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Language Policy and Economics: The Language Question in Africa pp 157–187Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Toward Prestige Planning for African Languages: A Response to the Language Question in Africa?

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities ((PSMLC))

Abstract

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework that undergirds this book: Prestige Planning for African languages. Essentially, Prestige Planning is concerned with raising the prestige of any given language, in the present case African languages, so that members of the targeted speech community develop a positive attitude toward it (Haarmann, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 86:103–126, 1990). It argues that for Prestige Planning for African languages to succeed, policymakers must assign an economic value to some subset of the languages selected from Africa’s multilingual marketplace so that their speakers can view them as a commodity of the formal learning in which they would be eager to invest. Drawing on language economics (Dustmann, Journal of Population Economics, 7:133–156, 1994; Grin et al., The Economics of the Multilingual Workplace. Routledge, 2010), game theory (Laitin, The American Political Science Review, 88:622–634, 1994), and critical theory (Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power. Polity Press, 1991), the chapter proposes three intertwined courses of action to develop positive values for African languages: creating the demand for these languages in Africa’s multilingual marketplace, using the created demand as incentive for adopting African languages as mediums of instruction in schools, and requiring school-acquired knowledge of African languages for access to resources and employment. The chapter considers the costs and benefits of prestige planning for African languages, for there is no such thing as cost-free language planning, and explores, in conclusion, possible applications of Prestige Planning in some of Africa’s monolingual (Lesotho and Swaziland) and multilingual (Kenya and Tanzania) nations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Grin and Vaillancourt (1997: 49), a linguistic environment subsumes in an extensive fashion all the relevant information about the status, in the broadest sense of the word, of the various languages present in a given polity at a certain time. This includes the number of speakers, the individual proficiency levels in the various languages, the domains of use of each language by different types of actors (individuals, corporations, state, civil society organizations), their attitudes toward the languages considered, and so on. Each linguistic environment, note Grin and Vaillancourt, entails costs and benefits, and so does the framework of Prestige Planning being proposed in the present study.

  2. 2.

    Recently, in early 2015, the government of Tanzania announced a new language policy aimed at raising the status of kiSwahili in the educational system. The policy document, dated 2014, is written exclusively in kiSwahili, and there is no English version available. There are, however, forums in English where discussions about the policy can be accessed, including the following:

    http://www.jamiiforums.com/jukwaa-la-siasa/804931-maoni-na-uchambuzi-wa-prof-kitila-mkumbo-kuhusu-sera-mpya-ya-elimu-nchini.html

    http://mlamwassawaukae.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-education-policy-for-tanzania-free.html

    http://aikandekwayu.com/on-the-new-education-policy-in-tanzania-sera-ya-elimu-na-mafunzo-tanzania-2014-education-policy-tanzania/

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Howard University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu

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Kamwangamalu, N.M. (2016). Toward Prestige Planning for African Languages: A Response to the Language Question in Africa?. In: Language Policy and Economics: The Language Question in Africa. Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31623-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31623-3_7

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