North.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) was established in 1973 as an independent Pan-African research organization with a primary focus on the social sciences. It has its headquarter in Dakar, Senegal. It is recognized not only as a pioneer African social research organization but also as the apex non-governmental centre of social knowledge production on the continent.
Leslie Zubieta Calvert (l.), winner 2005

Angola: debate on Angolan languages

The debate on local languages is a hot potato in Angola at the moment. Last month experts, technicians of the Culture Ministry (Mincult), university lecturers and students met for three days in order to discuss about the problem of local languages, its insertion in the education system, and their preservation. It really seems quite hopeful that things will move forward although things are hindered by the lack of legislation enabling the Vernacular Languages Institute (ILN) to be officially recognised.

See: http://allafrica.com/stories/200608281557.html

Ghana: Textbooks

LETTER TO THE SPEAKER

Towards a needs-based curriculum for schools

Mr. Speaker, Honorable majority members, Honorable members of the minority, ladies and gentlemen.
In my letter to you some months ago, I discussed programmatic structures with regards to the curriculum in our universities, in which I indicated that the current curriculum succeeds in producing students en masse at the end of each academic year, but fails to make them productive in society. Even though the greater majority of my audience understood the import of my argument and agreed with me, in principle, on the challenging issues I raised, others misread the piece and thought I meant that some courses in the liberal arts such as History and Philosophy, among others are irrelevant and should not be offered. I don’t think I can ever dream of such an idea, having gone through the same system and programs, myself. In that piece, I argued that the current set up of programs, among which are those in the liberal arts, have not been designed and taught with any connection to the outside world, thus products of the universities become displaced in the communities in which they have to serve because they find it difficult if not impossible to apply such knowledge in the real world. It has been seven (7) months since this piece and I am yet to hear a single reform about that.
We seem to be losing hold of a number of things, one of which includes our English language. We can hardly talk of a language policy which identifies us as real Ghanaians. I am not talking about whether or not we should have a national language, but a national English language policy that can identify us as Ghanaians and can identify us with one bloc of the so-called powerful Western countries. Today, when experts talk about the Englishes of the world Nigeria is mentioned. Nigeria has become such a powerful bloc identifiable with a consistent, marked way of speaking and writing that is uniquely Nigerian. There is no such thing as Ghanaian English even though I can easily make out a Ghanaian from a Nigerian should they both present themselves. Usually, for a developing country, the success of language policy might be contingent on how well its system is modeled after its colonial powers. Thus, one would easily assume that the Ghanaian will take after the British both in speech and in writing. Unfortunately, however, we seem to be at a cross-road in this direction as one is not sure if our speech and written forms are American or British. When the Ghanaian speaks or writes, it is very difficult to decipher its form and function as it is not clear if it follows the American or the British tradition. This is worrying, considering that even in schools the problem has crept into the syllabi and most instructors have no clue what this is doing to our identity or even if there is some awareness, instructors do not care. What is obvious now is that Ghanaians are now like the metaphoric pendulum moving to and fro at the touch of any harmless weapon.
This chaotic situation on the language scene is reflected in curriculum development at the basic and secondary levels of education. I don’t know if I am the only one who has observed this phenomenon but over the past years there have been attempts by curriculum designers to introduce some Western (American or British) subject matters into the syllabi of students in the educational sector and this hasn’t helped. Isn’t it a source of concern that children as early as the crèche level are made to study subject matters that have no bearing on their cultural contexts? Consider a child who lives in the Kushiegu-Karaga area, who is forced to study subject matters about hurricanes, history of other countries, animals, and concepts that are so foreign to pupils. The process of education at the tender age at which these pupils find themselves is so complex and until the pupils are able to have some grounding in their environment, they can’t make any sense of other materials that are so foreign to them. At the basic level, pupils wherever they find themselves know as much terminologies of their environments and will take sometime for them to be exposed to foreign phenomena. How would they make sense of hurricanes and holocaust when they don’t ever happen in Ghana?
The Literature scene has been invaded by foreign texts and materials, many of which students have no clue what the texts are talking about. The worrying development is that for the most part texts from the western orientation have been favored over the texts and materials that deal with the Ghanaian or African experiences and whose themes provoke crucial debates and arguments. What this means is that students know more about foreign subjects than they know about their local heroes and writers, and how can they relate to their history with this growing sense of displacement? As it stands our education is not geared towards producing graduates who will meet the challenges of the nation, but graduates who will serve the needs of the West. By the time a student leaves school he can recite and quote notable areas of Shakespeare’s or Arthur Miller’s texts but display sheer ignorance about the culture and history of Ghana or Africa, or in other words his/she will hardly be able to display knowledge of Ghanaian texts.
I am by no means discounting the importance of materials of the Shakespearean or western tradition but our dependence on them has not done our students any good. I will admit that Literatures of the western tradition or specifically those of the Shakespearean orientation are one of the best considering the universal nature of their themes but how can you treat such foreign subjects in schools when students can make no connections with the concepts discussed in the materials? Pupils and students can only benefit if they are not rushed into studying the Literatures of other areas they are yet to encounter. Our educational authorities can only hasten slowly in introducing these materials to our pupils and students. At the university level a careful blend of Ghanaian or African texts and those from the West and not necessarily an over-dependence on western texts and materials will help.
We seem to be at a cross-road, only feeding on systems that have not helped us. We need a curriculum that can identify with the needs and ideals of our system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Author: Godwin Yaw Agboka

Angola: Support for the promotion of Angolan languages

During the opening of a seminar on cultural journalism this week in Luanda, Angola, the Minister of Culture, Boaventura Cardoso, gave his support for the promotion of vernacular languages as a fundamental support for cultural identity.

“It is through our vernacular languages that thousands of Angolans better express their sentiments and emotions. Thus it is with satisfaction that we notice at this seminar the presence of journalists working on our radio station, “Ngola Yetu” and the Public Television, capable of improving our languages for broadcasting,” he asserted.

He also acknowledged the existence of much prejudice with regard to the use of vernacular languages which leads us into concluding that it is important to develop an ample debate on this matters, being important to think, in a near future, of holding reflection events, with the participation of more intellectuals, experts and communities.

He also said:

“We want cultural information to be richer and richer and the various cultural and artistic expressions of Angolan artists to be appropriately promoted: To this end, we will have to revise the existing mechanisms and create new ways of cooperating and interchange among various cultural and information agents, facilitating contacts, better guiding our common action towards culture and consolidation of democracy and consequently, national unity,”

Full story at: http://allafrica.com/stories/200608220812.html

Languages of Mali

According to the Ethnologue:Languages of the World (2005) entry for Mali there are 50 languages. Of these 13 have been recognised for education and 11 are being used.

Mali: The quest for a literate environment in Mali

The Malian newspaper Les Echos reports on the workshop held in Bamako, 5-8th September on the development of a literate environment in Mali.

In order to mark International Literacy Day (September 8th), the Ministry of Education and its partners is holding a major 4 day workshop in Bamako with 102 participants from governmental departments and non-governmental organisations. The aim of the workshop is to identify and debate how to develop a literate environment in Mali and to develop integrated strategies to achieve this. The development of a literate environment is actually the second part of the 10 year plan for the development of Education in Mali (PRODEC), and is allied to the Literacy for LIFE movement of UNESCO.

I think that the problem with these sorts of initiative is that it is all very well to talk, and a lot of talking will have gone on in the workshop, but all too often that is all there is. This initiative needs to be backed by action and perhaps changes in legislation in order to really change things. The workshop raises the questions of ‘what is a literate society and what are the criteria for judging the success of becoming a literate society? These are questions that will be well-debated in the workshop.

One of the biggest problems is the lack of reading materials in Malian languages. In previous workshops and for many years materials/texts have been written, but they are still not published. This is a major area that needs to be addressed if there is going to be any real change.

Mali has gone a long way in recent years to develop education in Malian languages alongside French in the Primary sector (for the first 6 years). These young people will grow up with a different attitude to language than their parents. But if there is nothing for them to read as they are growing up they will lose the incentive to read for pleasure in their own languages. It really is imperative to address this reading desert.