Sociolinguistics needs to center Africa
Minority language maintenance and revitalization is a sub-discipline of sociolinguistics that I mostly stay away from. My discomfort with most of the research in that area stems from the fact that its moral appeal clashes with my own personal language trajectory. On the one hand, the idea that minority languages should be maintained and, if they have disappeared or are in danger of doing so, should be revitalized, has obvious moral appeal: it feels like the right thing to support. On the other hand, I myself have largely abandoned the language I consider my mother tongue, Bavarian, first for Standard German and later for English.
Such personal trajectories seem to have little place in the literature related to language maintenance and revitalization, where minority speakers largely seem like the hapless victims of national or global linguistic domination. The tensions between ancestral and aspirational identities that minority speakers must negotiate seem relatively invisible to academics who publish in dominant languages about why and how minority languages should be maintained.
Vernacular Palaver, the book I read in April for the Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge, has given me new tools to think about this conundrum.
I picked up Vernacular Palaver by Moradewun Adejunmobi in the category “a book about language on the move that is written by an author who is neither male nor white.” Following on from my March reading about the relationship between European ethnographic writing and colonial polices, I was interested to read more about colonial linguistics and I was specifically hoping to read the work of a black African female sociolinguist. That in itself turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined because the experts in African sociolinguistics who I can think of off the top of my head are white men, black men and white women – in this order.
I certainly do not claim specialist knowledge of African sociolinguistics and I may well be mistaken but, to my shame, I could not think of a single sociolinguistics book written by a black woman from Africa. It seems I am not alone because when I went through the list of references of a couple of my favorite books and browsed the library shelves, I found … nothing. It was only when I leaved through the Multilingual Matters catalog that I came across Vernacular Palaver by Moradewun Adejunmobi.
Vernacular Palaver turned out to be an amazing book and a real gem to find. It examines the ways in which “the local” is imagined in and through non-native languages in West Africa. But it is not only about West Africa. As I said at the beginning, I found it eye-opening with regard to universal dilemmas related to multilingualism and the linguistic challenges of globalization.
From my March reading I had learned how obsessed European colonizers were with “the rule of difference”. The rule of difference refers to the colonial “assumption of an unbridgeable difference between themselves and their subjects and of the ineradicable inferiority of the colonized” (Steinmetz, 2008, p. 36). Vernacular Palaver relates the rule of difference to language policy and argues that support for mother tongues and insistence on vernacular education and cultural production may well be a colonial project.
Chapter 1 deals with colonial discourses about African languages and shows that, contrary to expectation, European colonizers readily embraced African vernaculars. British colonial policy, in particular, endorsed the use of the mother tongue in education. Like Steinmetz’ German colonial officials, their policies were guided by the ethnographic writings of missionaries, anthropologists and assorted other European travelers and explorers. These all favored the use of the mother tongue by Africans and were opposed to Africans using non-native languages.
They saw African languages as attributes of “true Africans.” By contrast, multilingual non-tribal, urban and educated Africans were considered “unnatural” and objects either of pity or distrust. In other words, insistence on the primacy of the African mother tongue became the linguistic expression of the rule of difference. And in this dualistic world, “the vocation of Europe was modernity; that of the African, the past” (Adejunmobi, 2004, p. 8).
Africa-centered multilingual “welcome” sign at the Hamburg Museum of Anthropology
Africans themselves, of course, could have little doubt about the obvious necessity to speak multiple languages. Indeed, most introductions to sociolinguistics mention a combination of repertoires in local, national and international languages as the typical pattern of African multilingualism.
While the extent of African multilingualism was not always apparent to Europeans, many European “experts” felt that Africans were misguided in their language learning desires, particularly when it came to European languages. An Austrian professor of linguistic anthropology, for instance, wrote in 1930: “It would be undesirable to comply with any unwise wishes the natives themselves may express in favor of adding European languages to the school curriculum” (quoted in Adejunmobi, 2004, p. 11; the whole pamphlet entitled “The use of the vernacular in education in Africa” is available via jstor).
Ultimately, widespread learning of European languages by Africans was, of course, the inevitable consequence of colonialism.
However, the fact that Europeans had been the staunchest advocates of African mother tongues for Africans had consequences for the ways in which these languages were thought and talked about. With regard to academic research about language in Africa, these consequences are felt to this day and resulted in a peculiar dynamic: Europeans developed the theories and wrote the publications while Africans provided the data.
In short, the European promotion of African mother tongues – well-meaning and laudable as it may have been in many cases – was part and parcel of colonial discourses and policies whose central aim was the political, social and economic subordination of Africans.
Anti-colonial resistance therefore included contesting European discourses of Africa. The most effective way to mount that challenge in most cases was through the medium of English or French.
Africans do not use European languages as a result of some sort of misguided identification with their colonizers but for their own ends, as Adedjunmobi goes on to show in a series of case studies. The use of European languages allows new imaginations of the local: in literature, a modern (pan-)African identity has emerged precisely through English and French rather than through mother tongues (Chapter 2). In Nigerian videos, English has become associated with discourses of economic advancement and the dream of getting rich (Chapter 3). In Ivorian romance novels, French enables discourses of modernity and materialism (Chapter 4). Paradoxically, localization in these romances is achieved through the promotion of traditional African femininity.
Finally, language learning is a means to construct aspirational migratory identities (Chapter 5). Chapter 5 explores the promotion of languages of wider communication in charismatic churches and thus comes full circle in a sense: the faithful increasingly leave Anglican and Catholic congregations operating in mother tongues for charismatic congregations operating in English or French and promising global mobility as part of the Christian message. A neat illustration of this turning of the tables comes from the pastor of an English-medium charismatic church in Accra. In an interview with the researcher, he “derided the work of a European couple, who, in his words, had wasted several years simply learning a local vernacular, when all the while they could have been ‘preaching the gospel’ using English or Twi” (Adejunmobi, 2004, p. 201, n. 27).
In sum, languages of wider communication have a stronger appeal than mother tongues for people who “seek additional memberships in sodalities forged on the basis of shared aspirations rather than that of shared origins” (Adejunmobi, 2004, p. 205)
My very short summary here does by no means justice to Vernacular Palaver, which should be compulsory reading for anyone who is interested in the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, globalization and migration.
That I did not know about this important book, which was published already back in 2004, causes me embarrassment. Sadly, I am not alone in my ignorance. According to Google Scholar, Vernacular Palaver has been cited only 57 times. Comparable books in the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, globalization and migration based in Europe or North America rack up many hundreds or even thousands of citations.
This pattern serves as a vivid illustration of the very point made by Vernacular Palaver: sociolinguistic research set in Africa is seen as specific and only specialists in African languages pay attention.
A while ago I wrote that multilingualism researchers who only see their field through an Anglo-centric lens are doing something wrong. I extend that to say that if your list of references – in any field – is heavily weighted towards white male researchers, it is not because these people do all the best work. It is because you have not looked carefully and you are actively ignoring important research.
The Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge is a good way to start getting out of our bubble and discover more of the amazing world of linguistic diversity. So keep up the good work and happy reading! Don’t forget to share your progress. If you tweet about it and mention @lg_on_the_move, you’ll be in the running for our monthly draw of a copy of Intercultural Communication. The April winner will shortly be announced on Twitter.
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“Support for mother tongues and insistence on vernacular education and cultural production may well be a colonial project” – such an interesting and timely idea! It’s certainly becoming more and more evident that people’s language ideologies are never a binary. One person might wholeheartedly embrace the learning and maintenance of their heritage language while another person from the same cultural group might not identify with that heritage language at all. It seems that, rather than force one linguistic identification or the other on a person, people need to be given the choice to use (and identify with) the language that works best for them. Thanks for this book recommendation!
Glad you found this post! It’s a great book and well worth reading.
It is quite interesting to see so many people feel the same way after having read this article that we never think of whether the author is female or male or even where they are from. I worked with several authors from countries with English as a second language to help them get their research published in prestigious English language journals. It is with the emerging popularity of this field of language translation and editing that it is becoming possible for these authors to get their research published and not be held back because of language barriers.
This article was definitely an eye opener. When I look back at references I have cites, I think I was focused on how recent the article was and the content rather than the author. But we have to acknowledge that there is dominance of European writers in compared to the rest of the world. Back home in India and even here in Australia with my Indian friends I am at times judged as not being ‘Indian’ enough as Hindi is not my go to language when I communicate. Having been raised in an English-speaking home I express myself better when I speak English. Although, English is the medium of instruction it is taught as one would a second language and Hindi (although introduced as a second language) is taught as if everyone is familiar with the language. I definitely lacked the basic foundation and to some extent developed a dislike towards the language. I will definitely be reading Vernacular Palaver to read about multilingualism, globalisation and migration.
Thank you for this reading. To be honest, I never notice whether the researcher is conducted whether by a male or female writers. When I took a look back on all of my assignments, it almost shocked me as I did try my best to have a look but it turned out to have no African female writer appeared in my list of citations. Then the case of Vernacular Palaver is calling for more diversity in research and more acknowledgment for research works by people from minority ethnicity or undeveloped nations.
Vernacular Palaver examines the continuing appeal of the idea of ‘the local’ for cultural brokers in West Africa, even in instances where they have a growing interaction with diverse global and continental languages of wider communication. It highlights the contribution of foreign and indigenous languages of wider communication to the formation of the new alliances and sodalities that are testing the relevance of locality and reshaping the concept of local culture, in West Africa. The language of wider communication is apparently Adejunmobi’s own invented terminology as her own tool to explore her own perspective on the palaver over language and identity. This was fundamentally concerned with the emergence of a multi-ethnic nation-state rather than with an individual ethnolinguistic group and its cultural distinctiveness.
Truth be told, we are learnt to cite all approved academic writing and reliable source. Especially me, I focus on the content rather than the person who wrote it down or who he/she is. To be honest, I was so surprise about this. I have never thought that gender would effect to citation or anything. As long as their papers are insightful, I think it is fair to admire them and praise them by citation.
However, thank you for opening my eyes. As I found that growing up speaking Thai is not a bad thing at all. It is ture that I was struggling to learn English, but Thai language makes me proud of who I am and the place I come from. It helps me to become a stronger and spread out my identity through other languages I have I learned.
Thank you very much, Ingrid, for your insightful article….
Moradewun Adejunmobi’s ideas are really thought-provoking. Today, people are being ‘glocalized’ (global + local) even in language use. People speak their local and national languages for their traditional or cultural identities; simultaneously they are acquiring global languages or ‘the languages of wider communication’ such as English, French, Spanish, etc, to ‘construct aspirational identities’ though limited languages of wider communication have the dominion in people’s verbal exchange. Interestingly, speaking multiple languages is a matter of necessity because of the migration and globalization, because of the unprecedented exchange of goods, people, and ideas throughout the world. As a result, so many minor communities’ languages are disappearing. Due to the revolutionary development in communication technologies and the transportation sector in the recent world, the closed states have transformed into open-states. Effective communication with the people throughout the world needs to be multilingual; it’s one of the imperative attributes of modern people to contend with the challenges caused by globalization.
However, suffering from the hegemony that European languages are superior and viewing the local language speakers as ‘different and inferior’ both are problematic.
I realized this fact when read African feminism in my masters degree in English literature. This article reminded me the plight of African women who have no space in academic article writing, they are not cited in the academic writing because of race, gender and regional discrimination. In academic discourse there is domination of English speaking people especially from Europe and America, this is called cannon. After reading this interesting article I realized that English is becoming dominant language in all over the world and mother tongue are under the shadow of English language. But, I realized that we have to conserve our mother tongue and made a combinations with English language.
Thank you for sharing. In fact, i had never noticed the background of researchers, including they are white or black. I always care about times of download of the reference, which is more convinced for me. Knowledge is not about the race. We should cite those references which are professional and convinced regardless of their religion or race. English is becoming an international language nowadays and many people prefer to use it in their daily life because it is a necessary skill to study and work, minority language starts to extinct. However, minority language is one of the representations of a country, which includes culture and history for a country. As a result, protecting minority language is important for all of us.
Before reading this post, I have never thought of the authors’ gender, the nationalities or the regions they are from. I incited them just because their works are powerful and helpful for my assignments. But it is a fact that, in my assignments’ reference lists , there are seldom authors or linguists are Africans, let alone female Africans. The reasons for this I think could be that on one hand there are not many female African linguists and on the other hand those female African linguists have not got sufficient attention in the field where linguists from English-speaking countries or Europe dominate. As English is Lingua Franca, learners around the world struggle to learn it as a foreign or second language. Under such circumstance, few learners think about the role of their vernacular in their life and culture and economy. This post enables me to reflect how to maintain and carry on my native language as a heritage and how to view the relationship between my mother tongue and English.
The example of Vernacular Palaver has indeed opened our minds of the diversity in linguistics studies and evoked a call of carefulness in seeking resources to researchers in the field. Especially, it is essential to look for diverse materials and perspectives from scholars of various ethnic backgrounds, just like the example of black female linguist in Vernacular Palaver. As a postgraduate student, we all should be aware of this when referring to different sources in our work.
The article provided me with a very interesting question before I even read it: whether I cited any journal articles or research by a female African researcher. I reviewed many of them and found almost no research of that kind cited in my assignments. What an embarrassing ignorance! Anyways, the found the book Vernacular Palaver every interesting to read thanks to your summary. My favourite part would be the very first chapter of the book which introduces discourses of languages in Africa. I hope I can find it. This article also inspired to do more readings about languages in minority areas. It would be a great topic for a future research about linguistics.
By reading this insightful post, I started questioning myself. Should I be either grateful to live in an area still highly embracing its vernacular language (Javanese) or regretted as English was not widely used which -I cannot deny- obstructed me from acquiring the language more facilely?
However, on top of that, everything must have happened for a reason. Maintaining identities by keeping our vernacular language in notable existence is not at all a sad-ending story for an English language learner like me. Instead, I should be proud of myself as I help promote multilingualism in the world where minority languages are subjugated and save my people’s voices.
Hi Ingrid,
In fact, I have never understood these phenomena. I think there is some bias in everything. Women are a weak existence or even a negative existence, just as few people think that women can excel in mathematics, IT, technology and so on. Moreover, I would like to talk about the disappearance of a few languages. In China, there are many ethnic minorities, and most ethnic groups have their own language. However, with the popularity of Mandarin, many minority languages have disappeared because of the closer exchanges and education among different ethnic groups. I think it is necessary to protect a few languages because dialects are the carrier of culture and hope that future child can understand the changes in culture through these few languages.
Thanks for sharing this post. I found it interesting in two ways. Firstly, it is a thoughtful question “Why are you not citing any African female expert?”. Actually, when I do assignments or write an essay which requires me to provide a reference list, I search for the key words on searching engine to find the most suitable articles or books that support for my essays. I do not mind where the authors come from, but the contribution and the quality of their articles. I strongly agree with you that not only white male researchers do the best work, but people all around the world do the great work as well. Maybe it is because you have a biased look on their work. Be equal always. The second thing I want to share is that minority languages gradually disappear, maybe because fewer and fewer people use them or the colonized countries are forced to use the language of colonizers.
As we all know English is an international language, thus we have to learn English to communicate with foreigners. But it is really interesting that when you meet a foreigner and you greet them in their first language, they really appreciate that and they feel respected as you know their language.
I have never thought of myself as biased in any context, and I cherish the belief that all voices should be heard. However, we can become accomplices of injustices by merely not digging enough to find the voices of minorities that ought to be heard. I certainly feel that it is pervasive the way academics investigate topics through the lens of male Anglo-Saxons, without even noticing perhaps the lack of refencing to other sources. I feel guilty of charge as well of this ethnocentrism, even though I am woman with a Latin American background (two minorities). Sometimes it seems easier to find literature from white male authors than to search a bit further for those forgotten voices. I welcome this passage as a challenge, and I will make it my new goal to discover the opinions of non-white female authors.
In terms of language revitalisation, I remember taking a sociolinguistics unit in my second year and our group assignment was to find an endangered language and discuss its revitalization process. Looking back at that now, it feels a little out-of-place to provide students with no experience to bear the responsibility of temporarily finding methods to revitalise a language. Does it also feel like a privilege? But in any case, I am in no position to speak about such a thing in detail, I only provided my opinion. What really captivated me was not realising the background of the authors of the books and journals that I read. As a student who is constantly producing academic essays, it will be a step forward to, from now on, research more in-depth about authors. I think that will provide a much richer context about the topic I discuss. Being considerate of authors who have first-hand knowledge of their own mother tongues is bound to bring about a rich context, and citing their work will be an act of respect to their hard work and dedication.
Language is always connected to broader socio-political issues that the world is facing. As it is discussed by Ingrid, minority languages are faced with colonization of other stronger nations. As a postgraduate student who is studying to become a teacher, this post makes me think about many aspects of teaching English in foreign countries. Although the situation is much different, I always feel that English education needs to be well-balanced with its country’s language. However, I also think any language education should aim to learn about the cultural values of its language as well. I try to teach many different cultural aspects of English culture to my students so they can learn beyond my classroom. I also provide my students with assignments that makes them research about their local community as well. I strongly believe that this post has re-emphasized about my language education policy by learning more about the minority languages that Ingrid has wrote about.
Language is a powerful tool in colonization. For example, Vietnam was under many colonizations: Chinese, French, American. each colonizer wanted to take over Vietnam by blurring its mother tongue and introducing languages in colonizers’ countries. By saying a language people emerge in its culture, and once their mother tongue is forgotten and a new language is spoken, it means the national traditions are going to be replaced by others. It is a smart way to colonize a country by deleting its culture and language.
The post also reminds me of a friend who learns a language to save it from disappearing. It is such a great, giant vision compared to my purpose of learning new languages.
The minority language speakers’ movement reminds me of one story that my friend shared with me: “When you go to a country, not England or any other English speaking countries, would you expect the residents could speak English and help you?” The first thought in my mind was positive, however, my friend claimed that we are the tourists and why shouldn’t we learn their languages but we had an expectation on them? This could happen in every circumstance in this world because English is a language that the majority of people would communicate. But this article appeals to a worth-thinking fact that minority languages should be respected, and seek their importance in literacies.
After reading this article and recalling that I was writing an article, I only focused on the author’s point of view when referring to an author’s point of view, but did not understand the author’s information. The purpose of citing an article is to use the author’s point of view without deeper thinking. After reading this article, I will pay attention to more detailed research. The article also mentions the protection of a few languages. The language carries the culture of the group that uses the language. The disappearance of many languages is not natural, but for political reasons. For example, China is now working on a dialect protection plan. After we promoted Putonghua nationwide, many new generations of children have not spoken in tongues.
Since I started dealing with academic writing and citation as well as referencing authors’s works, I rarely pay attention to his or her background but the content. However, this story has opened my eyes about the power and the importance of academic citation. Thanks to this story, It has provided me another way to approach to academic resources and how to adhere to academic conventions.
It is an insightful post. For the people who interested in the sociolinguistics of multilingualism or globalization, they need to value all the researches and books and no matter whether these lists of references were published by minority language speakers. I did focus on the background of academic literatures’ publisher when I was referencing them, because I really appreciated for their valuable knowledge, insightful perspectives, and excellent works for different topic. I also agree that minority languages should be maintained and the vernaculars of the country should be embraced. Language is an important element that can represent the identify of different culture, so let us value all the language.
When I need to write a research essay or report in English, although I have done a lot of reading in English and it is necessary to know who the author is (because I need to quote and have their names in my reference), I did not go deep into the author’s origins, races, or social background. Honestly, despite of the fact that I have chosen an English-related major, my knowledge about the literature of western countries was very limited (except for some World Literature I read in my early ages). For a person like me who was born and raised in China, labeling such as ” white men” or “black women” are actually vague concepts for me as very few of them really existed in my life. However I truly believe that everyone is a complex individual, if we really want to appraise someone, we just get to know this person without focusing too much on his “label”.
Thanks, Ingrid, for such an eye-opening read!
Since I started to learn English, I always had the nagging feeling that this is the language of intellectual wealth and thus superiority, whereas my mother tongue of Vietnamese was considered by me as a lowly language of a people bound by centuries of the shackles of colonialism and then communism and that mastering the language of the “superior” was the key to a more auspicious future where freedom and individuality is truly revered and celebrated. Your article shifted my point of view and helped see my first language in a new positive light.
I have never noticed the details of authors; the content of articles is more important than authors. However, this article totally shocks me because I always think that every author’s works are precious, no matter what the background the author is. In other words, in my opinion, authors cannot change their background, but they can decide how to write an excellent article, so do readers—they cannot change the authors’ background, but they can choose their articles to read or to support them.
I think that the mother tongue is percieved more from an identity perspective; whilst the adoption of a new language, in the case of Africa, was more out of convenience. People needed to adapt in order to survive and learning the colonizer’s language was one way. Oppression can also be handed by means of segregation from the discourse of power and influence and I think this was the intention of the colonizers. And yes, I do fall into the category of citing the mainstream and most certainly I am up for the challenge.
Since my university time, I was required to familiarise myself with referencing and citation in academic writing. To be honest, I, however, have paid no attention to the detailed background of authors that I was citing in my paper. For me, the ideas that authors present are much more important than their origin or race. No matter if they are originally from Europe, Asia, Australia or Africa, I still appreciate their work and effort in academic discourse.
Today, their post, particularly “rule of difference” indeed makes me eye-opening and shocked a little bit. I’m really curious about it and certainly read more about it.
I was born and raised in Vietnam. It’s not a big or powerful country compared to others; nonetheless, I’m proud of my mother tongue. It’s statistically proved that Vietnamese is one of 30 most spoken languages in the world. I could not truly understand the feelings of those speaking minority language or their choice of language. I hope no language dies out in the future, then no culture disappear.
For me, this post really highlighted the role that language and literacy play in enabling social participation in society. For better or worse, mastery of the dominant language (and discourses) in any society is necessary to gain access to that society’s respective economic, cultural, and symbolic resources. In this way, governments and those who are in control can manipulate literature and language education provision to subjugate and suppress people, and keep them from having a voice in the dominant discourses of society.
I am torn in a way regarding my views on minority language preservation and advocacy. Language and culture are inextricably linked, and I think that learning a foreign language is a fun and necessary part of gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures and ways of life. It is a tragedy to see other languages and cultures being suppressed and disappearing due to colonisation and cultural domination, and I would like to see minority languages preserved. However, ironically, it seems that it is only through adoption of dominant languages such as English that representatives of minority languages and cultures can gain a voice and affect change, even if doing so further promotes and cements the dominant language as a status symbol for education and power.
Thank you for such an eye-opening post. I will definitely look for Vernacular Palaver and be more conscious of sociolinguists’ cultural backgrounds. I would especially be interested to read about how the African church replaced its gospel mother tongues to English and French. It is true that “…languages of wider communication have a stronger appeal than mother tongues for people who seek additional memberships in sodalities forged on the basis of shared aspirations rather than that of shared origins” (Adejunmobi, 2004, p.205). It is sad to see some languages dying. I am of Greek background and feel like I’m abandoning my mother tongue, as I only use it as a means of family communication. As a teacher, I notice many Greek names of school children and it is common for me to discover that they cannot converse in Greek. Language is a part of our cultural identity. I don’t think the two can be separated. Once we lose language, we also lose our culture.
What an interesting post, Ingrid. Thank you. I’ve looked up the book and it is fairly expensive but will keep it in mind if I come across it in the future. It truly seems like books have been published by people who have access to education and resources – thus privileged white men. I think that speakers of minority languages have this ongoing inner conflict when may struggle to find the best solution for their own circumstances. Do they succumb to a majority language or will they persist and continue to speak their heritage language as much as possible? I find it challenging myself, even in the place (NSW) where the environment towards other languages is very positive.
On a slightly different note: This newspaper article below may be another reason why women of all colors, social status and backgrounds do not publish, perform, or do their own thing more…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/21/woman-greatest-enemy-lack-of-time-themselves
Thank you for your insightful post. In my case, I have never thought about the demographic of my references because I only care about what ideas or research results they offer rather than who they are, even if their names could suggest that they are not white European males. I’m glad that I have subconsciously supported scholars from a variety of backgrounds. Nevertheless, I often refer to the reference lists of some initial papers that I find, and I may not be aware of the racial representation in those lists. Your article has raised my awareness about the possible bias in research community.
It can be said that your post is fascinating. My country – Vietnam – is a small country that was invaded and colonized during the period of thousands of years, occasionally the feeling of lowliness made Vietnamese people have wrong ways of thinking. They sometimes think that what belongs to Western people including culture or language was the most valuable. There are numerous Vietnamese people who study English because they feel themselves at a lower rank and thanks to English, their life will be improved more increasingly. However, apart from the feeling of lowliness, globalization is another motivation which people want to follow. It is my conviction that the colonisation influence make people in my country or other colonized nations feel that they become smaller and lower themselves. This results in the desiration to obtain a more enhanced life.
Thank you, Ingrid, for such valuable information you offer in this post.
The issue illustrated in your post did cross my mind before. Honestly, during my bachelor and postgraduate years, I have come across a large number of research papers written in English, French, Vietnamese (as my mother tongue) and Chinese. However, it has been the English papers that I have paid the most attention to as I believe those written in English are the most informative and accurate.
After reading your post, it really surprised me that my question for this issue is not unreasonable and how amazing the “rule of difference” was. In other words, I realized that documents written in languages that people tend to consider as inferior and affected by colonization, globalization and migration are on the same league with those in English. And that how easily and seriously people from used-to-be-colonized country are immensely influenced by their colonizers.
This post actually changed me assumptions and I would love to find and read more articles in my mother tongue as well as other languages besides English ones.
Hi everyone,
I agree with you that colonizer language is vital for the reimagination of the African identity. When I was in Nigeria for two years, the official language for public and educational purposes was English, so all the people there should learn English, even though outside the government dealings many people still use their African language. In a sense, Nigerian multilingualism reflects the dual identity of being both a Nigerian-origin and a post-colonial modern Nigerian
Hi Ingrid,
This is a very thought-provoking article that makes me rethink my own perception towards the practice of language conservation. As a person born into the major ethnic, I always feel “sad” for those coming from an ethnic minority who have to forgo their own language for the sake of economic and social benefits. I never suspected even once that this “feeling” represents the privilege of the majority status I was given (not earned) as I never had the urge to look at the matter from a different angle. The way Africans resisted the conservation of their own mother-tongues and chose instead to recreate, thus reclaim, their own identity through the “coloniser’s languages” proves that language is both a tool for control and emancipation. It further suggests that the power of language doesn’t lie in its form but rather its ability to allow the users to exercise their agency. Although I still support the practice of minority language conservation for knowledge preservation, it is important to also take into account the conflicts and negotiations that the native-speakers of those languages have to go through to accomodate their complex set of selves.
Cheers,
Jo
There seems to be an unyielding battle between the importance of maintaining the traditional elements of one’s cultural background – especially pertaining to language, and the golden promises and sense of security – made by the racial and ethnic majority, that comes with surrendering your identity in exchange for the socially acceptable version- white, male, and educated. While often unspoken, you can sometimes find cultural fetishes surrounding minority languages and traditions, and the selfish motivation in upkeeping them as a tool for subjugation. What is noticeable, is the lack of choice, individuals of minority backgrounds are given. Subjectively speaking, it should not be mine or anyone else’s decision what elements of their culture or the culture in which they subjugated to is incorporated into their identity. Language has often been used as a weapon to either ensnare or exclude certain groups of people, and in many cases, few are provided a choice on where they would like to stand amidst the chaos colonization has left behind.
It was not until I read this blog post I realized that I haven’t noticed about the origin of authors of various journals before. I admit it is a shortcoming. One more thing I agree is the role of mother tongue languages is undermined while the role of another foreign language or more than one foreign language are on the rise because the need of various kinds of work as a need of communication in a more multicultural and multilingual environment. In fact, many Vietnamese children are encouraged to learn English at private primary school or even earlier and sometimes their parents discourage them to use their mother tongue in most of communicating situations. Obviously, I know people have their own dreams and desire to become an outstanding ‘ingredient’ in labour force. I have a question that is whether the tendency of multilingualism will be spread throughout the world, but not only European and African spheres, such as in Asia where my country – Vietnam, has just integrated in globalisation for a few couple of years. Actually, I can see a trend taking place in Vietnam many of those one in Vietnamese labour force they strive to learn at least one more foreign language such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, etc. Obviously, the story people moving from this to another is popular nowadays, but the story lays on not only person, it is at the culture and many things else.
This post is incredibly thought-provoking and provides such an important insight into the academic community.
Personally, I have always been interested in minority cultural communities, contexts and languages. This is wholly due to my wonderful Tongan partner. My interest in the Tongan language has time and time again introduced and led me to articles authored by Tongan researchers, as well as articles cited only a handful of times. To be honest, I have always found these to be more insightful, valuable, and credible than those written on the Tongan language by authors of Western societies (which in fact are few and far between, although more cited and acknowledged). However there was always fear in the back of my mind that my convenors, tutors and teachers would not appreciate or accept such underacknowledged articles. This post has now alleviated that fear!
I am excited to get my hands on this book and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for this topic. Thank you for sharing!
This article was interesting as it brought forward the symptom of an almost prejudiced view that the dominating ‘western’ education system creates. I remember when I did my masters in music, there was a comment that I read by an African professor of music in which he questioned the mainstream and western music education system in branding everything as non-western into a minor and seemingly unimportant field of ethnomusicology. He said something along the lines of, if an African person is studying African music, why is it still considered as studying ethnomusicology? In my opinion, there are many similarities with music and language education and very often, it seems as though it’s just a case of jumping on the band wagon.
Hi Ingrid,
Thank you for your wonderful blog post!
To me, this post really poses a question whether I have paid attention to the source of reading materials because as you mentioned in the “Reading and mind control” post that readers are guided by authors’ views, so it could be problematic to read something that they are not sure about its credibility or, in this situation, the background of authors. And, now, as a postgraduate student, I have involved in reading numerous reading materials, but I have never been thought that I have to be equal in choosing what to read as I often read titles rather authors’ name, which is a real shame to me. If it continues to happen with the rest of my studying, I am sure that I will miss a considerable amount of valuable knowledge. Therefore, I must be equally and carefully choose reading materials from now on.
One more time, thank you, Ingrid, for your amazing post!
Dee
This article really reminds us that sometimes it might be easy for us to overlook vital stuffs from minorities which we rarely pay attention to. Before reading this article, I never paid much attention to the authors’ information of the references that I have used. I never thought about that some of the sources may be from a typical group of researchers. There is no doubt that some minority languages are dying as English has become the global language. In most of the countries, mastering English can be a strength for applying a job and this has a great associated impact on the local languages in these countries. We should realize that mother tongue is a symbol of our nation’s identity and we should also pay more attention to the maintaining of it. Only in this way can we conserve our own cultures, our roots in this globalizing world.
Really interesting perspectives were presented here. I have even never thought whether the researcher is white or non-white, or male or female. Rather I tended to see how many times has the paper been cited or downloaded, which I have thought is likely to show how reliable it is. This should be true to some extent, but now I could say there might be people like me. Some people might be too afraid to choose less-cited articles regardless of how good they are. It might be safer for researchers (or publishers) to select references from sources from famous universities or institutions. It seems that there is bias in academic fields consciously or subconsciously.
This was very interesting read. I guess in my academic context (literary theory), there is a long history of the voices of white, heterosexual males dominating the theoretical space, but this has more recently been disrupted to include the voices of people of colour and also queer and female voices in more prominent ways. There’s been a real push towards appreciating the intersectionality of perspectives. It’s quite spectacular to think that on sociolinguistic and multicultural research that the voices of those who speak the ‘other’ language have not been the biggest contributors to the discussion.
This post made me think about the great ARC Project Noongarpedia that has recently been started in WA. The aim of Noongarpedia is to develop a Wikipedia page where the language of the traditional custodians of Perth and South Western Australia (Noongar) is used to write Wikipedia entries about culturally significant events, meaning and people. It is overseen by academics who are Noongar and speak the language, and calls on Noongar language speakers to volunteer. I really like this synthesis of technology, language, and culture: that significant cultural ideas are being recorded in their original language. And the recording of a traditionally oral language into written text is a great archive.
This is an interesting post which extends my perspectives.
One point that has impressed me and helps me relate to Vietnam’s context is the conclusion that “languages of wider communication have a stronger appeal than mother tongues for people who “seek additional memberships in sodalities forged on the basis of shared aspirations rather than that of shared origins” (Adejunmobi, 2004, p. 205).”
I think the motive about seeking for ‘additional memberships in sodalities’ is driven by another motive, which is the inferiority complex. In the case of Vietnam, a country trapped in colonisation for thousands of years, the inferiority complex, or self-orientalism, blinded people to some extent. They started to look up the Westerners (the white people) and believed everything from the West, including English, was the best. I think a lot of Vietnamese learned English because they felt inferior and believed that through English, they could reach better things in life. This might not be the case in today’s world; the inferiority may not be the initial reason to learn English in Vietnam but it is globalisation that urges people to pursue English.
Nevertheless, I still believe that either in Africa or in Vietnam and other colonised countries, the colonisation effect was so immense that people turned out to be inferior about themselves, which led to the aspirations to lead better lives as well as the attraction towards the languages that colonisers had appealed them.
Well, that was a powerful post by Professor Pillar!
Suddenly the veil of ignorance has lifted.
I feel guilty for having never heard of Moradewun Adejunmobi and her poignant book Vernacular Palaver.
Up until this very moment of my twenty years slogging away at higher education I had not taken seriously the gender gap of the academic authors and the disparity of their geographical location.
Now I suddenly see that their relevance to research of where they may be from and how they would directly contribute to the way in which I thought, wrote and produced written academic work has had an impact on my perspectives.
This is the equivalent to a wake-up call.
It’s also the first time anyone from any university has directed me to a new direction like this.
Professor Pillar’s post has really jolted me into a different reality.
I feel the post is a warning not to revert back nor remain ignorant.
Thank you, Professor Pillar for the excellent recommendation and insights.
Excellent point made in this post, Ingrid! Up until now, I’ve never really thought about the ‘demographics’ of the authors from whose work I make citations for my writings. It is true that these days we usually overlook things that matter just because we think they don’t matter, and a minority language is one of those.
Reading this post, I also think back to the history of my home country Vietnam. Every time we were colonized by another country, people started learning the language of the colonizer, first Chinese, then French, and finally (American) English. However, what was relatively shocking (or eye-opening) to me was “the rule of difference” and its strength. I can say that such a rule was totally true (and respectable!), as who would have ever expected the Vietnamese alphabet would be introduced by a French, who tried to record the Vietnamese spoken language by a largely recognized writing system.
Thank you again for such an inspiring post!
In our society, a language is a sign of identity of people. In order to become a member of a community, a person needs to learn the language that is used in the community. At the same time, the identity of the person can b identified through the language that he or she used. We can roughly know the background of a person including the culture and history through the language that the person uses to communicate with other people. Therefore, on the one hand, some languages are dominant such as English, Chinese, French, and so on. These languages are widely used in the world. On the other hand, some minority languages are at risk. There are some many reasons for this issue. One of the most important reason is that fewer and fewer people use them.
What an inspiring post! “A rule of difference” in colonial context was so powerful that its legacy and reverberation are still extant.
Indeed for most disadvantaged groups an aspirational identity and an identity based on origins are always in conflict with each other. Till the end of their life in a tiny room of their hearts they keep a tone, a song or a phrase of mother tongue isolated from outside world.
Thanks, Ingrid, for this great find.
Will certainly be seeking out a copy of this book.
The point raised above on how languages of wider communication have a stronger appeal than mother tongues for people – ‘who seek additional memberships in sodalities forged on the basis of shared aspirations rather than that of shared origins’ is really interesting and warrants further reflection. It makes me wonder about the synergy between sodality and language.
Anyway, will definitely be reading the book with much anticipation.
Loy
Very interesting! Surely it will be as insightful as described here.
The link between identity and languages is very well chosen and elaborated for sharing with us, thanks Prof. Ingrid!
I am actually thinking how use of different languages was forming and shaping up different modernized identities of Africans which was not possible in their mother tongues!
I recently have read ‘my multilingual self’, for the reading challenge, written by Natsha Lvovich, who takes the readers to her journey of dreaming and even living in various languages, the transition from one language to another is not always easy for her, and it becomes even harder when you already have set perceptions about the language (as in the above case African’s perception about European languages restricted them to use these languages). However, learning and using a new language is enabling to see your newself, and a better newself if the language learnt enjoys a high status in your context.
Thanks for providing another reading gem!
Hi Ingrid,
Thank you so much for bringing Moradewun Adejunmobi’s book on the sociolinguistics of West Africa to our attention. Your summary sheds light on a very important contribution to the field that really deserves our attention. It is clear what careful searches like yours will yield in terms of existing gems such as Vernacular Palaver that are waiting to emerge, so that we don’t reinvent the wheel. I certainly will make good use of this text 🙂
Thank you,
Vera
Excellent point that Adejunmobi’s insights are relevant beyond Africa. For example, your quotation “the vocation of Europe was modernity; that of the African, the past” (Adejunmobi, 2004, p. 8) immediately resonated in the Chinese context: “the vocation of the PRC was modernity; that of the Zhuang speaker, the past” would have been a great way to express my doctoral conclusions.
Hi Ingrid,
Thank you so much for sharing with us the importance of citation sources.
While writing my PhD thesis, I also felt like being subjected to the power of academic discourses concerning the “right” way of seeing certin topics. Thanks again for revealing the hidden power of academic publications:-)
Best,
Li Jia