Power of Babel

1
Power of Babel

• Chapter 1 Language Race in the Black
  Experience
• An African Perspective

2
Racism and Linguistic Chauvinism

• It has been said that the French did not mind
  who made love with whom provided the
  preliminaries were conducted in impeccable
  French. The British did mind who made love with
  whom. Sometimes they minded who made love at
  all.
• French were less racist, but suppressed
  indigenous languages
• British were more racist, but supported
  indigenous languages

3
Cultural and racial arrogance

• The French were more culturally arrogant
• The British were more racially arrogant, which
  meant that indigenous languages fared better
  under the British

4
The spread of Arabic

• Egypt was a fountain for the spread of Arabic in
  Africa
• Sudan saw rapid spread of Arabic
• Arabic spread along Nile Valley
• Spread of Islam and Arabic went hand in hand

5
Four forces spread languages

• Religion, economics, politics, and war
• Note that the last three of these forces involve
  men more than women, and consequently men are
  more multilingual than women

6
Languages communalist ecumenical

• Communalist languages -- define a tribe (exx.
  Luganda, Luo)
• Ecumenical languages -- transcend boundaries of
  racial or ethnic definition -- the most important
  non-European languages of this type are Arabic,
  Hausa, Kiswahili

7
Some properties of ecumenical languages

• Most Kiswahili speakers have it as their 2nd or
  3rd language, so it doesnt threaten anyone
• This is not true of Hausa (especially in Nigeria)
• There are more Arabic speakers in Africa than
  outside it, but all of its speakers are
  considered Arabs, because the central defining
  characteristic of an Arab is linguistic, even
  though Arab identity is still understood as
  race

8
The colonial languages

• French expansionism focused on promotion of its
  language, but ultimately receded (although the
  Congo is still the 2nd largest French-speaking
  nation in the world)
• British expansionism did NOT promote its
  language, but succeeded anyway, and there are
  more black native speakers of English than
  British inhabitants

9
Black metaphor English semantics

• Black aesthetics has to rescue blackness
  darkness from the stifling weight of negative
  metaphor.
• Color bias in the language is a problem for
  African writers English needs to be deracialized
• To some extent this metaphor is also embedded in
  Christianity

10
Conclusions

• Colonial period endangered indigenous languages,
  and post-colonial African policy makers do not
  pay enough attention to indigenous languages
• Arabic, French, and English have played a
  particularly important international role in
  Africa