Languages of Colonization and African Cultural Identity

It was in Matam, in the region of Fouta Toro, an evening of my childhood a long time ago. Resting on a straw mat spread out on the courtyard floor, one of my aunts, my father's oldest sister, kept an audience of teenage listeners captivated as if attached by invisible strings. Each day at dusk, dropping all other activities, her grandchildren would come to drink from the inexhaustible well of stories, legends, proverbs, riddles, and word plays.

A couple of feet from this enchanted circle, two men, the storyteller's sons, would be seated on straight-backed chairs conversing in French. One was a doctor, the other, a teacher. Interrupting herself suddenly, undoubtedly in the middle of the adventures of Samba Geladiégi, the narrator, who didn't understand French would ask her sons, aren't you tired of that? Rest a little. Get down off your chairs and come speak to us in the language of our fathers! [more...]

Defining education within a grassroots literacy movement

The questions of why and how to develop so-called literacy programs, which usually focus on adults and are often in a language without a long written tradition, is part of an on-going international debate. This article gives a voice to a group of new literates in a Senegalese language, Pulaar, who are sandwiched between the national debate over continuing to use an international language in the local school system, and the public policy debate over allocating funds for non-formal education.The official language of Senegal, both in the administration and in education, is French. There are twenty-two national languages, six of which have been officially recognized but which are not used in the educational system. Approximately 58% of school age children enter the public French-language school system; but of these, roughly 80% fail to finish primary school. The pyramid of Senegal's educational system looks like a sharp needle standing up-right on a flat surface, and getting ever narrower as the educational years go by. As a result, Senegal's official illiteracy rate is 67% by the latest World Bank statistics. [more...]