Democracy in a multilingual and multicultural society

1. Democracy in a multilingual and multicultural society Key-note lecture at the conference on mother tongue, bilingualism and democracy, myths, realties and consensus held in Copenhagen 28 -30 November 2007 by Birgit Brock-Utne University of Oslo http://folk.uio.no/bbrock/implan.html

2. Introduction • Democracy in an affluent country for immigrants from poorer countries • Language and Culture • Democracy and language in multilingual and developing countries • Elimu ya Siasa

3. Democracy in an affluent country for immigrants from poorer countries You do not accept a child when you convey a message saying that one of the central characteristics of the child, her or his language, is of no worth. When the Norwegian school enables the existence and further development of the minority child's vernacular it signals the following: Your language is important and precious and so are you ( Wold 1992:247). (my translation

4. Bok • Brock-Utne,Birgit og Liv Bøyesen (red) 2006: Å klare seg i utdanningssystemet i nord og i sør. Innføring i flerkulturell og komparativ pedagogikk, utdanning og utvikling. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

5. The four LOITASA books. Published in 2003 (in Tanzania), 2004 (in South Africa), 2005 (in Tanzania), 2006 (in South Africa).All four books have been edited by Birgit Brock-Utne,UiO ,Zubeida Desai,UWC and Martha Qorro, UDSM..The first book has been translated into Kiswahili.

6. Loitasa editors at the LEA conference 21 June 2006

7. Language and Culture

8. Not understanding what the teacher is saying • It has always been felt by African educationists that the African child's major learning problem is linguistic. Instruction is given in a language that is not normally used in his immediate environment, a language which neither the learner nor the teacher understands and uses well enough (Obanya l980: 88) • I can recall from my school days about my Chemistry teacher who every ten minutes or so he would ask us: "Any question students?" Nobody answered and he would conclude: "If there are no questions, then you have understood everything!" We did not understand him at all, not only because he taught in English only, he spoke American English!- he was a Peace Corp. The issue was language, as it is in our contemporary schools(Mwinsheikhe 2001).

9. Democracy and language in multilingual and developing countries • there can be no doubt that the exclusive by-passing of indigenous languages in enacting laws and conducting legal proceedings create enormous obstacles for the native speakers of those languages (Ailola and Montsi 1999:135). • the developmental transformation needed to eradicate poverty in Africa is only possible if we can take knowledge and modern science to the masses in their own languages (Prah 2000:ii).

10. Elimu ya Siasa • Changes from Civics to Elimu ya Siasa (1970) • Changes from Elimu ya Siasa back to Civics (1993) Mada za somo lililokuwa likiitwa Elimu ya Siasa zimerekebishwa ili kuendana na mfumo wa demokrasia chini ya vyama vingi vya siasa nchini. Somo hili sasa litaitwa Civics katika shule za sekondari na litafundishwa kwa kiingereza

11. Asanteni sana • Enkosi kakhulu • Mange takk • Thank you so much • Vielen Dank • Merci bien • Muchas gracias