Marginalized Knowledge: An Agenda for Indigenous Knowledge Development and Integration with Other Forms of Knowledge

English in the African Context and the Socio-cultural Reality

One of the most important functions of English in Southern African countries, where it has been adopted is as a means of communication between speakers of different languages in education, work and social interaction. It is generally considered as a language not different from any other local language, although it commands more prestige in formal and educational circles.

The other reason for teaching and learning it is to ensure effective communication with the outside world with native and non-native speakers from other socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this case, the question of intelligibility becomes pertinent.

Three factors have helped change the status of English in ESL situations. First, there has been a spread of mass media from first language-language speech communities (including popular fiction, cinema, radio, television, popular music, etc) which have presented forms of first language English language vernacular dialects. Second, the teaching of English has increasingly recognized oral communication as an aim. Third, English has come to be one of the main lingua franca for communication among urban dwellers. All these developments have extended the functional range of English from a specialized and formal code to one with a much wider set of possible uses.

Evidence from other parts of the world indicates that when English is adopted as a second language for communication within a speech community, the configuration of features that would mark a style of speech as, say, formal in native-English are unmarked for this significance. Moody (1985: 142) presents the following:

Angogo and Hancock (1980) and Zuengler (1982) have made such observations about West Africa and Kenya respectively. Zuengler refers to the nativisation of speech functions and mentions forms that would in native varieties of English be “considered as strangely archaic or overtly formal” but are used in situations not perceived as such by Kenyan speakers (p.117). Richards (1982) designates this process in Singapore (and elsewhere) as indigenization and associates with the force of “cultural embedding” whereby a shift in cultural and social form; new features of style and registers hold for what he terms both “rhetorical” (H) and “communicative” (L) functions of English. Kachru (1966:265) has suggested that in Indian English the collocation characterizing styles of native English have different “contextual units”.

Such variation between stylistic systems of speech communities sharing the “same” language is commonly seen as having a sociocultural basis. Fishman (1977: 118) refers to the de-ethnicised nature of English in the modern world, and Hymes (1964) points out that the stylistic functions served by particular forms may vary from one community to another on the basis of each one’s enthography of communication. Kandia (1981):65) argues that a speaker of a variety of English with such a different form-function fit is operating with a system that is, to a considerable degree, independent of the original model.”

However, more often than not, most teachers of English, because of their socio-cultural and educational backgrounds, not to mention their obsession for metropolitan English-speaking countries, in particular England and the USA, often ignore the fact that their task ought to involve giving attention to the ways particular societies and communities do things with the language.

In an exchange involving the native speaker, the one designated as an L2 speaker is often assumed to bear the burden of communication: he or she has to ensure effective and satisfactory communication. Mersham, and Skinner, (1999:74-75) have identified some of the examples that may lead to communication breakdown or misunderstanding in African contexts between Africans and their European counterparts.

1. In Western culture it is reasonably common for a subordinate to greet a senior first. In traditional black culture, the subordinate may wait until he or she has been acknowledged by the senior person. A brief, single grip is the norm for the handshake in Western culture. In many black cultures, the handshake incorporates a triple-grip. In general, Black [sic] cultures may extend the period of hand contact beyond the first words of greeting and employ a less firm grip.

2. In Western culture eye contact is normal and important for effective communication. But Black [sic] culture has different norms: for example eye contact between junior to senior should be limited. Avoidance of eye contact is seen as a sign of respect.

3. In Black [sic] cultures, junior or inferiors may not respond vocally when summoned by a superior. Questioning of a superior is frowned upon. … In Black [sic] culture, a low, soft voice is respectful but a loud voice is normal when communicating with friends. In White [sic] culture, too soft a voice is ‘annoying’, too loud a mark of disrespect. Extended polite exchanges and banter may be interpreted as wasting time.

4. Many Whites [sic] make a statement or ask a question, and confirm the statement or answer for the black recipient. For example, a White [sic] Manager might say to Black [sic] employee, ‘We have to deduct R30 for unemployment insurance, OK?’ The Black [sic] person, in an effort to be polite, may nod in the affirmative. Similarly, white people tend to add the phrase ‘do you understand’ to their statements. For example, ‘This will mean rationalisation will have to take place. Do you understand?’ The response may be yes but again politeness or the fear of appearing ignorant may mask a lack of understanding.

5. Often confusing to people is a person’s ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a negative question, ‘Don’t you want to work overtime?’ might be answered by ‘Yes’, meaning I do not want to work overtime.

It is unfortunate, if these examples are understood as suggesting that it is the African speakers of English who should abandon their preferences and habits of communication and conform to the western ways of communication even in the ESL setting. In fact they are a clear demonstration that communication as a process is a burden that needs to be shared equally by all the participants.

It is worth noting that in most African countries even the best educated and economically powerful do not speak native-like English with one another (even when they have such forms in their repertoires). Contrary to what is commonly thought, native speaker or native-speaker-like competence, especially in pronunciation, may not necessarily ensure effective communication as it often attracts social ridicule.

At the level of pragmatics, communication between first language speakers and second language speakers may cause embarrassment and uneasiness between the participants. For example, it is unthinkable for children of second language speakers of English to address their parents or adults by the second person pronoun you. Also it is very embarrassing to hear first language speakers, even if they are family friends, address the parents of second language speakers by their first names. Similarly, first language parents often find it awkward to be addressed as Sir or Mr Robinson or Mrs Robinson. This is because they are used to being addressed by their first names by family friends.

In a survey of the use of English in a local town, the writer found that most of the educated speakers of English from Southern Africa, found it strange to be addresses as Sir or Madam as was the case from West African children.

The case of the West African children who attend model C school and address the adults who are friends of their family as Sir and Madam is interesting. Even if native-like competence is the goal of the school they attend, their parents insist that these terms of address be maintained because that is how communication in English operates between children and adults in Ghana.