An African Computer Revisited: Theory of the Adaptation of the Speech and Mental Apparatus to the Spoken Language

This essay is extracted from the book "Africa's Lost Generations and other Essays" by Mukazo Mukazo Vunda. It can also be read in context @ pathediagne.blogspot.com

Daniel Erasmus' article "The Economy of Ideas #8: An African Computer" argues that technology follows a basic concept of the culture that a particular group has. To put the argument simply, the personal computer, in his view, is a reflection of western individualistic standards, while the laptop, predominantly produced and used in Japan, reflects a product of a culture preoccupied with space saving because of overpopulation.

Erasmus proposes that if Africa were to make its own computer technology, then it would be in line with the basic concept of African culture "Ubuntu". Out of Ubuntu, which means "being in terms of other people", a communal approach to life would be reflected in the technological productions of Africans. African computers would then be communal computers, used simultaneously by many for the benefit of the whole.

Rather than input devices designed for the use of an individual at a time (keyboard or mouse, etc.) African computers would work around to input devices that can accept many at a time. Rather than only the brain, eyes and fingers of the individual using the computer, an African computer may engage or possess the capacity to engage more of the body.

The last item sounds a lot like African dance, a creative process in its own right that, unlike that in other world cultures, engages more of the body. When Africans dance, more of their body goes into action than is the case in other world cultures. At its most creative, the legs, waist, arms, head, can move at differing tempos of the rhythm as each responds to different instruments in the musical piece, the whole of these movements relaying a coherent message, telling a story.

Erasmus is right, of course, but only in theory. In reality, there is a truth about the current African situation that makes what he says impossible to achieve, and it is restricted to the present.

I don't think Africans will ever be able to contribute anything novel and original to this culture, save maybe in individual instances of invention, unless they find out what it is about Africa’s present culture that is holding the creativity their ancestors displayed back, until they take measures to correct the problem. Only when the issue has been resolved will Africans bring forth creations the likes of which Erasmus describes. As things stand, the continent will lumber behind the individualistic western creative process, and will simply follow the new leader when this dominant culture is eclipsed.

What I say above will sound absurd to especially those who believe we have no connection to ancient civilisations, that our ancestors ran around naked. Only when you make them look around at common implements and other products we still use, that we inherited from our ancestors, that we use as we got them and have not improved upon or replaced with our own new inventions, does this make sense. And there are a lot of these around us that are typically African and were not copied from foreign cultures.

The uncreative African mentality of today is more or less a product of the debilitations affected on the group by the effects of cultural imperialism. During the process of colonizing the African, indigenous culture was suppressed in a process called cultural suffocation. The ultimate aim, obviously, was to supplant African with western culture completely, but this did not come to be. What resulted, however, was the creation of a homogenised culture and a very unimaginative African.

We see a similar process in what today is described as globalization, a phenomenon whose definition is realistically speaking a euphemism for globalizm. It is described as "the process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world". Globalizm, on the other hand, is defined as "the destruction of local traditions and regional distinctions by an advanced capitalism boosted by wireless and internet communications, creating in their place a homogenized culture".

This is cultural imperialism.

The resultant cultural state of Africans on the continent was achieved by force sometimes, but mostly by promotion of the colonial power’s culture. What has not been noted about this process, whether it manifests as globalizm or mere cultural suffocation, is the truth local cultures are seldom completely eradicated. Rather, the target population is thrown into a situation where they transiently exist in a blended culture, unable to sufficiently understand any of the two. This is the world in which the African lives today, and has lived since this madness began.

Western culture is gaining ground over indigenous culture by precedence in official encounters. This means that, to a large extent, the basic concept of the culture that Africans have is becoming more and more repressed and confused as the modification takes place.

As long as this state lasts, Africans will never be able to be creative in a manner that reflects a cultural concept germane to their own culture or that which they adopted from Europeans, nor will they be creative in ways that matter to their lives, or those of others. The expression of Ubuntu, or even the individualistic western standard in technology, cannot be made in the context of a homogenised cultural existence.

Confounding matters is the fact, in my view, the African speech apparatus isn't adapted to the use of western tongues. As such, the African will not find in any western language an efficient means of expression and especially thought facilitation, which is one of the main functions of a language. This represents a major impediment to the advancement of the group.

I have a theory to support the notion that the speech and mental apparatus adapts to the spoken language.

In adaptation, a biological entity increases its viability by taking note of favorable alterations that can be made to the creature at large to cope with new circumstances. This information is communicated to the genes responsible for the growth of the part in question and such change is gradually affected by the alteration of the instruction for such growth.

Because such change is mere genetic message in the progenitor, it is only affected and perfected in those that come after, and eventually becomes a permanent feature of the species.

Adaptation is a function of survival. It is as such basic for animals, a process without which survival would not be possible.

Adaptation can not be restricted to reactions to nature, but to the culture as well. Animals are known to develop physical traits that are only used in interactions with members of the same species, some for status, others to attract mates, and so on. Some bird species develop elaborate designs on their feathers that they use to attract mates, and so on. In the case of man, such change can also be caused by culture. The constituent parts of the culture, which we could call components for the sake of simplicity, are adapted to individually, according to the function and length of exposure to them. Since most cultural components could not be considered as having real substance, but mere form, they tend to change over time, given enough external influence or simple internal evolution, and can have little to no effect on the general make up of the being once the changes from one form to another happen too rapidly to be adapted to.

Cultural components that are constantly with man, especially those that are indispensable to his survival and require the use of some body parts to partake in, can cause changes to the physical constitution of man. Such cultural components include language.

We have gained knowledge from observations made of the animal world that they utilize a basic form of communication using various sounds, that can be considered a rudimentary language. We know that we are animals at base, and that there was a time in the past when our communication was as rudimentary. This was a very long time ago.

We have changed a lot since then as a result of adaptation. Changes to our appearance were affected in accordance with each new found direction. We are aware human history spans epochs of development, from precursors of modern man to the present, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze Age, till the modern age. We can be sure language has been with man for the duration of this development. Modern language alone has been with man long enough to cause both mental and physical changes to the creature.

Such change will take place despite the fact language, like most other cultural components, is constantly undergoing alterations. It is growing as it gains more words, improving as the superfluous is removed, getting more complex as new forms of expression are added. This process will continue whether or not the group gets infusions from other cultures that cause change to the course this development would otherwise have taken.

Such change will happen with or without external, alien interruptions that alter the language completely, whether language development follows defined lines and rules set and determined by the structure of the language itself, or by factors that are cultural in nature.

This change takes precedence because, without the benefit of the functions of language, the number of things we can do in nature would be less. Our viability as a species would be adversely affected. In fact, no species can survive as well without utilising the function of communication of language alone. To do so would result in a dramatic reduction in numbers, and most probably cause the species to evolve into another.

It is now known, by way of studies, that animal sounds give much more information than previously thought. A hen with its hatchlings will use different sounds to warn the young of danger, the king of threat and the direction it is coming from, the availability of food, and so on. Predators such as lions will use distinct sounds that give commands cubs obey. They can be commanded to flee if there is danger, to hide until the lioness has returned from hunting, and so on.

In the animal world, communication can replace the eyes where opaque objects obscure sight, and it can shorten distance when physical movement would be too slow.

All animals possess the senses that we do and, in many cases they are much more powerful and quick on the ground compared to us. Despite the many advantages they may have over us, the number of things we can do with more than mere rudimentary communication are more. We are more powerful than they are because of the use of a much more advanced form of communication

It can subsequently be asserted that, like sight and the basic senses, communication using sounds is also a tool of survival, evolved as such by creatures large and small. There are physical structures in place in the design of the creature for its utilization. The use of communication in animals, or language in humans, then, is encoded into the very genes and, unlike human beings who are born without language, animals come hard wired with the capacity to comprehend commands their kind make.

The use of communication in the animal world has had an impact on the design of every species that takes advantage of it. Elephants are known to produce very low frequency sounds that can travel much further than higher frequencies, as such be able to communicate at longer distances. The capacity to make such sounds requires the development of special apparatus, and this is evolved along the way. Similar developments apply where human history is concerned, the only difference with the animal world being the addition of the mental factor, or the mind, to such development.

Language influences the mentality of the people who use it and, like the example of the elephant, also structures the apparatus used for the production of speech sounds. For example, if speech sounds develop in a language that require an altered use of vocal cords to voice, if, as time goes by, there is an advantage added to making the sound, then future development of these organs, including in this the tendency to see the making of the sound as an advantage, will be prioritized.

Physical changes will be made that make it easy to make the sound as well as mental changes that induce the need to make the sound. In other words, the physical body and mind of the users of a particular language are influenced by it in development, given that this usage is sufficiently prolonged.

It is known that in Africa civilizations have existed for thousands of years where the same language was passed on from generation to generation. The most documented of these, that is apt for use in this case, is ancient Egypt. Incidentally, it has been ascertained that the language used in the Egyptian civilization was tonal, which is also what most African languages are. It is unquestionable then that this group, including direct descendants of Egyptians living in our day, has evolved a physical and mental apparatus more suited to the use of tonal languages. This language could very well have become the most efficient and effective means of producing African genius as a result of the people who depended on it for survival adapting fully to it.

As I made clear already, adaptation is a function of survival, an innate tendency. If we keep this in mind, then we would realize the error of assuming that a mind can adapt to the language used to its own detriment.

The African, in my view, doesn't find efficient means of self expression using the western languages that have been forced on the continent because there has not been sufficient time to adapt to them. This is not to imply that Africans cannot learn to use western languages as well as westerners, but that they will always do better when they use those tongues their anatomy is best adapted to.

Mind you, the fact Africans under perform when they use western languages is easy to ascertain when you have gained proficiency in their use, which tends to give the impression that Africans (black people) are less intelligent on average than whites.

Knowing what I know, seeing things the way I do, I don't think it is a reflection of intelligence at all. I am inclined to refer to it as the paradoxical mental make up of the African. For example, he is very good at music, can become a virtuoso at various instruments even when born blind. Rhythm runs in the blood of Africans. Making music by playing musical instruments with excellence, as well as understanding and responding to rhythm is also connected to the part of the brain known as the logical faculty, just like language is. That's the part that does the logical deductions. That's the part that calculates. That's the part that speaks volumes about the intelligence of an individual. And it is clearly highly evolved in Africans. But then observe in the western context when Africans appear at talk shows with western counterparts who may be equally educated, or when they are interviewed on other occasions that, on average they struggle more than the latter to express themselves. On average, Africans are less articulate than their white counterparts. This happens whether a western language is their mother tongue or not. This happens despite the known fact Africans have been using language for as long, if not longer than westerners when certain evidence from the past is taken into consideration.

I have read many a western professional in the field come up with arguments to explain this phenomenon. Some blame nurture. They hold responsible the role played by insufficiently schooled parents, and upbringing in communities that have a paucity of people who are well spoken. Naturally, such surroundings give less linguistic (as well as intellectual) skills to the developing children compared to those where such factors aren't predominant. A different camp of thinkers consists the ubiquitous group prone to point the finger of blame at nature and argue it is a matter of evolution.

The first explanation makes more sense than the second that would only be true if Africans have never made advanced civilizations in the past, and if George G.M. James, author of the book "Stolen Legacy", and Cheikh Anta Diop, the "Father of African History", are anything to go by, then it is in fact black people that the world has to thank for civilisation. It only fails to explain why Africans can apply their logical faculties as well as any other race to everything the part of the brain is designed to handle, except western language.

The rationalization I set out before is the better explanation. To me, the African’s mental apparatus is simply not as adapted to western tongues as it is to Africa’s tonal languages, and they can be considered congenial to it. This doesn't mean that the African cannot do as well as westerners using western languages. He can, but only if sufficient effort is put into the language acquisition and learning process.

But then, considering the cultural context of Africans on the continent, such a task becomes humanly impossible. Thus, the status quo will last, and the African will fail to find in western tongues an efficient means of thought,expression and communication. The biggest stumbling block to African development, which is an inability to utilize the functions of language in full, will forever be the continent’s bane.

One other thing we need to understand about this situation is the fact Western languages are quite new compared to tonal languages that saw Africans through thousands of years of various stable civilizations on the continent itself. One look at the development of English in the last two thousand years makes this point very clear. When the growth of this language is followed through, and the realization made that this "young" language can create, cope and support a sophisticated culture, the increased mental potential for blacks resulting from the use of more mature tonal languages in the present cannot be doubted.

Step by Step Explanation of Why the Use of Non-native Languages for Tuition in African Schools Must be Stopped

This article is taken from the "Pathé Diagne Initiative" blog. Visit pathediagne.blogspot.com to learn more ...

In this article

- The background studies and test results

- The lessons learnt from the results of the studies

- Other factors that complicate matters

- Loss of the cultural identity

- What Africans who recognize this problem are doing to make things better

- Debunking the main argument against the use of African languages for tuition

- Why it is "idiocation" and not education

- The will, the way: Blueprint for the instatement of mother tongues as languages of tuition in African schools

- Further reading





The background studies and test results

In 1976, Pathe Diagne, a Senegalese linguist working in Burundi, conducted a study. The objective was to establish whether there would be a difference in the rate of uptake between pupils in school taught using a mother tongue and a foreign, European language.

The subjects of the study were Burundi children who were divided into two groups. The first group received tuition in their mother tongue, while the second used French as the medium of instruction.

At the end of the study, the children were passed through a test to see which ones did better. The results could not have been anticipated. 65% of the children in the first group passed the exam, while only 5% in the second group managed to pass.

Recently in the Netherlands, high school students were subjects of a similar study. For a fixed period of time, one group received instruction in English while the other in Dutch, the national language of Holland. Though the results obtained after examinations were similar to the Burundi study, the big gap in pass rates seen in the former example was not repeated.

One explanation as to why the Burundi children taught in their mother tongue scored so highly compared to the second group is the fact the two languages used were not closely related. The languages applied in the latter study, Dutch and English, are both Germanic tongues that have very similar syntactic-semantic structures.

Another reason for the disparities lay in the age differences, and especially proficiency in both languages used in the studies.

In the Dutch example, the test subjects were teens in later phases of the education process. They were already proficient in their mother tongue Dutch and, as is the culture in this country, they were conversant in English.

It was discovered in the Dutch example that those who didn't do as well as they expected were not in the least aware that their command of the foreign language was as poor. Many of the Dutch students in the study were interviewed prior to the exams, during which researchers noted that the Dutch students overestimated their command of English. They felt they were as competent using it as they were their mother tongue. Only the comparably poor results they obtained after the examination proved how wrong they had been.

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The lessons learnt from the results of the studies

What both these results confirm, beyond a shadow of doubt, is that pupils/students that are made to learn a non-native language for use in school, including in this bracket others who already are fluent in one, have their capacity to learn adversely affected.

It can also be deduced from this that when such instruction occurs in the formative stages of life, then it is not just the capacity to comprehend that is negatively impacted but, subsequently, the stunting in growth of the mental apparatus is also a certainty if this situation is prolonged or permanent. This would be as true of the Dutch example as it would of the Burundi children in the second group, albeit the extent of the arrest in mental development would be exacerbated in the latter group.

The explanation for this is actually straightforward, and can be laid out without the employ of jargon.

Research has already established that education in the mother tongue is a key factor for inclusion and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes. This is for the simple fact that, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "... the learning of a second or other language is an activity that is superimposed on prior mastery of one's first language, and is a different process intellectually".

The first language we all learn after birth is called the mother tongue. Under normal circumstances, at the age of approximately four or five, children are introduced to formal education where their mastery of this language is put to use.

At this point in their lives, children already have a basic command of their mother tongue that can get their heads around basic subjects, and possess a basic vocabulary, all of which would enable them to satisfactorily handle the demands of the initial learning process well, a reality clearly demonstrated by the results seen in the first group in Diagne's study.

But when this initial and basic level of linguistic competency is not used for learning to read and write, but for learning how to speak a foreign language, that then is depended upon for uptake, a delay in mental development will be forced on the child.

The African child's competency in the foreign language will take time to be at par with the command they already have of their mother tongue. Where they are supposed to be learning how to spell what they already know, for example tree, car, house, dog, they will instead be learning what the same words are in a foreign language, how to pronounce and spell them while simultaneously learning how to use them to understand what they are learning.

Instead of learning how to use words like multiply, add, subtract, that they already know in their mother tongues, then using this knowledge to do mathematics, the children will have to first learn these words in a foreign language then use them for the same thing.

This is a roundabout process which doesn't just delay in duration the rate at which the children learn, but it also causes a delay in the mental development of the child because, instead of hitting the ground running with their existent linguistic skills, the children are having to suspend this level of linguistic competency. This is what the definition of "arrest in mental development" is, and it is what the poor results that the second group made in Diagne's study demonstrates.

When the difference in pass rates between the first and second group is considered, it becomes plain that much more time is required for the children to master the foreign language to levels that will impact positively on their rate of uptake, as will prevent a scenario where they are in fact held back in terms of their intellectual development.

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Other factors that complicate matters.

According to Rajathurai Ninshathi, PhD, Research Scholar at the Department of Sociology, Bharathidasan University in India, "Fluency in the leaner's home language, also known as the native language, aids the learner in a variety of ways. It connects him to his heritage and promotes intellectual abilities. A child's earliest understanding of the world is through the language in which their mother communicates before they are born and throughout their lives. Several pupils in underdeveloped countries learn next to nothing in school, a fact that can be attributed to the instruction given in a language they do not completely comprehend. This is a technique that results in little to nonexistent information and cognitive ability, school drop out and repetition frequencies".

African children do gradually build their command of English, French or Portuguese to levels that are somewhat useful for learning school subjects. These acquired linguistic skills in the foreign language would however be better if the mother tongue, the foundation upon which the learning of the new language is superimposed, wasn't left to develop outside the realm of the school curriculum.

Throughout Africa where the language of instruction is foreign, there is no attempt to systematically develop linguistic skills in the native language, the consequence of which is that proficiency in a language that is directly involved in the learning process more or less stagnate.

The correct procedure would be that if the children start learning and receiving instruction in English, then their command of the mother tongue, the foundation upon which the second language learning process is superimposed, also gets equal if not more attention, otherwise the arrest in mental development that the poor results in Diagne's study expose will worsen as the years roll on into the future.

The children will never make a full recovery from the delay in mental development caused by learning new things using minimal linguistic skills. The functions of language as it relates to thought facilitation cannot fully be taken advantage of under the circumstances.

The mental growth of the child is effectively put on hold for a while and, at the point in time when their command of the foreign language can be considered at par with the mother tongue, which is usually a good number of years into school, the second language becomes the primary language and takes up the functions of language in relation to mental development.

This is the reason why highly educated Africans who find it easier to express themselves in European languages are few and far between, even when, by way of the process explained above, they in fact possess proficiency levels that are well below those of native speakers of the foreign language.

When educated Africans go abroad to the developed world, particularly places where the languages they have adopted are native, they generally score poorly in tests and exams compared to the locals, compared also to foreigners from countries where tuition in the mother tongue is the norm, for instance Asian students. This is the reason for the fact it is known that on average, African students score the lowest grades of all nationalities.

This isn't just me talking off the top of my head. I have researched the subject matter at length and it is reported the same way, be this in native French (France), English (Britain) or Portuguese (Portugal) speaking countries. I have also been there as a student and observed this phenomenon with my own eyes.

Comparisons done in France of the IQ of black African migrant children to French children revealed that they lagged behind by years, which is no surprise. It was also observed that the Africans were less conceptually dexterous than their French counterparts.

This issue is confounded by the fact subjects are seldom aware that they are underperforming mentally, just as was the case in the Dutch example. This means that we Africans as a whole do not see that there is something wrong. Out of our ranks come the leaders who will make the mistake of thinking there is nothing wrong with the way the education system is set up in our countries, because they are underperforming mentally themselves and cannot as such see this truth. They will make the same error in judgment that the Dutch students made and think that all is well with their mentalities, that the only solution is to build more and more schools while educating and employing as many teachers as possible.

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Loss of the cultural identity.

It is not just the intelligence of the nation that suffers as a result of such gross oversight. In addition, as Rajathurai Ninshathi also reasons in the quote above, the African who goes through such an education process is robbed of his cultural heritage and ultimately loses his mind as a consequence.

Unlikely as this may sound, this process, like the previous one, can be laid out using simple language.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says: "Language interacts with every other aspect of human life in society, and cannot be understood unless considered in this context. Each language is both a working system of communication in the period and in the community in which it is used, and also a product of its past history and the source of its future development".

A simplified dictionary definition states that a language is "a system of terms used by a people sharing a history and a culture".

Language is as such a cultural heritage.

The hypothesis of linguistic relativity (also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf), for which research has produced positive empirical evidence of it's validity, that is provisionally accepted by many modern linguists, posits that properties of language affect the structure and content of thought and thus the way humans perceive reality. What this hypothesis stresses is the fact language influences thought rather than the reverse.

According to this hypothesis, "the syntactic-semantic structure of a language becomes an underlying structure for the worldview of a people through the organization of the causal perception of the world and the linguistic categorization of entities. As linguistic categorization emerges as a representation of worldview and causality, it further modifies social perception and thereby leads to a continual interaction between language and perception".

What this means is that in influencing thought, language moulds the worldview of a group. For example, if a language is overly sexist, then sexism will be experienced as normal by the culture that uses the language.

Because language is a cultural heritage that also moulds the worldview of a group, it becomes clear why by forcing English on the Kikuyus, Zulus and Yorubas, French on the Bakongo in the same manner African schools force foreign languages on African children, we take away that which would make the children have a full Kikuyu, Yoruba, Zulu or Bakongo heritage, hence identity.

Africans exposed to education systems that teach in languages other than the mother tongues, and are more conversant in a European language than their own can be considered devoid of a culture, if we also see that language functions as the key that opens the door to a culture. They will find it difficult to fit into the culture of the people whose language they used for education purposes, as well as find their place in their own culture, which can lead to them looking down on it.

Teaching our children foreign tongues, especially at a point in their lives when they are their most impressionable and, considering that children are born culture-less, before they have been introduced to their native culture, is placing them in a situation where they will never know their own culture, nor develop a cultural identity, let alone a worldview with roots in their culture.

An individual without an identity cannot have knowledge of self, knows not the difference between friend and foe, and would under normal circumstances be considered psychotic. The same can be applied to a community or nation. In an antagonistic world, a nation without a worldview is lost among nations with one.

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What Africans who recognize this problem are doing to make things better.

The propositions I have seen advanced for the resolution of this issue, where it has been identified, include allowing children to first master their mother tongue sufficiently before they are introduced to the European language of tuition, which would enhance competency. This entails using the mother tongue some way into the education process before switching to the European language that the country uses as the official language.

Another of the propositions is to simply not wait until they have reached school-going age before introducing them to the foreign language. More and more Africans are introducing their children to the official language while they are infants so that they are more competent in it when they start school. It is hoped as such that this will make it easier for the children to learn in school.

The problem with the former proposal is it doesn't take into account the fact the capacity to learn is always going to be adversely affected when a language other than the mother tongue is used as a medium of instruction, regardless at which point in the schooling process this is done, as evidenced in the Dutch study.

The latter proposal entails substituting a foreign language for the mother tongue at an early stage in the child's development which deprives it of crucial contact with the native culture, which makes matters worse. Also, African parents and/or the African community cannot adequately reinforce in their child the linguistic skills in a European language that will suffice to prevent a poor or second rate command of the foreign tongue, minimal conceptual dexterity, underperformance or retardation.

The reason for this is simply that our African milieu cannot compete with the native French, English or Portuguese environment where this is concerned. Most African parents do not speak these foreign languages as well as native speakers and most Africans do not use foreign languages in and around the home while speaking to other adults.

What this means for the child in Africa is that the language learning process stops at the door/gates of the school, whereas in the countries where the languages are native the child learns new words, new modes of thought, etc., all the time, in school, outside school and in the home ... as long as they are awake and alert.

Incidentally, research done in developed countries has already ascertained that the reason children of minorities who use a language that is different from the official one in their home environment suffer a disadvantage in the learning process is precisely because of this. Their home environment doesn't help them develop linguistic skills the same way that of the children of those who are fluent in the official language does.

This is also applicable to situations where children grow up in homes that do use the official tongue, but where parents possess poor linguistic skills due to the many factors that can cause this, of which a poor educational background, inarticulacy, foreign descent, or general intelligence are some.

For Africa, making the mother tongue or a dialect of it (including any other related language) the medium of instruction is the only way to ensure an end to this problem.

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Debunking the main argument against the use of African languages for tuition.

I read an article on the internet where a well known African writer expressed how he was fascinated by the number of things he can express in the English language as opposed to his local language, and criticized those who wish for what he called "the reinstatement of indigenous tongues" that he considered "poor of vocabulary, awkward, overly and unnecessarily complex of grammar, difficult to read", and as such not modern enough, and definitely not up to the standards of modern times.

This writer didn't give recognition to the fact that his poor grasp of his own language was a result of lack of constant practice. If a vital part of our school years are spent learning how to read, write and express ourselves in our own tongues, then surely the many complex ways we can express ourselves in European languages can be equaled and even surpassed. The adage "practice makes perfect" is apt for this case.

To repeat, the ease with which I can read and understand English is a result of constant practice. The difficulty I experience reading my own language is simply because of lack of practice.

It is very true that, in their present form, African languages are not modern enough. They lack the necessary vocabulary, the numbers of ways one can express self are less than European languages.

For example, in my mother tongue there is only one word for the various conditions that denote a mental challenge such as idiocy, foolishness or stupidity. This means that one has to determine the sense in which the word is being used according to the context, which is an awkward manner of communicating. Most people do not even try to see what the exact meaning they want to convey is, they just use the word and mostly end up with a slight misnomer.

Obviously, the range of consciousness of people communicating in such a manner is greatly diminished. But then all of this is only because we, the users, have not made a conscious effort to upgrade our languages.

One good example that exposes the error in the position adopted by the African writer mentioned before, and a lot of Africans in defense of the present state of affairs is China. The number of characters contained in the standard Chinese dictionary is 47,035 and though only a requirement of from 3,000 to 4,000 characters is necessary for full literacy, it is still a large amount of symbols to master.

The fact the Chinese government has promoted standard simplified sets of Chinese characters that are based partly on phonetic simplifications of the traditional writing form in an attempt to increase literacy is proof of how much harder mastering their own symbols is compared to other systems, yet the Chinese are making economic, technological and social gains without major help from the use of a western language, meaning the language's full functions are in optimum use.

Without the use of simplification, China has achieved a literacy rate of 85% as estimated by UNESCO in its 2000 figures, which is impressive considering the odds.

If the Chinese neglected to learn their language using traditional symbols and adopted English as their language of instruction, then they would have an even tougher time than we do switching back from the foreign language to their own language, written in traditional Chinese characters when practice in one is less than the other

Most world languages are not being used for the purpose of education because they have not been adapted to the demands of the institution, but a look at this tool (language) reveals the process is uncomplicated. In developed countries, it has actually been the norm since the advantage of so doing was realized.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica again, we learn that: "One feature that distinguishes human languages from all known modes of animal communication is its infinite productivity and creativity. Humans are unrestricted in what they can talk about. No area of experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, but it may be necessary to adapt a language to cope with new discoveries or modes of thought".

For example, two thousand years ago, the English language was quite different from what it is today. The vocabulary was as basic as that of African languages today. Contact with foreign cultures (Roman, French, etc) is what exposed the English language to new terminology, new concepts, and so on. Slowly but surely English was modernised. Modern English was not handed down to the English in its current form by a god. It went through stages of development, most of them done consciously by the speakers themselves when they realised the advantage of so doing.

This capacity for all languages to undergo change that transforms them in part or completely, from simple to complex, is normal. It can happen by the conscious efforts of its users or naturally. It is possible to modernise any world language, and this is what we need to start doing with earnest in Africa.

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Why it is "idiocation" and not education.

The study done in Burundi by Pathe Diagne exposes the fact Africans are missing out on the use of their full mental potentials. In fact, we are inducing mental backwardness in ourselves.

Africa got stuck with using western languages for tuition that left Africans mired in a cultural existence that is not good for our mental well-being. It is not only that our people cannot be and give their best mentally as a result of this unnatural state of affairs, but also that, even though there is a lot of culture adoption in this setup, there are no pros, just cons.

We Africans become neither ourselves nor complete Englishmen, Frenchmen, or Portuguese, either of which would be better than what we become: carriers of foreign languages who can never even boast of being experts in their use without knowledge of the culture, traditions and customs of the native speakers.

At the time I started researching this issue, I lived in Europe and knew from the numerous debates over the education system: the legislation and policy making responsibilities, the administration, facility maintenance, curriculum planning, teacher preparation and selection, etc., how importantly the "Developed World" regard the role education plays in the maintenance of their way of life.

This much I know, that if there ever was to be a sign that the western education system was flawed in the manner the results of the Burundi study revealed about the institution here in Africa, then efforts to rectify the situation would have been launched in such earnest it would have been as if it were a matter of life and death. It would have come off as a matter that makes the difference between having a meal on one's table or starvation, affluence or abject poverty ... lest the function of education be undermined and society suffer the consequences.

There would definitely have been a public outcry and politicians in the opposition would most definitely have capitalised on this to the point they would have made it a campaign issue. In countries where high achievement is everything, such as Germany, Japan or even China, heads would have rolled, figuratively speaking.

This is not to say Africans do not understand the role education plays in the welfare of their communities, but it would appear from the continent-wide lack of reaction to the Burundi study that a wholesome comprehension of the institution is lacking.

The importance of education in our modern world requires that we formulate the overall objectives, content, organization and strategies of education. It is not just enough to build as many schools as possible like Africans across the continent are doing, but we must see to it that they are able to get us where we want to be as a society.

Here, we must ensure that the quantity and quality of labor required to properly run our corporate entity is just right.

In this light, it is prudent to change aspects of the education process that hamper the objectives we set as soon as we are aware of them, otherwise we settle for second best or, as the case is in the present, schools become the vehicle by which so much goes wrong, by which we fail, the weak link in the system.

The purpose of education is to transmit knowledge and cultural heritage as well as influence the social and intellectual growth of the individual. A more philosophical way of looking at it is provided by Martin Luther King, Jr. In an article published on campus for the Maroon Tiger Morehouse College publication featured from the 1st of January to February 28, 1947, he says:

"...education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life. Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda...

...The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living."

The Burundi study shows us, and very clearly at that, that the education process in Africa is not good enough where the institution's overall aims and objectives are concerned. When we fully understand the implications of this, we can see how it can adversely affect a country's very prosperity, including among other things its own capacity to hold its own in a competitive world. This is factual when the performance of Africa is reviewed from the time the countries gained independence. This observation remains valid with or without taking into account the negative impact of neo-colonialism. What's at issue here is how competent the people were to understand and address the situation they found themselves in.

Given the African has the potential, the conclusion must be drawn there is something going wrong with his education. Diagne's study actually provides us with the problem and resolution if we can only see this.

It is well known that IQ scores tend to be genetic and that this is also related to performance in school. But because an individual's IQ can be improved, a group's average IQ score can be improved as well. Obviously, an Africa where an average of 65% of students pass exams, as opposed to only 5% in the current scenario, represents an Africa with a significant increase in the average IQ. This means that a lot of our bright people are failing to show their true intelligence in the education process, not because they are genetically dumb, but because there is something preventing them from doing as well as they should.

At the risk of appearing to infer that I am being simplistic, I should state I am aware there are a lot of factors that should be taken into consideration before drawing the kind of conclusions that I have made here, one of which would be a follow up of the Diagne process throughout the education life of the subjects. Only if the margins in the pass rates observed in the study can be sustained throughout the learning process, everywhere that this is done, can the result be considered conclusive.

Frankly, I cannot see how the performance of these pupils at a later stage in the education process could be different given what we are dealing with here is the foundation ... given the fact a good foundation is the most important part of the education process.

To stress this point, Africa does have a low average IQ issue that is fortunately a problem that can be solved in a mere generation's time because it is not genetic, as long as we Africans modernize our tongues and change the language of tuition in our schools.

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The will, the way: Blueprint for the instatement of mother tongues as languages of tuition in African schools.

The usual objection raised whenever the issue of such a massive scale overhaul of the education system is raised, especially on an impoverished continent, is cost. Indeed, the process of changing the language of tuition will cost a lot of money and time, but it is an investment, and a prudent one at that. The Investment will definitely be worth it in the long run. We can be sure of this if we understand the role education plays in the life of man and society and also realise that we cannot go wrong in this.

Quite frankly, this procedure is one of those things that we cannot afford not to do, and it has been too long overdue.

The good news is that such a venture doesn't have to be massively expensive. To spare the costs, it is not necessary to change all the books at once, but to do it gradually, starting with a single age group in a single school year.

As the first group progresses through the system, those to come will simply follow through their footsteps, through an improving system that is being tested and adjusted every step of the way.

The crucial thing is that we abstain from thinking this is something that we can only do with/or through our current African governments. The surest way of ensuring that this fails is to put the people running our governments in charge of the process. They will park it and forget about it, and that will be the death of this precious venture.

We will have no choice but to deal with the establishment where it's imperative. For instance, the schools will have to meet the criteria for registration and be registered. They have to remain in compliance with the law for the duration that they are operating. Other than that we the people have all that it takes to make this possible. We can build these schools the same way we are building private schools. We can create courses that educate the teachers and other staff we hire so that they can do the work that's required of them.

Attracting parents to bring pupils to our schools isn't difficult given what they will learn will be the same that is taught in other schools. They will gain knowledge and skills just like children in regular schools, and even better because they will understand more of what they are being taught.

To ensure that parents aren't put off by the idea their children will have learning difficulties when transfered to regular schools that use a foreign language for tuition, we simply make the official language mandatory to learn. The vocabulary that is learnt has to be derived from that which children in the regular schools attain each school year.

A time will surely come in future when it will become plain that enlightened self interest has become the guiding principe for our governments. But until such a time, the best bet of this succeeding is if it stays a community based project with the option to include government participation if it brings better rewards that way.

Given we will effectively be forging languages, the question of whether we are qualified enough for the task is vital. We should also ask what the right qualifications should be? Is a degree in linguistics sufficient? Do we need grammarians, and if so, what should their language of study be?

Most African languages are already written. The only problem is that the process was guided by foreigners with little to no command of the African languages they were working with, who used unqualified local people for the nitty-gritty. This accounts for the faulty compiling of African dictionaries.

For example, it is not true that African languages are compound languages. The idea that they are was a product of not having sufficient knowledge of the languages, lack of imagination or a lack of proper linguistic training on the part of those who could speak the languages.

It was taken for granted, for instance, that the response given for a request to name an object was the whole noun for that object in African languages. The response or answer would usually include the article, which is the normal manner responses to such questions are made in all human languages globally. Asking an englishman what a metallic object on wheels is will prompt the response of "a car", rather than merely "car" without the article. "A pen", "a cottage", "a ship", is the usual response you get from people when you ask them what something is, which doesn't mean the whole response is what that object is called. In a situation where people aren't aware of this, or are simply not using their heads, then any language can be wrongly considered a compound language, when in fact it's not.

A good example to give of this is how a name for a local Bantu ethnicity got compounded. The noun in question is Luvale, which is the name of an ethnicity found in the north-western part of Zambia, south-west Congo and north-eastern Angola. When a luvale mention their ethnicity by name, they say they are "ka luvale". This would translate as "a luvale" in English. Tribes around them tend to call the group "ba ka-luvale" by adding their own language specific article to what they hear in the response. This would be akin to the Dutch calling the English "De an-Englishman".

Another example is how numbers in Bantu languages are always uttered with an article preceding the noun, and erroneously compiled as compound words in all Bantu dictionaries.

Yet another example is when speakers of African languages who are proficient in a European language find that single words in English/French/Portuguese require the use of more words in the translation because a stand-alone term with the same meaning doesn't exist in the respective African language. This can lead to the error of assuming that African languages use compound words, especially when the translated phrase is already set, and used as is by Africans.

When a language is unpacked completely, new terms that are in fact proper nouns, and sometimes concepts, emerge. Standing alone, these words will sound unfamiliar to most of the users of the language who have become accustomed to only recognizing meaning in them when they are used in a compound word, and will as such be considered not to be stand-alone terms. For example, when the compound word Bantu is removed of the article, the noun we are left with is "ntu", which will sound unfamiliar to users of the language who will erroneously conclude that it cannot possibly be a stand-alone term. Yet "ntu" is in fact a proper noun and concept, abstract and concrete, with manifold uses once freed from the compounded format of the language.

A new breed of African linguists has emerged who are studying African languages and exploring unfamiliar words within compound words, and discovering whole concepts in them. Some are finding a relationship between these concepts and ancient ones that were known and used by ancient civilisations such as Kemet. Discoveries are being made of what words denote and connote that are making sense and adding depth and colour to expressions. And it's not just the nouns that are yielding secrets once they are detached from the articles. Articles themselves are also revealing the same.

African languages in general are much richer and much more complex once they have been properly understood. And it is no surprise that this is the case. They are in fact the oldest languages on the planet, and there should be much more to be found within them compared to the category of the younger tongues, of which all European languages belong, including latin. It is clear from this that the African mind stands to benefit immensely from the proper understanding and use of these ancestral tongues.

Of course, the process of unpacking the languages can get very complicated, and mistakes are possible, but if we put our heads together and use the right people, we can easily straiten it all out, properly.

The thing to always keep in mind here is the fact articles, verbs, adjectives, etc., are as distinct in African languages as they are in any other language on earth. It just takes recognizing each item in the sentences.

Our dictionaries will have to be recompiled and, for this, we shall require qualified grammarians, in foreign languages unfortunately because we have no choice, but they will have to work alongside highly erudite community elders who are demonstratively proficient in their respective African language.

And so on.

As already mentioned, all of this doesn't have to happen at once. It can be just a step ahead of the learning process of the first pupils, all the way up to the completion of their education. Starting by keeping it simple is how we can avoid forging tongues that will cause confusion in the end.

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Further Reading

"The Interaction of Culture and Communication in Africa" Pathe Diagne. Senegalese linguist. UNESCO press.
Url: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000084304

"Understanding of the Importance of Mother Tongue Learning" Rajathurai Ninshathi. International Journal of Trends in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN 2456-5470 volume-5 issue-1, December 2020, pp 77-80.
Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/sociology/35846/understanding-of-the-importance-of-mother-tongue-learning/rajathurai-nishanthi

"An African Computer Revisited: Theory of the Adaptation to Language of the Speech Apparatus" Mukazo Mukazo Vunda. Africa's Lost Generations and other Essays. First published by Lulu Press 2010, pp 125-134. ASIN B005D2XBI8
Url https://www.amazon.co.uk/Africas-Lost-Generations-other-Essays/dp/B005D2XBI8

https://www.lulu.com/shop/mukazo-mukazo-vunda/africas-lost-generations-and-other-essays/paperback/product-14411679.html

"Why Mother Language-Based Education is Essential" UNESCO press. 18th February 2022.
Url: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/why-mother-language-based-education-essential

"Optimising Learning, Education and Publishing in Africa: The Language Factor" A Review and Analysis of Theory and Practice in Mother-Tongue and Bilingual Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edited by Adama Ouane and Christine Glanz. Published jointly by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in June 2011. ISBN 978-92-820-1170-6.
Url: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263762466_Optimising_learning_education_and_publishing_in_Africa_the_language_factor_a_review_and_analysis_of_theory_and_practice_in_mother-tongue_and_bilingual_education_in_sub-Saharan_Africa

"The Purpose of Education" Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Morehouse College campus newspaper the Maroon Tiger from January 1st to February 28, 1947.
Url: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education

"Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" J.A. Lucy, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001
Url: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/sapir-whorf-hypothesis

"Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Thought" Lera Boroditsky, Lauren Schmidt, Webb Phillips.
Url: https://philpapers.org/rec/GETLIM

"How Does Our Language Shape The Way We Think" Lera Boroditsky.
Url: https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/13/

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