Globalization, Colonization, and Language Endangerment in Africa: A Comparative Analysis

Bgoya, W. (2001) ‘The effect of Globalisation in Africa and the choice of language in publishing’,

International Review of Education, 47 (3-4), 283-292.

Salikoko S. Mufweme (2002) ‘Colonization, Globalisation, and the future of languages in the Twenty-

first Century’, International Journal on Multicultural Societies, Vol.4, No.2, pp.1-42.

Introduction

A considerable number of scholars concur with the way that half of the world’s 7000 languages are

at risk of extinction in the next few decades. Not all these threatened languages face equal risks, as

there are roughly 3200 languages that are always defined as “endangered”, but in a more positive

position.

Those languages are still regularly spoken by a small minority but considered endangered as they

can wipe out speakers through many different reasons; as mentioned by Sallabank (2010) in her

study, the causes of language endangerment can be divided in four main categories:

1. Natural catastrophe, famine, disease

2. War and genocide

3. Overt repression

4. Cultural, political or economic dominance

Factors often overlap or occur together (Sallabank, 2010).

The concept of Language Endangerment is an important phenomenon to which linguists and other

researchers have turned their attention in the last decennium

Be careful – this looks like a quote from https://www.ethnologue.com/endangered-languagesAll

quotes must be fully acknowledged.

Grenoble and Whaley (1998); Brezinger (1998); Crystal (2000); Fishman (2000); Nettle and

Romaine (2000); Maffi (2001)).

In 2000, in his book “Language death”, Crystal stated that a language is alive only as long

there is someone to speak it too and in the moment the last speaker of anunwritten or

unrecorded language dies, the archive disappears forever (Crystal, 2000).

Usually we tend to think that a language spoken by few people is due to be in danger but that

is not always the case, it could be a factor of distance (in other words the isolation of the

community) or the tension felt by other languages considered dominant.

The notion of endangerment is usually linked with the concept of globalisation and

colonisation; with the advent of these two phenomenons, speakers of thousands of the

world’s languages are abandoning their ancestral tongues at an incredible rate.

Is important to analyse those realities, as languages are repertoires of thousands of year of

people’s science and art. The gradual loss of a language is a loss not just for the community

of speakers, but also for our knowledge of different subjects such as mathematics, biology,

geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics.

My particular interest in Language endangerment stems from when I had a direct

understanding that the study of this process is related to the general value of preserving

existing cultural diversity. It is crucial to preserve our rich heritage and various languages

that are spoken worldwide.

you could develop this

Languages, apart of being a portion of people’s cultural heritage, constitute a complex

reflection of experience and knowledge.

Both of the articles that will be discussed in the commentary will give an overview on the general

concept of language endangerment and how is it related to globalisation and colonisation. There is a

main argument concerning consequences of these phenomenons and some historical information

will be given by analysing traces and effects of language contact.

Interesting are the contrastive views given by the two authors concerning the role of English

nowadays and their view on language endangerment and possible issues.

Byoga focus more on some of the problems of the domination of the ex colonial languages for

intellectual life in Africa. The author discussed the role of English and his view that there is not the

necessity to adopt a foreign language as a national one as it cause more harm than good (Byoga,

2001). He made a discussion around the topics of migration, the revolution in information and

technology, globalization and the publishing industry in Africa.

Why such small paragraphs? Try to make your writing flow.

In the other hand Mufweme, in his article (2002) made a critics of the literature of the past decade

on language endangerment. The author consider language shift, endangerment and death all part of

language evolution; in order to study them is important to better understand the historical

background of language evolution and focus on the real factors that have brought the demise of

some languages.

Globalization has been a useful subject matter in the article as it gave a clear light on the role of

socio economic structure in language vitality.

This essay start with a summary of each articles; a commentary, in which each major argument that

is put forward in the articles will be discussed; and finally it will conclude

by giving an evaluation on the main articles suggestion and possible solutions on future directions on

globalisation and language endangerment research.

Summary of ‘The effect of Globalization in Africa and the choice of language in publishing’, Bgoya,

W. (2001)

The main purpose of Byoga’s article (2001) was to identify the main problems of the domination of

the ex colonial languages concerning intellectual life in Africa.

The author identified the phenomenon of rural to urban migration, as one of the risk that do not

ease the development of a particular language; blending different language communities, where

third languages replace mother tongue, result in a new generations who do not have a native

language.

In the article, he discussed also the status of English, which was considered the preferred foreign

language, and that met a high demand thanks to the revolution in information and communication

technology.

From this argument Byoga stated that “Globalization of English is, indeed, a phenomenon of far

reaching implications and threatens to annihilate many indigenous languages, but also other colonial

languages such as French, Portuguese and Spanish” (Byoga,2001).

The author sees dependency on a foreign language, like other form of dependency, as

a liability that a nation can ill afford.

The constant bombardment of the European model and the market notion of the superiority of

things, can only lead to pressures on the societies to accept to abandon their cultures and to adopt

the so-called “American way”.

Bgoya concluded with the idea that Globalization can be answered with two main attitudes: to

accept it and succumb to its power or to understand it and to decide to strengthen the local base

and its own capacities for internal generations.

Concerning languages, is not correct to consider English versus only indigenous languages, but it

should be elevated indigenous languages plus English (or any other concerned foreign language).

The most important point that the author tried to highlight is that is relevant to ensure that the

correct emphasis is put on the principal language of one’s being and one’s culture.

Summary of ‘Colonization, Globalization, and the future of languages in the Twenty-first Century’,

Mufweme S. (2002)

Mufweme article (2002) describe language as a living organism, which is affected by multiple factors

such as the diversity of the population, the socio- economic structure of the environment, and its

overall use within society.

He argues that if these elements are not making it possible, the language could reflect the more

developed form of interaction or could completely disappear.

Furthermore, the author makes the argument around the concept of language shifts, which is

connected to the phenomenon of colonization and the globalization of our society.

The article first begins by defining the notion of language and the fact that when two languages

converge (language contact), a form of Darwinism appears and the existing status of a language

depends on a type of survival of the fittest.

Consequently, Mufwene makes the distinction between a language shift which means adaption and

language loss, that means extinction, and consider them as a sort of “linguicide”.

The article then goes on by making a clear distinction of three types of colonization: trade,

settlement and exploitation. Each one of them has their own various effect on the native language

and population, starting from gradual changes and then leading to an entire domination of the

indigenous culture and a complete shift in the way that people communicate, moving to a type of

monolingualism.

Generally, Mufweme’s article transmit the gradual transition of language and in which way our

current economic and trade shift have led to a development from English, being the predominant

language and Chinese (Mandarin), which demonstrate his status. According to Mufweme, the vitality

of a language depends on the conversational behaviors of their speakers, who in exchange respond

adaptively to changes in their socio- economic ecologies (Mufweme, 2002).

COMMENTARY

Similarities

There are several similarities in both papers that are undertaken for the purpose of analysis.

Both articles revolve around the same topic that is Globalization. As stated by Johnson (2009), is

relevant to look at the drivers behind this phenomenon, the variables that influence it and the

implications that it has in our everyday life. One way to do so is to consider all three dynamics and

examine mainly the worldwide advance of the English language (Johnson, 2009).

One of the major objectives of the authors is to determine the impact of globalization on languages.

To establish those objectives the variables that are taken by researchers are also the same.

The main similarity lies in the arguments that languages shift takes place due to the movement

towards globalization. In his paper Bgoya (2001) suggested that the languages of publishing are

getting changed and almost all the forms of communication in Africa is now taking place in some

other languages. The most important emphasis of globalization in Africa is the usage of English

language.

Mufweme (2002) also raises the same issue. The author suggested that with the changing era,

languages are also changing; not only has this but both Byoga and Mufweme believed that the major

reason behind the changes in language is adaptability. They raised the issue that people adopt

languages very easily and this is the reason why these languages are imposed on them.

The topics evaluated here are based on the African continent and thus the demographic factors that

are considered for the study are likewise comparable. Due to similar demographic background, some

of the results of these two researches are similar; the conclusions that have been brought up in

forefront suggest that more and more people in the African continent are adopting English language

and there are major reasons behind this. Bgoya (2001) and Mufweme (2002) suggested that the

reason behind adopting English language is that is used globally and with the help of this, one can

advance himself, in addition to being a medium of interaction in schools.

The majority of the population in Africa, demand the English language, as they believe that it is a

privilege and a synonym to knowledge.

Bgoya (2001) and Mufweme (2002) argues the existence of several false notion being spread by a

number of people and it is bringing disgrace to the languages that are being used in the African. The

main idea is that African languages, are not developed sufficiently to have a dominant role in our

current society, neither at the educational level, neither at the scientific level.

It has been argued that government policies that should and could strengthen the utilization of

African dialect in literature is absent. For instance, we are in a situation where no African language is

the main one in any African country; and African languages that are official are regional. An example

is Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo languages in Nigeria (Eme&Mbagwu, 2011).

Really? A strong claim which needs a reference.

Thus, the major similarities that can be highlighted briefly are related to defending the value of

African languages, ascertaining the major impacts of globalization on the future of the languages in

Africa and the variables that have been used to perform the research.

Differences

When these papers were analyzed, it is observed that there are a number of differences in the

findings.

The biggest difference lies in the approach of the research, as they are very diverse.

Bgoya (2001) used an approach of establishing the norms and principles to come to a conclusion, as

opposed to Mufweme (2002) that used a cause-effect approach to get the conclusion.

In the article “The effect of globalization in Africa and the choice of language in publishing”(2001),

the examination has a small domain, as the author focused mainly in finding the impact of

languages on publishing; while Mufweme, decided to include a variety of topics in order to find out

the overall impact of languages by considering historical and future aspects.

The major focus and domain of Bgoya’s research is on the problems related to the domination of

languages that belonged to the ex-colonial era; the author suggested that people shall not adopt any

foreign language as it cause more harm than good.

According to Mugunti (2015), English and all foreign languages are useless for the education process

in Africa. The author agree with Byoga by saying that no African country should use any foreign

language for educating their children as the biggest problem for the African continent, is the

standard of the education; and this is the main factor that makes the continent underprivileged

(Mugunti,2015).

The approach used by Mufweme is a broader approach to discuss all the issues. The author mainly

discussed the endangerment of languages that has taken places in past decades, by pointing out

several factors that are responsible for language shift; we could say that he mainly focused on the

topic of endangerment. Mufweme has also discussed the historical background largely to establish

the cause effect relationship and to do so, the study took into consideration different styles of

colonization and distinction among the territories.

Another difference in the perspective is that one article is retrospective while the other is forward

looking. Bgoya concluding mark about the research ends with the idea that Globalization can be

dealt very effectively by adopting two major attitudes. Thus he ended his paper with positive

remarks and some answers. On the other hand, Mufweme has not provided any answers; rather it

has raised many questions regarding the topic in general.

Limitations

When the results of both the studies are taken into consideration, a number of limitations would be

observed.

In Bgoya’s research, it can be seen that the provided results, are not very specific. The study was

limited to publishing and the language used for the purpose of publishing, thus the results cannot be

implemented to study the whole scenario. Simultaneously, the purpose of the study is very limited

and it is based on the variables that are non-reliable with respect to the present scenario.

The author talked about the choices of languages in publishing and opposed the usage of English,

but this opposition is baseless. The reason behind this is that English is the most common language

and provides a very great platform to communicate and share ideas nowadays, so stating that there

is no need for a foreign language today, is a statement that certainly need revision.

The most dominant aspect of the English language role’s, as David Crystal (2004) pointed out, is the

pace at which the language has spread the globe (Crystal, 2004). By 2050, it is anticipated that

almost 50% of the world’s population will be competent in English (The Triumph of English, 2011).

If foreign languages are discarded then people will stay backward and their chances of advancement

would be hampered; they will be in a situation where they will not be able to keep up with the world

trend, politically, economically and in the educational sphere.

Moreover, the research conclude with some answers, but once again is noticeable how these

responses suggest to do not favor the use of the English language, without giving actual solution to

the problems.

In similar norm, the claims that have been put forward by Mufweme in his article can result also less

practical. The approach the author adopted at the end of the research is mainly focused in raising

questions rather than giving effective solutions to the subject matter.

The topic of the research is very vast but the variable that he took in consideration, in some point do

not match with the actual aims of the paper.

Ok, so try to link this to the examples that follow.

Mufweme tried to discuss the future of languages by making a connection with colonization and

globalization, by looking mainly at the historical background of these two phenomenon. At many

points, the author missed the connection as he decided to focus in multiple different area, and this

can lead to confusion for the reader.

Thus, the above discussion suggests that the major limitation that has affected both the researches

is generalization of the study. Byoga’s article resulted restricted as he focused in one specific topic to

debate the phenomenon of globalization and its effects; as opposed to Mufweme that decided to

talk about a specific topic, focusing to several various factors, but at the end losing at some point the

main objective of the research.

Final discussion

After going through the whole discussion about the similarities, differences and

limitations of both papers, some factors, that makes the whole topic worth discussing, have been

identified.

The increased demand for English language communication and education has increased, not only in

Africa, but also all over the world.

As the world continues to become more interconnected, thanks to Globalization, the spread and the

importance of English on every continent become increasingly more pronounced. It is a process as

stated by Mydans (2007), which began with the prevalence of two consecutive English-speaking

authority, British and American, and persist nowadays with the revolution of technologies, mainly

thanks to the internet (Mydans, 2007).

There is a danger of extinction of many native languages, and this is happening not only in Africa, but

the whole world is victimizing this trend.

Always taking as an example the case of the African continent, the utilization of ex colonial dialects

have some implications ,as they do not only limit a large number of population of a nation who are

not very competent in these languages, but hinder also the development .

As stated by Batibo (2005), speakers of minority languages in most African countries are rejected

from or marginalized with respect to national participation because of the utilization, by the ruling

elite, of a foreign language or of a dominant indigenous dialect, which may not be comprehended by

some groups within a specific country.

Speakers of minority languages are then excluded from the direct participation in economic and

political interactions and the immediate outcome is that nationalism, which is an essential necessity

that can only be achieved by a communication that is capable to include all the population in the

economic process, is not accomplished (Batibo,2005).

There is a close relationship between language and development, and a purposeful development

cannot happen wherever linguistic barriers are present. The failure of many African countries, to

come out with a clear transformational language policy appear to be the most negative aspect in

their experiences of nation building.

Is relevant to state that the existence of a common language, should be seen as an integrating force,

a means by which political accreditation and the participation of all citizens is completely facilitated.

There are clearly negative consequences to this continued expansion of the English language around

the world. These negative results include cultural loss, imperfect education and stratification of

society, as we seen concerning the African continent, English becomes the language of the elites.

These researches are one of those techniques that are used by academicians, research scholars and

government to make people aware about the future of their languages and make efforts to preserve

it. Hence, the need of the hour is to arise and do something to prevent the languages from being

endangered. It is good to move forward by using foreign languages but at the same time one shall

also keep his heritage alive. Thus, the researches done by Mufweme (2002) and Bgoya (2001) are

very beneficial to the societies to understand the relevance of their languages and make some

efforts by analyzing the facts and figure, to preserve the languages.