Abstract
The conception of “education” that is embodied in this comment has dominated the general view concerning the proper construal of “education.” In brief, it is a program of knowledge acquisition that centrally involves literacy and acquaintance with the subject matter of various disciplines, codified in written form. In the case of the Greek tradition of the period of Plato’s early life this could be the “poetics.” The term however, just like that of philosophy, had a wider meaning than might be suggested by its modern day usage. The role that literacy has played as the crucial aspect of education has, unwittingly, contributed to negative evaluation of African indigenous knowledge systems, to say nothing of the use of African languages as mediums of instruction.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abercrombie, D. (1967). Elements of General Phonetics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Alim, S. H. & Smitherman, G. (2012). Articulate While Black. Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Awolalu, J. O. (1976, Spring). What is African traditional Religion? Studies in Comparative Religion 10(2), 1–10.
Bamgbose, A. (1991). Language and the Nation. The Language Question in Sub-Saharan Africa, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Babaci-Wilhite, Z. (2013). Local Languages of Instruction as a Right in Education for Sustainable Development in Africa. Sustainability 2013(5), 1994–2017.
Babaci-Wilhite, Z., Geo-JaJa M. A., & Lou S. (2012). Education and language: A human right for sustainable development in Africa, International Review of Education. DOI 10.1007/s11159-012-9311-7, Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2012.
Banda, D. (2008). Education for All (EFA) and the ‘African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS)’: The Case of the Chewa People of Zambia, PhD dissertation, The University of Nottingham, UK.
Barnhardt, R., & Kawagley, O. A. (2005). Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 36(1), 8–23.
BBC News. (n.d.). Beijing says 400 million Chinese cannot speak Mandarin.
Bresnan, J. (2001). Lexical Functional Syntax, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Brice, A., & Roseberry-McKibbin, C. (2001). Choice of language in instruction. One language or two? Teaching Exceptional Children 33(4), 10–16. Council for Exceptional Children.
Brock-Utne, B. (2000). Whose education for all? The recolonizatioin of the African mind, New York, NY: Falmer Press.
Brock-Utne, B. (2007, November 28–30). Democracy in a multilingual and multicultural society. Keynote lecture at conference on mother tongue, bilingualism and democracy: myths, realities and consensus, Copenhagen.
Brock-Utne, B. (2012a). Learning for all of Africa’s children—but in whose language? Commonwealth Education Partnerships 2012(13), 147–150.
Brock-Utne, B. (2012b). Language and inequality: global challenges to education. A Journal of Comparative and International Education 42(5), 773–793.
Bruce, S. (2013). Beyond words: How a cogent philosophy of language can dispel false assumptions about foreign cultures and linguistic minorities. Unpublished paper, University of California, Berkeley.
Carstensen, A. (2007). A Reflection on Globalization and Mother Tongue Education. Unpublished Paper, University of California, Berkeley.
Childs, G. T. (2003). An Introduction to African Languages, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding, Dordrecht, Holland: Foris.
Chomsky, N. (2006). Free and fair trade, Global Agenda 2006, p. 111.
Cole, M., & Cole, S. R. (1993). The Development of Children, (2nd ed) Scientific American Books, Distributed by W.H. Freeman and Company.
Cooper, D. E (1973). Philosophy and the Nature of Language, London: Longman.
Daimon, A. (2007, May 22–24). Migrant Chewa Identities and their Construction through Gule Wamkulu/Nyau Dances in Zimbabwe. Paper presented at the Society, State & Identity in African History, The Congress of the Association of African Historians (African Union Conference), Addis Ababa.
Diop, C. A. (1981). Civilization or barbarism: An authentic anthropology, New York, NY: Lawrence Hill Books.
Dlamini, S. N. (2007, December). New Directions in African Education: Challenges and Possibilities, University of Calgary Press.
Emeagwali, G. (2003). African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS): Implications for the Curriculum. In T. Falola (Ed.), Ghana in Africa and the World, Africa World Press.
Fafunwa, A. B. (1974). A History of Education in Nigeria, London: Allen and Unwin.
Fafunwa, A. B. (1982). African Education in Perspective. In A. B. Fafunwa & J. U. Aisiku (Eds.), Education in Africa: A Comparative Survey, Boston, IL: George Allen.
Frank, B. E. (1995). Soninke garankéw and Bamana-Malinke jeliw: Manda leather workers, identity, and the diaspora. In D. C. Conrad, & B. E. Frank. (Eds.), Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Gacheche, K. (2010, Winter). Challenges in implementing a mother tongue-based language-in-education policy: Policy and practice in Kenya. University of Leeds, POLIS Journal 4, 1–45.
Giulianotti, R., & Robertson, R. (2009). Globalization & Football, London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Henriksen, S. M. (2010). Language attitudes in a primary school: A bottom-up approach to language education policy in Mozambique [PhD dissertation], Roskilde University, Department of Culture and Identity.
Janz, B. B. (2004). African Philosophy, [Unpublished paper], University of Central Florida.
July, R. W. (1992). A history of the African people (4th ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
Kallaway, P. (2006, November 3–5). Education, health and social welfare in the late colonial context: The international missionary council and educational change in the inter-war period with specific reference to colonial Africa. Paper presented at the History of Education Society Annual Conference (UK) London.
Katz, J. J. (1972). Semantic theory. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Korpela, D. (2011). The Nyau Masquerade: An Examination of HIV/AIDS, power and influence in Malawi. Global Social Work, Finland: Tampere University Press.
Legère, K. (2006). Formal and informal development of the swahili language: Focus on Tanzania. In O.F. Arasanyin, & M.A. Pemberton, (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (pp. 176–184), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
May, J. J. (2007). Language: The gatekeeper of humanity. Implications of South Africa’s language in education policies. E-Yearbook of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 34–45.
Mahia, M. (1994). Indigenous knowledge and schooling: A continuum between conflict and dialogue. In K. L. Kincheloe, & L. M. Semali, (Eds.), What is indigenous knowledge? Voices from the Academy. New York, NY: Falmer Press.
Makumbi, A. (1975). Maliro ndi Miyambo ya Achewa. Blantyre, Malawi: Longman (Malawi) Ltd.
Matiki, A. (1997). The politics of language in Malawi: A preliminary investigation. In R. K. Herbert (Ed.), African Linguistics at the crossroads: Papers from Kwaluseni (pp. 521–540). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Mazrui, A. A., & Mazrui, A. M. (1998). The Power of Babel: Language & Governance in the African Experience. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Mazrui, A. M. (2004). English in Africa. After the cold war. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Mchombo, S. (1998a). National identity, democracy, and the politics of language in Malawi and Tanzania. The Journal of African Policy Studies, 4(1), 33–46.
Mchombo, S. (1998b). Chichewa (Bantu). In A. Spencer, & A. Zwicky, (Eds.), The handbook of morphology (pp. 500–520). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 500-520.
Mchombo, S. (2004). The syntax of Chichewa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mchombo, S. (2006). The language situation in Malawi. In K. Brown, (Ed.), Encyclopedia of languages & linguistics (2nd ed.). Holland: Elsevier.
Mezzana, D. (2002). African traditional religion and modernity, Culled from Online Journal, African Societies. Retrieved from www.africansocieties.org/n3/eng_dic2002/religionitrad.htm
Moto, F. (2009). Language, power & society. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press.
Msango, H. J., Mumba, E. C., & Sikwibele, A. L. (2000). (Eds.). Selected topics and education Vol. 1. Lusaka: The University of Zambia.
Mtenje, A. (2002). The role of language in national development. Inaugural Lecture, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi.
Mtenje, A. (2009). Language policies in the SADC region: Stock-taking and prospects. Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, 24–31.
Ngonyani, D. (2003). A grammar of Chingoni. Languages of the world/materials (p. 425). Muenchen: LINCOM-Europa.
Nkhoma-Darch, A. G. Che-Jika. (2005). Border-straddling speech communities: Linguistic and educational challenges facing the Nyanja-Chewa-Mang’anja Cluster of Southeastern Africa. Cape Town: PRAESA Occasional Papers No. 23.
Nurse, D., & Hinnebusch. T. (1993). Swahili and Sabaki. A linguistic history. Berkeley: University of California Press Linguistics Volume 121.
Nyerere, J. (1968). Education for self- reliance. Dar-es Salaam: Government Printers.
Plato. (1974). The republic (Translated with an Introduction by Desmond Lee) (2nd revised version). New York, NY: Penguin Books USA Inc.
Pottier, J., Bicker, A., & Sillitoe, P. (Eds.). (2003). Negotiating local knowledge: Power and identity in development. London: Pluto Press.
Prah, K. K. (2008). The Language of Instruction Conundrum in Africa, for the Meeting on The Implications of Language for Peace and Development (IMPLAN). University of Oslo, 2–3 May 2008, The Institute for Educational Research at the University of Oslo co-sponsored by the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights in the US, the LOITASA (Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa) and the EINS (Exclusion and Inclusion in the North and the South) projects and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, Germany.
Prah, K. K. (2013, May 16). No country can make progress on the basis of a borrowed language. eLearning Africa News Portal.
Pullum, G. K. (1991). The great eskimo vocabulary hoax and other irreverent essays on the study of language. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Rangeley, W. H. (1949). Nyau in Nkhotakota District. Nyasaland Journal 2(2), 35–49.
Rangeley, W. H. (1950). Nyau in Nkhotakota District Part 2. Nyasaland Journal 3(2), 19–33.
Rau, W. E. (1979). Chewa religion and the Ngoni conquest. In J. M. Schoffeleers, (Ed.), Guardians of the land: Essays on Central African Territorial Cults (pp. 131–146). Zimbabwe: Mambo Press.
Reche, G. N., Bundi, T. K., Riungu, J. N., & Mbugua, Z. K. (2012). Factors contributing to poor performance in Kenya certificate of primary education in public day primary schools in Mwimbi Division, Maara District, Kenya. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(5), 127–133.
Rita-Ferreira, A. (1968). The Nyau brotherhood among the Mozambique Chewa. South African Journal of Science 64, 20–24.
Roscoe, A. A. (1971). Mother is gold. A study in West African literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roy-Campbell, Z. M. (2006). The State of African languages and the global language politics: Empowering African languages in the era of globalization. In O. F. Arasanyin, & M. A. Pemberton (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (pp. 1–13). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Rugemalira, J. M., Rubagumya, C. M., Kapinga, M. K., Lwaitama, A. F., & Tetlow, J. G. (1990). Reflections on recent developments in language policy in Tanzania. In C. M. Rubagumya, (Ed.), Language in education in Africa: A Tanzanian perspective (pp. 25–35). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Searle, J. (1969). Speech acts. An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schoffeleers, J. M., & Linden, I. (1972). The resistance of the Nyau societies to the roman catholic missions in colonial Malawi. In I. O. Ranger, & I. Kimambo, (Eds.), The historical study of African religion (pp. 252–272). London: Heinemann.
Schoffeleers, J. M. (1973). Towards the identification of a proto- Chewa culture: A preliminary contribution. Malawi Journal of Social Science, 2, 47–60.
Schoffeleers, J. M. (1976). Nyau societies: Our present understanding. Malawi Journal of Social Science, 29, 59–68.
Schuller, T. (2003). Deschooling revisited-Lessons for Lifelong Learning? http://www.niace.org/uk/publications/periodicals/adultlerning/BackIss/Jan3cont.htm
Seepe, S. (2000). Africanization of knowledge; exploring mathematical and scientific knowledge embedded in African cultural practices. In P. Higgs, N. C. G. Vakalisa, T. V. Mda, & N. T. Assie-Lumumba, (Eds.), African Voices in Education. Lansdowne: Juta.
Semali, L. M. (1996). Post literacy in the age of democracy. Bethesda, MD: Austin & Winfield.
Semali, L. M. (1999). Community as classroom: Dilemmas of valuing african indigenous literacy in education. International Review of Education, 45(3–4), 269–280.
Semali, L. M., & Stanbach, A. (1997). Cultural identity in the African context: Indigenous education and curriculum in East Africa, Folklore Forum. Folklore and Instruction in Africa, 28(1), 3–27.
Soros, G. (2002). On globalization. New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Tarski, A. (1956). Logic, semantics, and metamathematics. London: Oxford University Press.
Trudell, B. (2012). Of gateways and gatekeepers: Language, education and mobility in francophone Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 32, 368–375.
Warren, M. D., Sikkerveer, I., & Brokensha, D. (Eds.). (1995). Indigenous knowledge systems: The cultural dimension of development. Indigenous knowledge Systems. London: Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Sense Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mchombo, S. (2014). Language, Learning, and Education for All in Africa1 . In: Babaci-Wilhite, Z. (eds) Giving Space to African Voices. Comparative and International Education. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-734-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-734-6_2
Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam
Online ISBN: 978-94-6209-734-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)