A case for language Renaissance :: Mmegi Online

The other day, I asked my friends why the African child must struggle with a lingual code in order to access knowledge. At the risk of sounding like a pseudo Pan Africanist with colonial baggage, it is a big deal with me that knowledge, in particular science and law, are encrypted in a foreign code and that as Africans, we must learn such foreign codes before we can lay claim scientific progress.

I was a teacher during my national service days and can vividly remember instances where children, at Standard 7, struggled to acquire basic knowledge because they simply could not surmount the English language.

I am not talking about kids who have a language disability. I am talking about kids who spoke Setswana fluently. I have met teachers and people from almost every other profession who have challenges with the same language.

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