oSouthSudan.Net
info@southsudan.net
BY: KUACH YAK TUTKUAY. South Sudan as a new republic has made the first step ever in formulating policies and strategies one of which is the policy on language in education which I want to talk briefly about. South Sudan have undoubtedly been colonized twice as far as my opinion concerns, the first colonizer was the British and the second was the Arab north whose colonization started right away as the British granted Sudan independent that was from 1956 to 2011. South Sudan in its language policy formulation have had some few crisis which may be attributed to the post-colonization effects, the tag of war between the two languages of the former colonizers which are the English and the Arabic. In every sub-Saharan country, language of the former colonizer is being taken up this may be proved by the fact that all countries of British colony keep English as a lingua franca. As the case may be in south Sudan, English was the official language of instruction during the late fiftieths; but as Sudan got her independence with Arab being the top rulers they abolished the use of English and introduce Arabic as the official language to be use in business, politics and at schools. The use of Arabic synoptically brought about the compulsory uses of Islamism at all levels of education, and made English an optional subject. This significantly made many Christian southerners vulnerable to Islam since they have no any other options, no private schools to take their children to. To some extend Islamic schools are the ones officially recognized by the government so this made it hard for the Christian learners of English to form alternative education system which may favor the use of English. Because of this situation, Christian southerners got no option other than to accept their children to be taught in Arabic along with Islamism. Many of the southernersâ children learned Arabic from elementary all the way to university, this gave rises to thousands southern graduates in Arabic whose some of them now hold high position in the government of southern Sudan. When the CPA was signed, both Arabic and Islamic were seen through different spectacles. For the first time south Sudan had an internal self government, the policy was to make English bear the official status at all levels and Arabic be taught as a subject in the southern territory. Talking about Islamic religion will bring further insight, the government for the first time allowed freedom of worship which was, but an abomination for the Islamic sharia lawin the Old Sudan. The decision may be meant to signal southern Sudan as a nation where there is an abundant of freedom, but should this freedom also be enjoy by Arabic student as granted Muslims?  The recent constitution of the republic of south Sudan outlined very clearly that Arabic is no longer recognized to bear any official status nor should it be use as a language of instruction. As per my analysis here, the use of Arabic in official offices, TV and radio station, public rallies and lecture at school have been abolished by the constitution as any act outside the constitution may be unlawful. But to my bolts from the blue I never fixed my eyes on an article talking about Islamism which was forcefully imposed on southerners and for sure became the second religion after Christianity, what I could make out from the rights and freedom chapter of the constitution was only the âfreedom of worshipâ as was in the interim constitution, and yet the two, (Arabic and Islamism) are not that far from the other, âwhat is a sauce for goose should also be sauce for genderâ since we acquired them through the Arab colonization. I think it would be wiser if we used their language instead of their religion so that through the language we will be able to get rid of the religion, it isnât wise to yearn for Islamism and pretend to dislikes Arabic language this will look like we are killing the solution with a problem instead to kill the problem with a solution. Is Arabic an afterbirth of Islamism which is being thrown away after the wanted child is out? Well, as per my opinion, I bolster-up the decision on religion but this should also be apply to language. The yearn for English will surely blow us no good. South Sudan should be wise in making policies regarding language because language is not just a matter of pedagogy but of significant tension, therefore, the top-down approach wonât work best here. When making a decision on language it is good to involve the end user of the language and bring their concerns into consideration.  South Sudan has got no language of her own so they are in the safe side of ethnic and linguistic quagmires but a significant exposure of the nationâs internal policy since every rally will be conducted in English which is everybodyâs language now a days. The nation lost their oneness since they are not coming under one language of their unity but to use English as the language of communication. It will be as good as misleading, to use Arabic in rallies and TV stations and yet the same policy-makers abolish it use. During the recent visit of president Kiir to Jonglei state to launch disarmament campaign, he addressed the public in Arabic and for sure the citizen where not happy at this because Arabic is not being recognized by the constitution. âThe president should have used either Nuer, Dinka, Anyuak or Murle languages if he feel like he donât want to speak in English because the four groups are the inhabitants of Jonglei and their languages as well are being recognized by the constitutionâ said some of the youth present at the rally. I am of the opinion that the use of Arabic should not be abolished for the sake of thousands of children who graduated in Arabic, what should be stopped at this point in time is the teaching of Arabic in our education system but the already graduated ones we can absorb them in to our employment system and the ones in the university should also receive the same treatment and complete theirs in Arabic. But I was so confused to learn that there are some more primaries and high schools still operating in Arabic, why do the government allow this? What are we trying to breed here? Have these kids and their teachers lost their way and no one to show them the way? Where is the government here? This canât be happening. I think there is a kind of âlet the sleeping dogs lieâ such that the children of the awaking dogs will inherit with a no-objection succeeding. But this will never help for sure it will only increases the crisis between the ones affected and the ones advantaged, the government shouldnât allowed any decision that is an advantage to a few but should look for a win-win that may be fair to all. Sometime language attitude is a significant cause of conflict and the government should act to avoid such, our government must be forgetful to accept Islamic which was the root cause of mistreatment by the northerners and instead, they abolished a harmless Arabic instead. Many readers will think that am educated in Arabic but ânoâ I did my education in Kenya, I just sympathize our brothers who have been affected by the system yet it was not their intention. When I attended a Language In Education Conference in Juba on March, I was very happy to hear a well envisioned opinion from prof. Taban Lo- Liyong. He sympathized the same situation am sympathizing today about having no language of our own, he said the Arabic of Juba need to be harmonized and standardized in it orthography and shall be call âchinubi or kinubi and be the language of the southerners. This was so amazing to all the practitioners who were present in the conference, everybody heeded attentively because this was the kind of mind we want for south Sudan; those who knows the way must show it. If this decision is implemented, it will not only serve to avoid linguistic quagmires but also to promote oneness of southern Sudanese and it will not favor any side since it look like a bastardized Arabic with few similar Swahili structures in it. At the same development, prof. FR. Mashinhe of ACALAN said, âlanguage is a resource not liabilityâ and that âlanguage is a cross-cutting issueâ so South Sudan could learn something from these two saying. Knowledge of Arabic is a resource for the south Sudanese and not necessarily a liability, plus the fact that Arabic at the movement serve as the language of unity for south Sudanese specially in market and other public places; even SPLA uses Arabic for commanding or any other military communication. Of course we can yearn for its abolition but we first need to measure the effects it is going to impose on the community at large. Language policy in a country as linguistically diverse as south Sudan is not a easy job and shouldnât be a one-manâs show, all stakeholders must play their part in policy formulation. South Sudan in some circumstance like the one am talking of, need to introduce a bottom-up approach to allows many view and opinions from the end users of the language. We need to avoid the mistake made by the Arab north by imposing language on people, our nation as a place where there democracy and freedom exercise at all need not to impose language on our citizen otherwise we will not be that different from the north. Development of the local languages is so essential, youth says, âwe want to know where we came from in order to know where we are goingâ so this will serve to keep our local languages alive generation after generation but the government need to be keen to avoid competition over few resource for the development of local languages. The government through the ministry of General education must set up centre for the development of local languages and they must put in place fair policy for resource allocation such that there is no grieving community or individual as this may hamper national prosperity. The government need to carry out a survey to know the exact number of languages in south Sudan, the number of speakers and the geographical area it covers, this will help in the process of resource allocation.  the author can be reached at: kuach444@gmail.com 0956006442 |
Copyright © 2011 SouthSudan.Net. All Rights Reserved.info@southsudan.net