Wednesday, September 24, 2008

THEY CAN SPEAK ENGLISH!

This article is a response to Corinna and subsequently many other German Students who want to know more about one of my poems titled THEY CAN SPEAK ENGLISH. It was Corinna who first ask some questions and I simply send the same response to all of them.

Corinna's email reads:

Hello Dr. Yusuf M.Adamu,
I'm from Germany and I'm 17 years old. In school we talk about your poem ,, They can speak English '' !
I have to do a presentation about it.
So I'have got some questions :
1. Why did you write this poem? What were your personal reasons ?
2.What do you think about English and England ?
3. Are you proud of your mothertongue and what is your mothertongue ?

I really hope you will answer my questions because it would help me alot !!!

Nice greetings from Germany !!!

Yours, sincery Corinna

My response:

1. Why did you write this poem? What were your personal reasons?

I wrote the poem in 1999 after reading another poem by Dollar Brand another African poet. Now I can’t remember what he wrote, but I can clearly remember why I wrote mine.

You see, in some parts of Nigeria, some people have taking English language to be a symbol of civilization and beyond that what makes one a full human being or a literate person or both. This opinion I did not share. But because of that perception, it becomes possible to stereotype some Nigerians whose pronunciation of certain English letters, seem to be wrong. For example, Hausa people in the north don’t have P , V and X in their letters, so most at times when they want to pronounce P, they actually pronounce F, for instance the word PEOPLE would be pronounced FEOFLE. This, makes Hausa speakers of English in Nigeria a laughing stoke by other Nigerians especially in the South. But, this does not mean that other Nigerians in the South, notably Yoruba and Ibo are any better. The Yorubas for example have problem when pronouncing A and H, somehow, the interchange them naturally. A Yoruba man will pronounce the word HEAD as EAD and the word HAND as AND, and so on and so forth. Our Ibo brothers have problem with pronunciation of the word THE, so they say DE instead of THE and the word MOTHER for example they pronounce it as MODA and so on and so forth.

Despite this, any person who cannot speak in English or read and write in English is seen by some as backward and illiterate, this is even if he can read and write in any other language. This is very annoying that some times I personally have to protest. For example, when people meet to celebrate weddings, at times English language is used as the language of communication, that prevents many from expressing their minds, so when I attend such gatherings I speak in Hausa language because that’s my language. That action always encourage other people to speak in the language without feeling bad.
In 1998, I went to the UK for an academic exchange program between my department (Geography) at the Bayero University Kano Nigeria and the School of African Studies at the University of Sussex , at Brighton . That was my first time of visiting Europe . It was during this visit that I realised that the English people are not worried about how I speak, whatever accent I have as long as I communicate, I also met other nationals who speak English in their accents, so I concluded that there is no English language, rather Englishes. So, why should any non native English speaker be more proud of the language than the native speakers. It therefore makes no sense to me that we take English language as a measure of success or civilization. My poem is therefore a reflection of these experiences.

It may surprise you to hear how my colleague and I suffered in a West African City of Abidjan from fellow Africans simply because we could not speak their colonial language of French. It was very annoying that I was coming from Kano in West Africa to Abidjan in the same region but my own brothers and sisters see me as different simply because I could not speak French. I have to tell them when they ask why that even the English language I was speaking was out of necessity, if I had chance, I would rather speak to them in Hausa which is the most widely spoken language in West Africa . It was shocking to see how the people of Abidjan takes the French language. That encounter led to the poem below.

ABIDJAN

Instead of staying for a while as transit
We were dumped by Bell view and rejected by Air Ivoire
In a land of elephants and lagoons
Of bare postcard breasts and fabulous women
A city where French language is sacred
And English could be seen as profane
Yet, Koumassi was pleasant with its baked chickens
And delicious Kef at Khamadi’s restaurant
The worshipers and the faithful abound
If not for those arrogant Air Ivoire women at the airport
Abidjan could have been a marvellous place


Grand Hotel, Bamako
(3:34pm) September 28, 2006.

2. What do you think about English and England ?

English language is today a global language. What was responsible for that include colonialism and neo-colonialism, imperialism and media. It dominates most languages in the world also because it is able to borrow and adapt new words and also because it is a language of business. But this does not make English the best language in the world, rather a powerful second language to millions. If I have choice, I would rather use my language in anything. Unfortunately, Nigeria was colonised by Britain and English is our official language, we were taught in it and we teach and do formal work in English at the detriment of our local languages. Still, English people and English speaking peoples have promoted their language through peaceful means and also through none peaceful means.

As for England , while there I visited London , Liverpool, Sven Sisters, Abury and the Stonehenge . So, I have seen their cities and country side, it is a beautiful country. I only feel that, Great Britain has not been fear to Africa , looking at what happened in the past and how things are happening today.
3. Are you proud of your mother tongue and what is your mother tongue ?

Of course yes Corinna. I am very proud of my mother tongue. Before I tell you more, I think I should first answer the other question attached to this. My mother tongue is Hausa. Hausa is a term used to describe a people and their language. A conservative estimate shows that there are over 40 million speakers of the language. It is the lingua franca of northern Nigeria and Southern Niger and is widely spoken in Benin , Burkina Faso , Ghana , Cameroon , Central Africa Republic , Chad , Sudan , Togo and Eritrea . It is the fastest growing literary language in Africa with over 200 women writing and publishing in the language. You can learn more about Hausa on the internet by searching through google.com and also from Deutsche Welle, where Hausa is one of the languages broadcast.

Now to my relationship with my mother tongue, I take my mother tongue so seriously that I was the only Social Science student learning Hausa language and literature at my first and second year during my undergraduate studies at the University. I was a member of the Hausa Cultural Society and rose to the rank of Secretary General. I ensure that I not only write in the language, but also promote its use. I have so far published 3 novels in Hausa language namely Idan So Cuta Ne, 1989 (literal: if love is a disease), Ummul-khairi, 1995 (mother of goodness) and Maza Gumbar Dutse, 2007 (Men are a cake of stone) and have finished the following which are now awaiting publishing Dukan Ruwa, 1988, Gumakan Zamani, 1992 and Son Zuciya Bacinta, 1987 (Hausa play). I personally teach my children to read and write in Hausa language and have been a leading Hausa author and promoter of Hausa literature. Very soon I would dedicate a blog to the teaching of Hausa language.

Well Corinna, this is what I am able to get for you. I hope it would be useful and hope you won’t mind if I share this with others on my blog in the near future. I wish you success and hope that we would keep in touch.
The poem, They can speak English is reproduced below:

They Can Speak English
(After Reading Dollar Brand's Western Influence)
red-eared mentogether brought us
to live as nations
their languageto us they introduced
with it we communicate officially
later we even think in it
mother tongues second classed
stereotyped
back benched
if you speak english
you are civilized
praised, recognizedand respected
but in england
my pronunciation they bother not
my grammar they care not
if only they could understand me
i communicated well
but why should a black-eared red-ear one
be so proud to speak english
even at the expense of mother tongue
be proud not because you speak english
be proud only if in your mother tongue
be it hausa ashante or berber
swahili masai or kwa zulu
sango ashante or arabic
you can think and
express your thought

July 23, 1999

4 comments:

Bill Chapman said...

How interesting to read your views on language. Have you ever considered learning and using the planned international language Esperanto? Insteads of using English or French, both colonial languages, you could use a language which belongs to no particular state or group of states.

Take a look at www.esperanto.net

Best wishes from bilingual Wales.

John James said...

Interesting post, but do you mean to describe Abidjan as a 'West African country', rather than as a 'West African city'?

Danbature said...

I really appreciate the way you think and express your views which. is contrary to most of our educated I hope you keep on enlightening the people particularly your students

Unknown said...

Reading this post is what we call "A PLEASURE" from the begining to the end, i've learned alot and also it has freed me from the fear of making mistakes in speaking english language within my mates. Thank u sir, and keep doing the good work. SALUTE!!