Economists have shown that language affects a variety of economic outcomes such as trade, economic growth and the provision of public goods. A tactical prehension of a language could also mean an impairment of its speakers’ natural developmental abilities.
For clear analysis, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of our colonial masters. If we as colonialists had the pre-established knowledge of the inter-link between language, economic growth and development, given that an anti-imperialist campaign was already being propagated by nationalists all over Africa, it would only be wise and convenient to establish our language amongst our conquests (with differing cultural backgrounds). This would stand as the official Lingua franca in a bid to further our neo-colonalist ideologies. It is common knowledge that socio-economic and political control that can be exercised economically, linguistically and culturally, whereby promotion of the culture of the neo-colonist country facilitates the cultural assimilation of the colonized people and thus opens the national economy to the multinational corporations of the neo-colonial country.
The notion coined “divide and rule” is amplified by the inclusion of a foreign language in the guise of a lingua franca. A recipe by sound minds to continuously enslave their subjects.
This scenario explains the disappearance of a much larger group of languages over the past 200 years while a small group has grown immensely in relative size. Sociolinguists term such displacement language-shift.
It is fair to rationalize the intentions of our colonial masters as one that is informed by the necessary need to politically centralize their colonies. It was just business as usual for the british and the french, etc. However, the perverse adoption of the English Language in Africa as more than just being a mere Lingua Franca is somewhat shocking. Our leaders since independence have ignorantly contributed to this detrimental language-shift through their continuous insistence on the utilization of the English language as the choice of standard language for administrative and educational purposes. Efficiency has always being the argument put forward by the proponents of this language-Shift in a global world, especially when saddled with the mammoth task of harmonious management of different cultures amalgamated by the imperialists. This over-sight task has been marginally attainable across all boards with a resounding weakening effect on sub-national loyalties, local languages and culture.
A recent study carried out by a group of american sociolinguists from the university of Yale cements the hypothesis that no nation has ever attained the super-power status by adopting a foreign culture. Since language is a considerable part of culture, it is rational to conclude that language has an indirect but irrefutable link to socio-economic development.
Given these arguments, it is crucial to question the rationale for our governments insistence on the compulsion of English language as a major pre-requisitite for entries into our different educational institutions. It staggers the mind the number of brilliant minds in africa that would have been robbed off their chosen educational path based on this current perverse educational arrangement, one inherited from our colonial masters with an obvious hidden agenda.
Africans have over the years transformed the English language from being a mere lingua franca to a meter of intelligence. Grammatical errors are abruptly frowned upon. Sir Shina Peters, a popular nigerian musician, committed a career assassination the day he made a grammatical error in public. There is absolutely no correlation between his music and the English language but the media and the populace in general showed no mercy even though he was an above average musician.
The author is not suggesting a total eradication of the English language in our curriculum as it is already entrenched in our system. More so, English language is currently the language of globalization but a limit to its adoption in our schools as a measure of intelligence is what is being proposed. If a pupil sits for nine disciplines in an entry exam, pass all but fail english language, there is a high probability of not gaining admission into a choice institution or any institution at all.
My question has always been, were the other eight subjects not taught in English? If a student understands the English language well enough to pass eight subjects, Why further complicate issues by laying undue emphasis on the technicalities of a foreign language and use it as a benchmark for entry gradation? We tend to speak a lot of english but we still can’t manufacture common toothpicks of exportable quality talk-more of building our own car. We speak better English than the chinese, the malaysians and the french put together without any direct positive impact on our economy. We have gone as far as having comical personalities such as the Nigerian Hon. Obaiyagbon, who command a near-insane utilization of the English language as a member of the House of Representatives. The more complicated the spoken English is, the more credibility Africans seems to have in the speaker.
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