A non-African's place in advocacy for African languages?

NW angle on Djenné mosque; Palais de Justice in foreground, 1983 

As the kind readers of Beyond Niamey will have noticed, I've been publishing much less frequently since the end of 2017. There are several reasons for this. I offered short takes on why in late 2020 ("A sabbatical, of sorts") and late 2023 ("Hiatus in writing here"), but I always intended to offer a more complete reflection. That is what I will begin to do in this post - prefaced with some personal history. 

The fundamental question in my mind is about a non-African's place in advocacy for African languages.

Change of place & change of realities

The year 2017 was one of major personal and family transitions. The last of those was a relocation in December from the Washington, DC area to Michigan, where I had done my graduate work (at Michigan State University) and where I have some family history.

The year 2018 ended up being one of a reckoning and resetting. My plans were to both continue international consulting and seek an academic administrative position that might afford time to pursue research on African languages and development. The latter transition was in the background of my thinking in a post in June of that year ("Rebooting"). Since many years ago, I had had the idea that my penultimate professional/academic "chapter" would be in a university program in either international studies or African studies.

Neither plan would work out as envisaged, each for different reasons. So, in rewriting that "chapter," I've returned to an old interest in crop diversity that led to a focus on the group of grains called millets - some of which I was first introduced to in Africa. The timing was fortuitous in ways I won't digress on here. 

A new generation is taking over (and that's a good thing!)

With regard to African studies, while I maintain a strong interest in the continent and its peoples, I came to understand that a new generation was taking the reins in Title VI centers. That's logical and positive. I had actually seen this dynamic previously in contexts where, if I had been the one hiring, I likely would have been thinking strategically about younger candidates, .

There is also another natural trend to promoting scholars of African background to at least some open positions. Again, if I were the one making strategic plans or hiring decisions, this is another direction I would certainly be thinking about. So. there are no regrets or negative feelings - one rolls with the changes, with the hope that one can pass on something of value in other ways.

With regard to African languages, and their interface with development (broadly writ) and technology, I'm similarly inclined to thinking that it's time for the new generation of African scholars and advocates for the languages of the continent to take the fore. Even in the area of making the case with international development agencies to pay more attention to African languages, African leadership is needed.

A new generation is taking over (and the more things stay the same?)

However, the situation with African languages and technology is a bit complicated, in that there is at the same time a new generation of non-Africans getting involved, who may not always have the knowledge or context of non-Africans with longer experience, let alone that of African experts. For example, in one social media exchange with a non-African advocate for new scripts for African languages, that person freely admitted not knowing much about the continent.

In this, I'm reminded of the generational (or in the context of PC's 2 year cycles, cohort) dynamics in development work, with non-African newbies often repeating the same learning cycles - and even mistakes - of those before. New ideas may be easy and seem compelling (I've been there too), but a little more context before prescription can make for better outcomes. Remembering here some well-meaning "why don't they just ... ?" questions by people within the first few days of arriving somewhere in Africa the first time.

The role of non-Africans ... 

In my dissertation on the pastoral systems of the Inland Niger Delta of Mali, one of the patterns I identified in Western thinking about pastoralists, was a never resolved dialectic between opposite perspectives on the "rationality" of this production system (i.e., thesis, antithesis, back to new thesis, then new antithesis, and repeat). Paraphrased for the broader application that I think it merits:

This is a dynamic sadly common to so much of development and African studies over the years - outsider experts effectively dominate discussion and analysis of African development, ultimately occupying if not pre-empting both sides of any major debate. ("On diacritics & modified characters in African languages," 2 Sep. 2015, quoting an earlier post on A12n-collab dated 24 Jun. 2006)

None of this means that outsiders cannot have insights not visible to insiders, or that they have nothing to contribute from their access to other bodies of knowledge and practice. But in the peculiar history of western (and global Northern) interaction with Africa, foreigners from more powerful or richer parts of the world can exercise undue influence on local dynamics.

That is as true in the domain of languages as it is in social and economic development. And that concern is one I hope to bring home to my own practice, past and potential, in later posts.

There's obviously a lot more to say on this but I'll leave it here for now. In the next few posts, I plan to share why and how I got interested in African languages in the first place.