Modern science needs local languages

Lazarus Sauti

In spite of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s assertion that educating learners in a language that they understand best is a tenet of good practice, Africa remains the only continent in the world where formal education is generally conducted in instructional languages that are foreign to most learners and their teachers.

The continent has in this regard been divided into Anglophone, Francophone and Luzophone states, to refer to the European (former colonial) languages, English, French and Portuguese respectively.

This is despite the fact that African languages have much to offer science - but only if science can be translated into local languages.

Charles Dhewa, Chief Executive Officer of Knowledge Transfer Africa in Harare believes Africa is endowed with traditional knowledge which could make valuable contributions to its progress in science.

“Africans have a rich cultural heritage and a wealth of traditional knowledge on topics ranging from agriculture and forestry to medicines and medical practices - all of which could make valuable contributions to modern science.

“For example, traditional knowledge of drought-resistant crop varieties could prove crucial in helping small farmers across the continent adapt to climate change.

“Much of this type of knowledge is embedded in the diverse local languages and cultures found in Africa,” Dhewa says.

Sadly, despite many years of scientific undertakings in countries within and across the African continent, there is still no vernacular word for ‘science’.

This marginalisation of African languages and practices means much local knowledge is lost.

More so, many innovations by farmers and rural communities are excluded from modern science and technology because there are no local terms or expressions to capture them.

To help address pressing development issues on the continent, stakeholders in the science and technology fraternity should be engaged to be able to participate in science innovation.

“China and Japan localised their products and services using their local languages and it is amazing. Africa should copy that. We should be proud of using our local languages. This means Africa should engage its science players to participate in science innovation using local languages,” remarks Dhewa.

He adds: “Africans must think hard. They should gather all kind of content and document it in local languages. This means that African policy decision makers must make an effort to ‘domesticate’ science by using African languages to talk about it.”

Dhewa says content is important that is why it is a security issue in other countries. Therefore, African countries must invest in translation activities – translating foreign materials into local languages.

Thus, organisations that specialise in science and technology should use translations to add value to scientific documents that are published in foreign languages.

Dhewa says, “It is not just individual words that need translating, it is also the expression of ideas and meanings, formed in one context and received and interpreted in very different ones.”

Adds Dhewa: “Domesticating science and technology through translation can only succeed with sufficient investment to support it. In theory, money for translation activities should come out of national science and technology budgets. But these remain very small in Africa.”

African governments should revise and up their science and technology budgets. They must prioritise research and development and look for alternative sources of funding such as national science and technology taxes.

Dhewa also believes that African governments should invest in community knowledge centres as they are avenues to share both knowledge and personal experimentation in local languages.

Local languages have distinct ways of sharing indigenous knowledge around agriculture, health and climate change,” notes Dhewa.

To effectively domesticate science and technology, African states should fund their local publishing industries to help promote the production of science books in African languages.

Importantly, a more vibrant local publishing industry in African nations can as well support writing in African local languages.

Honestly, it is difficult to exaggerate the achievements of modern science and technology - but to tackle persisting poverty, disease and ecological imbalance in Africa, the continent needs to explore other routes of enquiry, and embracing local languages in African sciences is a particular one.