With three strategic workshops on The Harmonization and Standardization of Nigerian and Related Languages: Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Ijaw (Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Cameroon, and Niger Republic), the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), last year, began a systematic approach to safeguarding native languages of African brethren with a view to promoting their use as language of literature. The project is already bearing fruit with the launch and public presentation of the final report of the workshops today in AbujaTHE Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) in partnership with the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) will, today, in Abuja, host the launch and public presentation of the Final Report of Workshops on: The Harmonization and Standardization of Nigerian and Related Languages: Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Ijaw (Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Cameroon, and Niger Republic).Held in Abuja, Nigeria between October 26 and 27, 2010; Port Harcourt, Nigeria November 2010; and Johannesburg, South Africa, December 7-9, 2010 respectively, the workshops underscored the centrality of African languages to the development of Africa and its people.Before now, CASAS had executed similar projects in Kenya, Zambia, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. And because Nigeria is strategic to Africa and so are its diverse languages, CASAS is therefore working in collaboration with CBAAC to incorporate Nigeria into this Africa-wide project.The launch and public presentation of the published work at the Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja today (May 4, 2011) is expected to attract participation of delegates from Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Niger Republic and the Republic of Benin.CBAAC is optimistic that the launch today will provide updates on the majority languages and draw attention to similar initiative on the minority languages. It is hoped that this launch and public presentation would facilitate the organization of platforms for, and interactive sessions with key stakeholders particularly teachers to enlighten them on how to use the finished product effectively.It would also facilitate the production of the necessary teaching and instructional materials particularly on issues of common concern to the generality of the populace for all levels of education in Nigeria, the centre noted in a statement. It added that the launch would be complemented with writers and teachers workshops that would be subsequently organized at various levels.As a pan-African organization, CBAAC has effectively been projecting black and African contributions to world civilization through lectures, seminars, symposia, workshops, exhibitions and conferences both within and outside the African continent on a regular basis. And its involvement in the harmonisation workshops is seen as in line with this mandate.Three workshops altogether, the sessions covered the four language clusters (Igbo, Ijaw, Yoruba and Hausa) and they involved participants and speakers/specialists in these languages from the Cameroons, Niger Republic and Republic of Benin. The workshops were of 2-day duration in each instance. They were attended exclusively by linguists and specialists in the areas of morphology, phonology, phonetics and syntax. Resource persons from the CASAS network, totalling 6 were present and actively involved to facilitate the work. There were at least 8 local linguists per language cluster, totalling 32 local and border country linguists, in addition to 6 resource persons. After the Nigerian legs of the workshops, drafts were circulated for further perusal and consideration. This was followed by a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa to finalize the new orthographies prior to this launch.The importance of the project has been premised on the realization that overwhelming majority of Africans still speak African languages, although the these mother tongues are too often missed in discussions and work around African development. It is in these languages that they primarily think and create. It is in these languages that their abilities, talents and genius as people are best expressed. When they work with colonially-derived languages most Africans are inhibited and their articulation is hardly to be compared to their linguistic facility in their own languages. Those that are able to use English, French, Portuguese or Arabic with any degree of effectiveness comparable to native users of these languages are few. It is also clear by the historical and existing evidence that all people who develop societally, do so in their own languages.It has also been argued that if the desire is to engage the fuller participation of civil society in African countries for purposes of development in any of the identifiable spheres, for example, democracy, health, media, human rights, gender issues, etc. it is obvious that mass society should be reached and engaged in the languages that are accessible to them; the languages that they best understand and easily express themselves in. Literature in all these spheres, to be effective, needs to be provided in the languages of the people. Greater civic participation cannot be achieved if the languages of engagement are foreign to the people.The Harmonization of African OrthographiesOver the past twelve years, CASAS has been harmonizing the orthographies of the major language clusters in Africa, which enjoy mutual intelligibility of 85 per cent or more. The rationale behind this is that at that level of mutual intelligibility it is possible to revise and remove the orthographic differences which have emerged between these languages on account of the fact that different and often rival missionary groups produced orthographies without much cognizance or regard for profound structural similarities between these languages.Such orthographic revision has the clear advantage of economies of scale. So that instead of producing literature for a million people, it is possible to produce literature for twenty or thirty million. It has also the advantage of upgrading spelling systems and simplifying them for readers and writers. Along these lines, CASAS in collaboration with CBAAC facilitated workshops for the harmonization of the languages of Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville and Cameroon. Emphasis was laid on these clusters of languages: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Ijaw.Before now, work had been done in East Africa on some native langauges. In fact, work commenced on their harmonization in July 2005. The following year, this work was largely completed. Furthermore, working in cooperation with staff of Makerere University and the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education, Uganda, CASAS has developed primers and readers for all levels of Primary School for the Uganda School system.In Central Africa most of the languages of Malawi, Zambia, and parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe have been harmonized. One major spinoff is that second or third language speakers of African languages in the nation-states will not have to relearn their alphabets to be able to read material in another language as is currently the case. This in turn means materials will be accessible to wider audiences.In both Zimbabwe and Zambia primers and readers in all the official languages have been produced for the school systems, based on the new orthographies. Understandings with the various Ministries of Education for these productions have been reached. In Namibia, early this year, the Prime Minister, Mr. Nahas Angula officiated at the launch of the new orthographies for the country, in Windhoek.In December 2009, CASAS sponsored a workshop in Khartoum on; Unity and Diversity of the Nubian Languages, as a preliminary step towards the harmonization of these languages. Work in the Horn of Africa area is starting early next year. CASAS has started producing Wordlists, Dictionaries and translations of scientific texts from French, English and Portuguese into African languages.By the end of 2009, CASAS had completed work on the harmonization of the Southern African languages with the exception of the languages of Angola. These new orthographies have been reviewed and tested and are suitable for introduction to the readership. Over the years, Writers and Teachers Workshops have been undertaken in the region (Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Swaziland). These workshops have been used as platforms for familiarizing writers and teachers with the new orthographies, so that they are able to use them effectively in the production of literature.
Click here to read full news..
