History of European Ideas. Vol. 13. No. I/2, pp. 13% 144, 1991 Printed in Great Britain

0191-6599/91 s3.00 + 0.00 0 1991 Pergamon Press pk.

WHAT ARE NATIONAL LANGUAGES GOOD FOR IN AFRICA?’

C. M. B. BRANN*

National languages/Les Langues nationales. Dossier in The Courier&e Courier, Brussels, the European Community, no. 119 (Jan./Feb. 1990), pp. 44-81. Separate editions, with identical pagination in English and French.

The special dossier is announced on the cover page at the foot of ‘The tower of Babel’ by Breughel the Elder, and contains fourteen short pieces in 38 pages. It is presented by M.H. Brindelli who refers to the curse of languages in the Book of Genesis, with the story of the origin of the Tower of Babel. Now, the introducer might have pointed out that this is one of the first socio-linguistic enquiries of recorded history, in which the pastoral and agricultural unilingual Israelites were first faced by a polyglot, urbanised society, of which they partook and through which they absorbed the first in a long series of lingua francas, Aramaic-which they finally took back with them at the expiry of the long exile. Babylon or Babel has ever since been the symbol of multilingualism, for which the national languages are proposed as an anchor in a sea of uncertain communication.

FOUR MEANINGS OF ‘NATIONAL LANGUAGES2

But what is the meaning of ‘national languages’ (NLL)-that is the question which the editor-presumably the writer of the introduction-might have discussed. As it is, the term is used indiscriminately to cover four quite distinct concepts (i)aN territorial languages of a state; (ii)some select representative languages of that state; (iii)one language elected for that function and (iv)one language recognised symbolically as official.

(i) The first meaning is used by J. Poth, concerning the ‘possibilities and constraints of the teaching of national languages’ which is a translation of the French ‘possibilites et contraintes de l’enseignement des langues nationales’. Indeed it is in French that this meaning of NLL comes more naturally, notwithstanding the fact that the term ‘langue nationale’ in the singular was first developed in France in the Age of Enlightenment (it is mentioned in the article on ‘Language’ in the famous ‘Encyclopidie’). It has here come to mean the autochthonous languages of the soil, i.e. ‘native’, ‘indigenous’ or ‘natural’ languages, at times in the article also called ‘vernaculars’, with no derogatory sense, but meaning ‘of the soil’. Even Ngugi wa Thiongo uses it in this sense on

*Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.

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page 74, when he writes ‘I would like to see Kenya peoples’ mother-tongues (our national languages!) carry a literature.. .’ It is in this all-inclusive sense that ‘socialist’ countries use the term in Angola, Ethiopia (where the term was first used in this sense after the 1974 Revolution, as before then the ‘official’language was also the only ‘national’ language), Benin etc.

(ii) The second meaning, that of some selected representative languages is used by J.L. Doneux on pp. 46/47, when he writes ‘Les choix: de la langue native

aux langues reconnues nationales.. . ’ ‘On peut estimer que c’est dans ces derniers pays que, tres vite apres les independences, se developpa le concept de ‘Langues nationales’, et le plus souvent au pluriel’. He is quite right in attributing this meaning chiefly to the francophone countries, the term being much more sparingly used in the English-speaking states-to our knowledge. Indeed it is in the former that these NLL have often been laid down by decree, as having representative functions by virtue of their ethnic dominance, use as lingua francas, or regional distribution. One of the earliest instances of the latter use is in Zaire, where it was developed in the former Belgian Congo, still covering four representative languages, two of which are dominant ethnicities-ciLuba, kiKongo, and two are regional lingua francas-1iNgala and kiNgwana (Swahili). This is also implied in article 9 by M.N. Ngalasso ‘Multiplicitt des langues et authenticite = ‘Languages and authenticity!’ There is, however, some confusion of the use of term (i) and term (ii) even within the same states. In Niger, for instance, in article 11 (p. 70), A. Mahaman, the director of the ‘Voix du Sahel’ (Radio Niger) uses the term to cover aN eight territorial languages. At other times, however, as in the 1986 report Promotion et integration des langues nationalesdanslessystt?mestducatifs (Paris, Champion, 1986, p. 236), the chapter on Niger makes a distinction between Hausa, Fulfulde, Songhay, Tamasheq and Kanuri as the principal NLL, and Gurmantche, Tubu and Arabic as the minority languages.3 Since it is only the five former languages that are being developed by the various education authorities in the country, there is clearly a distinction between the representative five, in sense (ii) and the total eight, in sense (i). This fluctuation of meaning is by no means rare in the literature. But it becomes quite clear, if we think of the declared NLL of India, where 15 languages have been so designated in the Constitution out of some l,OOO+, of which 13 are territorially based on ‘linguistic states’, one is a ‘lackland’ language-Sindhi and one is a classical language-Sanskrit.

(iii) The third meaning is used by A.B. Fafunwa on pp. 5/59 in ‘Is a ‘lingua franca’ possible in Nigeria?” where he writes ‘It is proposed that one of the more widely used African languages in a given country be developed as the official national language of the country, with English, French or Portuguese (as the case may be) as an ‘associate’ national language’ (p. 58). Here he gives the term NLan exclusive prerogative and status and equates it with ‘lingua franca’, which properly has another meaning, that of a language in common (koine) between different ethnic groups, initially a trade language. In this, his advocacy of Hausa as that language in Nigeria is as old as Nigeria’s independence and has some force as coming from a Yoruba scholar. But he wrote those lines before he became the Federal Republic’s Minister of Education (in January 1990), since when he will have realised the non-feasability of the project, since it is precisely teachers of Hausa that cannot be obtained in the country, whereas teachers of Zgbo and

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Yoruba are plentiful. From Hausa as a ‘common language’ (‘language-in- common’, or koine) to Hausa as the ‘official language’ of Nigeria is a long way, which has certainly been avoided by the recent makers of the 1989 Federal Cons~~~ui~on, in which Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are singled out for federal (and possibly state) legislative purposes, but are nowhere designated either as ‘major’ languages, nor yet as ‘national’ or “official’.5 They are therefore in category (ii) of this typology of the meaning of NLL. Clearly, the term NL in the exclusive sense is attributed to Somali in Somalia, to Mafagasy in Madagascar, kiRundi in Burundi, etc. i.e. in some ten states of Africa, in which a single ethnicity is dominant. This has not been possible-so far-for countries like Senegal, where one language dominates as ‘lingua franca’ (somewhat as Hausa does in Nigeria), but in the presence of other powerful ethnic interests.

(iv) The fourth meaning of NL, then, combines the term ‘national’ with ‘official’, which is here proposed for Hausa by A.B. Fafunwa. It was attempted in the 1947 Constitution of India, where ~indi was given that exclusive position, with English as an ‘associate’ official language for ten years-after which it was to have been ‘phased out’. However, because of the objections of the southern, Dravidian, nations (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam), the ‘lease’ of English has been tacitly prolongued. This is not dissimilar to the proposed function of Hausa, as put forward by A.B. Fafunwa. On the other hand, it is somewhat surprising to read in article 5, extracted from the 1988 report of the World Bank education in sub-Saharan Africa, ‘Eleven of 15 former French colonies and all three former Portuguese colonies officially begin instruction in the nationallanguage from the first day of primary school. In contrast, 13 of 15 former British colonies begin instruction in one or more African language and teach English at first as a subject; only later is English introduced as the medium of instruction.’ Here, the term ‘national’ language is attributed-quite erroneously-to French and Portu- guese, which are the officiai languages of the states concerned. To our knowledge the term ‘national’ is hardly ever attributed to the official exolects, however well received. Only when the European exolects have become ‘creoles’, i.e. naturalised, can they become ‘national’ languages in Africa, as with article 7: ‘Using Creole (Seselwa) in schools, a cultural challenge’, in the Seychelles, where the French-based Creole has become the ‘national’ language sensu (iii), as well as one of three ‘official’ languages, the other two being English and French. This can be compared to the position of Crioulo in Cap Verde or in Guinea Bisau, and with Krio in Sierra Leone, where these are NLL in senses (ii) and (iii).

There is thus urgent need to distinguish between the various meanings of NLL, when reporting on the language situation in multilingual states, especially those of Africa, where the status of languages is still more fluid than in those of Asia.

INFORMATIVE REPORTS

Apart from the interesting country reports, the ‘dossier’gives two informative and statistical reports on the classification of African languages in article 3, and on their use in Education in article 5. In ‘Languages of Africa: an annotated map’, A. Coupez gives a typology in three categories of the 1250 languages mentioned: (a) the ‘traditional languages’, elsewhere called ‘ethnic languages/

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langues ethniques’ (cf. p. 67) as well as ‘territorial, indigenous languages’ and ‘vernaculars etc.; (b) the ‘lingua francas’, elsewhere called ‘vernacular languages’ or ‘languages of wider communication’; and (c)the ‘imported languages’, to which he here counts Arabic, as well as the ex-colonial European languages- many Africans being triglottic in them. The writer is not well served by his translator, when he writes in the original French ‘La plupart des langues africaines sont a l’etat de dispersion dialectale’, which is rendered in English as ‘so most African languages -are scattered dialects’ (sic.). This is a most unfortunate mistake, where the ‘traduttore’ has indeed become a ‘traditore’ of the original meaning. The intended meaning is clearly that African languages are for the most part unstandardised, as they exist in a multiplicity of dialects. Which is quite different from equating African languages per se with dialects, which is illogical, since-per definition -dialects are parts of languages. On the whole the author-linguist has given a consistent and pithy account of the major languages, demographically, of Africa, as well as of their genetic classification. The nomenclature of languages-so difficult to keep straight-is consistent, with the exception of ‘Sotho-Pedi-Tswana’ of South Africa, which is also spelt ‘Suthu (pp. 49/50 of the French original). Under ‘Kwa’ languages, the ‘Idoma group’ might have been included, as might have been the ‘Ijo group’-although the classification of the latter as ‘Kwa’ has been changed in the recent collection on ‘Niger-Congo’, edited by D. Bendor-Samuel (Dallas, 1989).6 But surely, the group should be called ‘Edo’, not ‘Bini’, with Bini being the chief representative of the group, though possibly not the largest, the &hobo being at least as numerous. Concerning the spread of Arabic- under Afro-Asiatic, Semitic-the many dialects might have been pointed out, since they may be no longer mutually intelligible, as between Moroccan and Chadian, Egyptian or Nigerian (Shuwa) Arabic, for instance. Of the Berber languages, Tamasheq is singled out, as being spoken in Mali and Niger: surely also in the other surrounding countries, including the northern border towns of Nigeria. Of the Chadic languages,Hausa has been singled out, as being spoken in Nigeria and Niger-but surely also in Cameroon, Chad, Togo, Ghana. Under Cushitic, Galla is mentioned, whereas the glottonym Oromo is usually preferred nowadays. Similarly the toponym Born0 is preferred nowadays to the older Bornu, the former being the autonym of the present federated state in Nigeria.

A statistical view of speakers of African languages is given in Table 1, taken from the World Bank report aforementioned.* This is both a useful and difficult exercise, where estimates are given of first and second-language speakers of the main languages as a percentage of the population of states, of which only 39 out of some 60 are here listed. However, the source of the figures so quoted is not given, so that one does not know the extent of their reliability. Thus, for Nigeria, figures for Hausa, Zgbo (not Ibo) and Yoruba are given as 30+20,20 and 10% of the population, which is far too high for Hausa, which is here given 50% total LI + L2 speakers. With a population of 100 million, this would give Hausa 50 million speakers in Nigeria alone, which is belied by other articles in the same collection, attributing a total of 20 million speakers to Hausa, including Nigeria, Niger and other states. Our estimate is 40 million total (cf. Brann, 1980) of which 30 million total in Nigeria.’ But this may be too conservative. On the other hand, Yoruba does have a good number of L2 speakers on the periphery of the ‘O’-

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states, i.e. in Bendel and Kwara, which would give it a figure not of 20, but of 15+3, i.e. a total of 18 million. The number of Igbo speakers has been reduced in recent years by peripheral peoples declaring that their speech forms are not dialects of Igbo, but independent languages, e.g. Ikwere, Epeye, Kwale, etc. Even so, the 10 million figure for Igbo may still hold.

With these cautions given, the ‘dossier’ on National Languages is a stimulating collection of articles and documents, which should prove valuable material for discussion in secondary and tertiary educational institutions, as well as overviews for general administrations in the ACP countries of the European Community. The Courier is to be congratulated on this initiative.

LIST OF ARTICLES OF THE ‘DOSSIER (original language in brackets)

1. Introduction: ‘National Languages/Langues nationales’: M.H. Birindelli:

pp. 44/45 (F). 2. ‘National languages and development/Langues nationales et developpe-

ment’: by J.L. Doneux and F.N. Gasana, pp. 46/47 (F). 3. ‘The languages of Africa: an annotated map/Les langues en Afrique: carte

comment&e’ by A. Coupez, pp. 48-50 (F). 4. ‘National languages in teaching/Les langues nationales dans l’enseigne-

ment’, by J. Poth, pp. 51-55 (F). 5. ‘The language of instruction: some statistics concerning sub-Saharan

Africa/La langue de l’enseignement: quelques statistiques concernant 1’Afrique au Sud du Sahara’ (extract from The World Bank: Education in sz&Saharan Africa, 1988), pp. 55-57 (E).

6. ‘IS a ‘lingua franca’ possible in Nigeria?/Une ‘lingua franca’ est-elle possible

au Nigeria? by A. Babs Fafunwa, pp. 58/59 (Nigeria) (E). 7. Giovanni Livi: ‘Using creole (Seselwa) in schools: a cultural challenge/

L’utilisation du creole (Seselwa) dans l’enseignement, un defi culturel’,

pp. 60-62 (Seychelles) (F). 8. Bernard Dumont: ‘Alphabetisation fonctionnelle, vulgarisation agricole et

utilisation des langues locales/Functional literacy, agricultural extension work and local languages’, pp. 63164 (Mali) (F).

9. M.N. Ngalasso. ‘Multiplicite des langues et authenticite: le cas du Zaire/ Language and authenticity: the case of Zaire’, pp. 65/67 (Zaire) (F).

10. Paul Chidyausiku: ‘The use of Shona in Zimbabwe press/L’utilisation du shona dans la presse zimbabweenne’, pp. 68169 (Zimbabwe) (E).

Il. ‘L’utilisation des langues nationales a la Voix du Sahel/National languages on La Voix du Sahel’, p. 70 (Niger) (F).

12. ‘Une langue commune, des cultures differentes/Common language, different cultures’, p. 71. Seydina Oumar SY (Senegal) (F).

13. Ngugi wa Thiongo: ‘I write in Gikuyu/J’tcris en kikuyu’, pp. 72-76

(Kenya) (E). 14. O.M. Nekitel: ‘Languages in danger of disappearance: the case of Papua

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New Guinea/Des langues en danger de mort: le cas de la Papouasie-Nouvelle GuinCe’, pp. 77-81 (E).

C.M.B. Brann

University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

NOTES

1. This is the second of four review articles on ‘the national language question’ by the writer, the 1st having been on Florian Commas (ed.). With forked tongues: what are

national languages goodfor?(Ann Arbor, Karoma 1988). The third is of Aldo Scaglione (ed.). The emergence of national languages (Ravenna, Longo 1984); the fourth of Anthony D. Smith: The ethnic origins of nations (Oxford, Blackwell, 1986).

2. Cf. the writer’s monograph: Official and national languages in Africa: complementarity

or conjlict? (Quebec, International Center for Research on Bilingualism, 1985)-in which the distinction of four meanings of ‘national languages’ is made. Definitions of multilingualism are also given in his ‘The terminology of Babel’. Sociobnguistics

(Amsterdam, 1990). 3. As a result of various international conferences, some improvement has been made in

recent years in the harmonisation of ethnonyms, glossonyms and toponyms, there being a trend to use the autonyms of the peoples. This in itself can become incomprehensible, if taken to the extreme: who would equate the ‘Fins’, or the ‘Finnish’ with ‘Suomi’? But at least the spelling of Huusa is more and more accepted, as against haoussa, hawsa etc. In the ‘dossier’, however, we still find kanouri, kanembou, for Kanuri, Kanembu, or KanemBu-to show that they are the people of Kanem.

4. Professor Fafunwa’s article in The Courier gave rise to a lively debate in the Nigerian national press, on the recurrent proposal of Hausa as the official and national language. It would be of some interest to make a bibliography of these, over the past 30 years.

5. Cf. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Promulgation) Decree 1989. Federal Republic of Nigeria, Official Gazette, vol 76, no. 29, 3 May 1989. The old Constitution of 1979 was extensively debated by the Constitution Review Committee in 1987/88, before being submitted to the Constituent Assembly for further debate. Whereas in the report of the Committee (cf. Lagos, Report of the Constitution Review Committee, 2. vols, 1988) it was proposed para 19/4 ‘Government shall promote the learning of the three main languages, namely Hausa, Ibo (sic) and Yoruba, in all primary and secondary institutions of Nigeria’ (vol I: 21) this was neutralised to read: in para 19/4 of the Constitution Decree to ‘Government shall promote the learning of indigenous languages’-i.e. no epithet of ‘national’, ‘ major’ or ‘main’ was at any time attributed to the ‘Big Three’ in the finally promulgated Constitution-in order not to offend the other ethno-linguistic communities.

6. The collection by J. Bendor-Samuel has more startling suggested re-classifications and, above all, re-namings than are likely to be accepted by users the world over. As against these, A. Coupez’s conservative rendering is refreshing.

7. Cf. the writer’s article ‘Les grandes langues vehiculaires africaines’, Peup/es noirs, Peuples ufricains (Paris, 1980) 17 101-109.

8. World Bank. Education in sub-Saharan A,frica: policies for adjustment, revitalization,

and expansion (Washington, D.C., 1988).