Education in Indigenous Languages: The West African Model of Language Education

Abstract

The use of the indigenous languages of West Africa in the formal school system owes its origin to the efforts of the early Christian missions. Since the number of available white missionaries who were native speakers of the colonial languages was few, and only a negligible number of native missionaries could be trained to teach in these languages, there was no alternative for the missions but to adopt a policy of initial literacy through the medium of the indigenous languages. Besides, the Christian missions aimed at reaching the masses, and this meant getting the message directly to the people in their own languages. Formal education for the many, therefore, meant education in an African language with some knowledge of the colonial language, if they were able to attain the upper grades of the primary school. It was not long before the colonial government had to intervene in language education. To administer a territory, a choice of language had to be made; and whatever choice was made had to be enforced through the educational system. The most important factor to be considered in this choice was the ultimate goal of the colonial power. Basically, there were two apparently divergent goals: assimilation and separate development. The former envisages bringing the colonial subjects to a reasonable educational level so that they may be absorbed into the culture of the colonizing power. This inevitably meant education in the colonial language. The latter envisages giving the colonial subjects free scope to develop in their own way outside the culture of the colonizing power. This meant education in their own languages. The French and the Portuguese favored assimilation, and hence discouraged the teaching of African languages in schools, while the British and the Belgians favored