2 which uses only English, or one which incorporates use of the mother tongue as well as
English as languages of instruction. Most continue to choose the traditional English-language schooling. Increasing numbers of parents, however, are choosing local-language medium
classes for their primary-grade children. The implications of these educational choices for learning and for community use of the local language are beginning to be seen. This study is
an investigation of these phenomena among the Bafut, Kom and Nso language communities.
1.1. Conceptual context for the study
The future of Africas indigenous languages is a concern among Africanists and linguists alike. Many of these languages, whose speakers range from a few thousand to
millions, face the prospect of dying out in the next few generations unless intentional efforts are made to develop and stabilise them Crystal 2000. It is understood that the cultures of
which the languages are a significant part will be seriously weakened as well, and could disappear altogether.
A key issue underlying this study is whether indigenous minority languages are worth maintaining, both for their role in the embodiment of cultural identity and for their role in
formal and non-formal learning. The belief that these languages are indeed worth maintaining is shared by a wide array of African scholars and educators including Bamgbose, Adegbija,
Prah, Ngugi and Fafunwa and non-African researchers including Fishman, May, Stroud, Serpell, Skutnabb-Kangas, Williams and Hornberger, as well as external agencies such as
the United Nations agencies, German Technical Cooperation GTZ, Save the Children, the Ford Foundation, SIL International
1
and others. These diverse parties support the crucial place of Africas local languages in development, community identity and learning.
This position on African languages is not new; indeed, it was espoused by certain nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonial and mission personnel sections 3.1.1 and 3.1.3.2.
Upon gaining independence from colonial rule, African leaders also demonstrated concern for maintaining the continents indigenous languages and cultures. In 1961, ministers of the
many newly-independent African states affirmed the importance of including African language and culture in the formulation of a truly African education Conference of African
States on the Development of Education in Africa 1961:3-7. This resolve was largely lost in the subsequent continent-wide emphasis on tying education to economic outcomes, as well as
a post-independence concern for national unity rather than local development; however, the
1
Also known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics. See http:www.sil.org.
3 crucial role of African languages in African development has not been forgotten. The
Cultural Charter for Africa Organization of African Unity [OAU]1976 affirmed the inseparable connection between African languages and cultures, and recommended a number
of measures to ensure the survival and expansion of both. The OAUs Language Plan of Action for Africa OAU 1986 expanded on the importance of policy formation and
implementation in assuring a central place for African languages in national life. The 1997 Harare Declaration of the Intergovernmental Conference of Ministers on Language Policy in
Africa clearly affirmed the necessity and urgency for African States to adopt clear policies for the use and development of mother tongues as well as community languages, national
languages, inter-African and international languages all of which except the last category being African languages. The Declaration calls for linguistic study to be undertaken of all
African languages, and for the formation of language policies which promote the preservation of African identity, pluralism and cognitive preparation for facing the challenges of the next
millennium Intergovernmental Conference of Ministers on Language Policy in Africa 1997. Following on from that conference, the creation of the African Academy of Languages
ACALAN in 2001 demonstrated the continuing relevance of this discussion to African leaders.
2
Thus, concern for the future of African minority languages clearly exists. What is less clear is whose responsibility it is to rescue or maintain these languages Musau 2003:156;
Moyo 2003:27. National government, international bodies, external aid agencies, academic bodies and non-governmental organisations NGOs are all seen as key actors. The crucial
role of the minority language-speaking communities themselves is also recognised, although largely as recipients of language reform. The fact that these communities are not typically
influential, socially or politically, causes them to be seen as largely incapable of effecting the rescue of their own languages Makoni and Meinhof 2003:6.
Meanwhile, a related discussion is occurring among Africanist educators regarding the need for incorporating local languages into the formal education systems of African states
as languages of instruction. Advocates of the use of local languages for learning employ both pedagogical and cultural arguments to make the case that, particularly for the rural and semi-
rural areas in which a large proportion of Africas populations live, education needs to include the local language in order to be effective section 2.3.4.
2
See http:www.acalan.org.
4 This is the second issue underlying this study: the value of using indigenous African
languages as languages of instruction in formal schooling. Research indicates that the inclusion of mother tongues in the classroom has a significant impact on the quality of
content learning Williams 1996; Komarek 1997; Stroud 2002. Indeed, experimental programmes of mother tongue use in primary classrooms have been carried out in various
countries across the continent, some by the state and some by non-governmental agencies sections 2.3.4 and 2.3.5. Although these programmes have not consistently led to more
general implementation of mother-tongue education, they at least indicate ongoing concern about the role of local languages in formal education.
The legacy of formal education in sub-Saharan Africa itself speaks to the need for change. Formal education faces continued challenges to meeting the goals of economic and
social progress that are its raison dêtre UNESCO 2001:27. The rural populations in particular - the speakers of the hundreds of indigenous minority languages of the continent -
are not benefiting from the promises of education for all World Bank 2003. Furthermore, the connection between language policy and educational effectiveness has been clearly
elucidated by scholars such as Adegbija 1994:97 and Bamgbose 2001. Thus, even where larger sociopolitical considerations limit official support of language-in-education policy
reform, the implications of language choice for educational effectiveness remain a point of discussion.
Once again, however, the question arises: who should be responsible for this change in the way education is framed and delivered? Policy reform is of course the proper domain
of national governments, but the conceptualisation, trial and implementation aspects of that policy could arguably be the province of national government institutions, external agencies,
academic bodies andor NGOs. Once again, local communities are recognised as important to the process, but are not considered likely to provide leadership in this task.
This present study is positioned in the overlap of these two issues as they affect sub- Saharan Africa: the critical need for indigenous language maintenance and the use of the
mother tongue as a medium of instruction. The educational domain is a key site for minority language maintenance efforts, and this study explores the significance of educational choices
to the maintenance or demise of such languages. In addition, this study shows that language community members themselves are
acting as the agents of change in the arenas of language use and education. As a result of the choices being made in the Bafut, Kom and Nso language communities, these three
indigenous minority languages are gaining stability, particularly as written languages, and are
5 being increasingly used as languages of instruction in local primary schools. Both of these
phenomena have their roots in the same combination of institutional and individual choices about language and education.
Thus the language choices being made in these communities can be interpreted as part of a larger dynamic of community-level agency. Sen 1999 describes agency as the human
capacity to act and bring about change, the results of which may be judged in terms of the agents own values and objectives regardless of their assessment in terms of external criteria.
Human rights, argues Sen, include not only those which enhance ones well being, but also those which facilitate free agency. The education choices and language promotion activities
being implemented in Bafut, Kom and Nso communities appear to fit very well into Sens notion of agency. The role of community-level agency is evident in the predominantly local
base of these activities - itself surprising, given the low expectations of minority language communities described above.
However, this is not to say that local actors are the only agents of language maintenance and use. The initiatives being taken in Bafut, Kom and Nso in favour of local
language maintenance and education also reflect the influence of interests beyond the local level, as do the communities responses to those initiatives section 6.3. The environment in
which these initiatives are being implemented has been conditioned by historical forces, current social values and a complex set of language attitudes section 1.3.
This study is intended to examine the processes of indigenous language maintenance and the use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the Bafut, Kom and Nso
communities of Northwest Province, Cameroon, and to explore the role of local actors in these phenomena.
1.2. The language communities under study
