Oct. 31, 1517 – that’s five hundred and one odd years ago, a courageous 34-year old German Monk and biblical scholar at the University of Wittenberg nailed his 95 Theses for a reformation of the Roman Catholic Church. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Luther had initiated a revolution that would bring about world-wide socio-religious and political change.
Of these impacts, the one dearest to my heart and should I dare say, mind, is the spread of literacy. “After he was branded an outlaw for refusing to recant his teachings, Luther took shelter in a castle. During his two years in hiding he translated the New Testament from Latin into German. He did this just a few years after the introduction of Gutenberg’s printing press, which made wide dissemination possible” (Jain, 2018).
Prior to the Reformation, only the elite (and clergy of course) could read and write Latin – a language that also served as an enduring reminder of Roman Imperial rule. The Reformation thus ushered in a new wave of civilization – one that transformed peasants into literate subjects capable of reading and writing in their own native (vernacular) languages. And we know what role these “indigenous” languages played in the development of nationalism in Europe.
This has great implication for Africa and Africans. For over a century now, the principal (formal) medium of knowledge transmission remains fundamentally “colonial” – English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, etc. – a point particularly salient in the age of de-colonial advocacy. Indigenous languages are not only perceived to be “inferior” by both the elite and the masses, but oddly enough, European languages are elevated on a pedestal that gazes and scorns its inferior “others”.
If Africans are to take any lessons from the Reformation, it is that our educational systems shall continue to stumble until we give indigenous languages their rightful place in the production and transmission of knowledge. Today, we’re witnesses to growing numbers of teachers and students poorly equipped to express themselves coherently in English, French or Spanish and at once, incapable of writing a single sentence in an indigenous language. Our leaders and educators thus owe it to future generations – namely that a genuine de-colonial approach to education includes not only a deconstruction of colonially-derived methods and techniques of knowledge production and transmission but also the fact that indigenous languages need to be revitalized, rehabilitated and supported on an equal pedestal as those inherited from colonial rule.
Bennett Mbinkar Esq.
Dr Fokwang!
You analysis is poignant and pregnant with inspiration but regrettably your recommendation missed its target. The goal of decolonization must be economic emancipation and not the empty symbolism that is inherent in linguistic nationalism that will leave our people in no better place than they had been before decolonization. Africa has been threw this before with changes in European to African names for Zaire, Burkina Faso, etc and to a larger the adoption of Swahili in several East African countries as a “National” language without anything returns to show for in terms of economic empowerment. We must stop chasing the shadows with “feel good” remedies that do address the root causes of our under development. Language, in today’s global economy is almost irrelevant with information technology able to facilitate communication regardless of language barriers.
Jude Fokwang
That too is important. Literacy and economic empowerment are not mutually exclusive. So while I agree with you – I haven’t insinuated that this is the only path towards our ultimate liberation. However, we’ll be chasing the wind by denigrating our heritage if our singular pursuit is only economic empowerment. Both pursuits come down to visionary leadership. Thanks for your insightful comments.