30 | The view from ACALAN
Furthermore, taking into account Article 62 c of the ECOWAS Treaty stating that ECOWAS member states should undertake to ‘promote the learning of
African languages’, ACALAN is working with this regional organisation to adopt the vehicular cross-border languages of Fulfulde, Mandenkan and Hausa as
working languages of ECOWAS together with English, French, and Portuguese.
It was in that context that, during the sixth meeting of the ad hoc Committee in charge of monitoring ECOWAS’ culture programmes held in Cotonou, Benin from
16 to 19 April 2012, ACALAN suggested the adoption of a progressive approach by experimenting and continuing research involving the Fulfulde, Hausa and
Mandenkan Vehicular Cross-Border Language Commissions in order to address aspects relating to terminology development, interpretation and translations.
Thus, during the experimental phase, ECOWAS meetings in Guinea, Mali and Nigeria will, apart from English, French and Portuguese, experiment with Fulfulde,
Mandenkan and Hausa respectively. ACALAN expects that these initiatives will not only create job opportunities for language practitioners, but will also change
attitudes towards African languages.
d. ACALAN’s major projects: ACALAN has designed the following major projects
whose implementation would make a significant contribution towards the development, promotion and use of African languages: A masters and PhD
programme in Applied Linguistics PANMAPAL; a Pan-African Centre of Interpretation and Translation; a Terminology and Lexicography project; the
African Linguistic project; African Language and Cyberspace project; the Stories Across Africa project; the Training of African Languages Teachers and Media
Practitioners. In what follows, I focus on the projects whose implementation has started.
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PANMAPAL: As we all know, there is a paucity of trained language practitioners in the various areas of Applied Linguistics who can effectively become agents
of change in the struggle for the development and promotion of African languages. The PANMAPAL programme is designed to address this paucity,
by producing language practitioners with the right skills and commitment to changing the plight of these languages for the better. The pilot phase involved
the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon, the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. This phase has produced
the first MA graduates. Some of them have enrolled for the PhD programme. Currently, ACALAN is discussing the modality of the expansion phase as well
as the university to be involved.
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Terminology and Lexicography project: The lack of a common framework for terminology development is one of the main challenges facing language
practitioners and institutions entrusted with the task of overseeing the development, promotion and use of African languages. This project is
therefore aimed at addressing that challenge and is based at the Institute of Kiswahili Studies, University of Dar es Salaam. A group of experts, under the
co-ordination of the institute, has produced the first draft of the framework, which is being circulated amongst various stakeholders for further inputs.
The view from ACALAN | 31
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The African Linguistic Atlas project: The exact number of African languages has been difficult to establish. The main objective of this project is therefore
to produce linguistic maps that will not only show how many languages are spoken in Africa, but will also show the respective dialectal variations. The project
was originally based at the Centre for Language Studies, Chancellor College, University of Malawi. ACALAN convened a meeting in Arusha, Tanzania from
2 to 4 July 2012 in collaboration with the East African Community. The meeting brought together experts who have conducted language surveys and
produced maps in their institutions to provide inputs into the project.
Le Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur les Traditions Orales et pour le Développement des Langues Africaines CERDOTOLA made a presentation
on the linguistic atlas that it has produced for the Central African region. The University of Dar es Salaam made a presentation on the linguistic atlas
of Tanzania that it has produced. Work on language surveys undertaken at the University of Botswana, and UNESCO’s survey of minority languages was
also presented. After discussing the methodological aspects and the types of language maps to be produced, a technical committee led by Professor
Al Mtenje of the Chancellor College, University of Malawi was established to co-ordinate the implementation of the project. The meeting further decided
to start the work from the regions where some linguistic atlases already exist and work with the institutions that have produced them towards a production
of a linguistic atlas of Africa.
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The African Languages and Cyberspace project: The absence of the African languages in cyberspace limits their use by the vast majority of Africans in
their efforts to attain sustainable development that would change their lives for the better. Taking into account this fact and the recommendations from
the planning workshops of the vehicular cross-border languages I mentioned above, ACALAN organised a meeting from 14 to 15 December 2011 at the
offices of the Centre for Linguistic and Historical Studies by Oral Tradition CELHTO, ACALAN’s sister institution based in Niamey Niger. The meeting
brought together experts in ICT and African languages from Botswana, Djibouti, Kenya and Nigeria who made presentations that helped audit research on
African languages in cyberspace, identify gaps, establish synergies and standard frameworks for data gathering and processing pertaining to African
languages in cyberspace as well as charting ACALAN’s course in that domain newsletter on ACALAN’s website. Subsequent to the meeting, ACALAN has
commissioned the African Languages Technology Initiative based in Ibadan, Nigeria, to produce spellcheckers for African languages as a practical and
pragmatic way of addressing the absence of African languages in cyberspace. The spellchecker for the Hausa vehicular cross-border language will soon
be available.
32 | The view from ACALAN
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Stories Across Africa project: This project has produced collections of stories for children in various vehicular cross-border languages, including
those I mentioned above. ACALAN will use the stories in the reading clubs it is creating across Africa in collaboration with the Project for the Study of Alternative
Education PRAESA, based at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The reading clubs are meant to instil the culture of reading into the children whose
performance at school is compromised by the lack of a reading habit.
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Training of African Languages Teachers and Media Practitioners project: The teachers of African languages and media practitioners play a fundamental
role in the dissemination of African languages. In fact, the electronic media, with special reference to the radio, has been the custodian of African
languages throughout Africa. However, the news editors in most radio stations broadcasting in these languages have no formal training and, as a result,
face many challenges. Chief amongst them is the development and use of terminology in African languages. The same can be said about the teachers.
This project is therefore aimed at providing in-service training for the trainers of teachers of African languages and for the news editors in African languages.
It is within that context that ACALAN organised a workshop from 19 to 20 June 2011 in Nouakchott, Mauritania to discuss the modality of training the trainers
of the teachers for African languages in L1 methodologies for mother tongue- education and to identify regional training centers in the countries that share
the same vehicular cross-border languages.
The meeting brought together the chairpersons and secretaries of Chichewa Cinyanja, Fulfulde, Hausa, Mandenkan and Setswana Vehicular Cross-Border
Language Commissions. ACALAN organised a follow-up meeting from 28 to 30 May 2012 in Lichinga, Northern Mozambique. The meeting brought together the
chairpersons and secretaries of the ChichewaCinyanja and Setswana Vehicular Cross-Border Language Commissions, experts from UNESCO’s International
Institute for Capacity Building IICBA based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, representatives of the Department of Social Affairs of the African Union
Commission and experts in L1 methodologies. The drafting of the modules are underway. The work on the other vehicular cross-border languages will also
start once consultations with the member states concerned are finalised.
These projects complement each other, though they are presented separately due to methodological reasons – for instance, the development of spellcheckers,
the training of the trainers of teachers and news editors in using the harmonised writing systems I mentioned above. In other words, these writing systems are put
to the test and disseminated.
e. Curriculum reform and mother tongue-education and the Second Decade of Education for Africa: During the summit of the heads of state and government
of the African Union held in Khartoum in 2006, the Second Decade of Education for Africa: 2006–15 was launched Njenga et al. 2009. The plan of action of the
decade includes the need for curriculum reform and the strengthening of mother tongue-education.
The view from ACALAN | 33
As a first step towards curriculum reform, the summit also took the decision to establish a link between education and culture. This means that the content
of the curriculum for African education systems should be informed and inspired by African culture. ACALAN has been assigned the task of monitoring
the implementation of this decision and reporting back to the African Union Commission. Thus, it has used the provisions of the Second Decade of Education
for Africa as a launch pad for its work on the development, promotion and use of African languages, particularly emphasising that these languages are the anchor
and vehicles of African culture and therefore it would be difficult to achieve the goals of a Second Decade of Education for Africa without taking into account the
fundamental role African languages can play in education across the continent. It was in the context of the task assigned to ACALAN that ECOWAS invited me
to make a presentation on the dynamics and stage of implementation of the Khartoum decision to establish a link between culture and education, during the
meeting of experts of culture of ECOWAS in Niamey, Niger on 27 June 2012.
f. Holistic approach: Language is not everything, but it is in everything. In other
