REFLECTIONS: CHILDREN'S ETHNIC LITERATURE IN MINORITY LANGUAGES

by Daniel Kasule

ABSTRACT This paper considers the value of ethnic literature and its contribution to the development of human potential in an environment dominated by foreign concepts, styles, tastes and symbols. These are transmitted, not only by school, but also by the agencies of mass communication, song and dance, and more recently by the Internet. Although the paper focused on a rural setting where such influences are not so strong, the danger was that in their absence, minority children begin to regard their environments as culturally deprived since ethnic literature is not accorded a place in the education of these children. This paper tries to show how minority children's Ethnic Literature (EL) has values that are personal, national, economic, educational and global which necessitate acknowledging EL as a school subject. It concludes with a look at research needs related to children's EL in minority languages.

Introduction Language experts of Sub-Saharan Africa have for a very long time considered the benefits of according the mother tongue a place in the education system. Some of this thinking has found its way into official policy statements. In Botswana, for example, Vision 2016 (1997:5 & 31) says in part that no child "will be disadvantaged in the education system as a result of a mother tongue that differs from the country's two official languages". Such thinking opens new possibilities for minority languages which their speakers could never have imagined. For example, the document further proclaims that "all the nation's languages must be taught to a high standard at primary, secondary and tertiary" levels of education.

But in many multilingual African countries, schools use literature from the ethnic majority to represent the literary wealth of the country. In the case of Botswana for example, only literature written in Setswana and English is used. This lopsided representation has serious repercussions on minority children in their formative years of learning. It seems to be telling them that only literature expressed in these languages has value. A linguistically diversified education correctly reflects the multilingual character of a country. A further benefit is that with mother tongue as medium of instruction (MOI) in the formative years, it is possible that less teacher-centred teaching approaches will give way to the more interactive and effective learner-centred ones. Better teaching and learning means less wastage of human potential. More importantly, the status of speakers of these languages will improve. The change ends decades of debate on the role of the mother tongue in education dating back to the Phelps-Stolks Commission (1920), and UNESCO's Report (1953). It also puts to good use traditional education available in the locality in the form of age-old wisdom passed on from generation to generation. In the field of children's Ethnic Literature (EL) alone, to which the bulk of this paper is devoted, lies the ready key to raising the self-esteem of school-going children from ethnic minorities. Firstly, EL is readily available as we speak within the community. Secondly, if enriched with EL from outside the child's community, it makes the child sensitive to the shared experiences of the human race. As a school subject therefore, EL helps in putting an end to the perpetuation of stereotypes and misconceptions about minorities.

Minorities In this paper the term 'minority children's ethnic literature' will be understood as the verbal representation of the community's experiences in a manner which enables the minority child to understand and appreciate his or her environment better while giving him / her pleasure. Written or unwritten, a representative collection includes such forms as fantasy and adventure narratives, proverbs, riddles, songs, poems, tongue twisters, praise-songs, epics, drama, 'why'-stories', and other myths. This is far from suggesting that literature from outside the child's community is valueless. The implication of this definition is that unless some appreciation of the literary wealth of the community is given prominence, the minority child is likely to regard it as inferior and worthless. Secondly, the term 'minority children' may contribute negatively to the picture people want to make. Regrettably, no other term could do better here and since the term 'minority' itself has not had an acceptable definition (Lerner, 1991, p. 8 - 19), it is fitting to disregard its unpleasant connotations if we hope to confront it as a problem. Although, according to social psychology, the self-image is influenced by the image others have of the self or group (Abramsk & Hogg 1990), the burden of inferiority is greatly reduced by self-assertiveness. So, rather than expecting redress from the actions of the dominant groups, the onus is upon the ability and willingness of each minority group to pursue the needs, interests and wishes of their group. When this happens the image people make of the group is improved and the term 'minority' no longer fits the picture. Teaching minority children EL is a positive step indeed for the prestige of ethnic minorities, yet no one else can render its authenticity better than the affected communities themselves. This paper proposes that ethnic minorities should not lose this opportunity of using children's EL as one of the ways of getting their languages firmly into the education system.

The next section looks at the humiliation suffered by minority children when school tries to assimilate them into the mainstream. The argument proceeds to propose that in a world characterised by violence arising from intolerance, assimilation should be replaced by intercultural education.

Assimilation versus Intercultural Education At present, it is possible to argue that minority children are unwanted guests in the education system of Botswana. For them, the goal of national unity requires them to surrender their origins and join the mainstream through assimilation. Assimilationism defends the primacy of one culture resulting in the devaluation and elimination of all others (Camara, 1998). It promotes cultural unification by absorbing minorities into a common fold. The absorbed minorities however, do not enjoy equal status with the dominant group that is absorbing them. This is the form of assimilation which the writer Okot p'Bitek (cited in Mbise, 1989) says results in 'apemanship', a condition which leaves minority children grossly deprived of their self worth. Because of assimilation, materials selected for use in the classroom are irrelevant to the spiritual needs of minority children. For instance, songs taught in primary schools are 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', 'London's Burning', along with a select few songs from the ethnic majority such as 'Segwagwane'. Nyati-Ramahobo (1997) reviewed the Setswana primary school curriculum materials for their cultural relevance to the dominant groups and found them concentrating on alien traditions, practices, norms and beliefs. Milon (cited in Nyati-Ramahobo) found the same irrelevance with primary school materials for teaching English. Therefore, if school experiences contain very little that would make children from the dominant groups emotionally and culturally educated for life within their communities and beyond, then minority children culturally suffer a double loss. For them, the process of assimilation continues relentlessly even outside school. If they live in an urban area, then styles, tastes, symbolisms and concepts that are foreign dominate their lives. These are transmitted through newspapers, comics, prose and verse, song and dance, films, magazines, the Internet, televisions and other media. On the other hand, minority children who live in the rural areas aspire to leave their 'deprived' surroundings for the cities once they have mastered the languages associated with success. Today therefore more than ever before, minority children have a very glorified view of everything foreign to their own and would gladly deny their true origins. Teaching EL can provide the spiritual inspiration needed to retard apemanship.

The conceptual rationale of according minority languages a place in the education system is interculturalism. Interculturalism affirms the authenticity of each culture (Camara, 1998). It also considers a community's capacity to accept others in order to promote complementary relations. Intercultural education therefore, unlike assimilation, develops a peculiar skill in the learner: the ability to project oneself into the mind of another. Hoopes (1980) adds that intercultural education "must help students cope with interdependence and cultural pluralism which involve relationships, events, and forces that cannot be contained within national or cultural boundaries". Teaching EL is a positive step towards the ideal of an intercultural education whose objectives would be the following: To appreciate the value of indigenous knowledge present in the child's community. To learn to view people as part of a much larger global community in which the child is a member. To offer the child participatory capacity within his community. To promote a context for respect of other people's ways of living. Intercultural education recognises that since the scientific and technological developments that dominate all sectors of humankind today tend not to acknowledge the minority world view, they fail to provide certain moral values for minority children. For instance, when development projects blatantly disregard the knowledge of the people residing in the area, how will such values as honesty, impartiality, personal objectivity and loyalty to a group be viewed? Intercultural education also recognises that cultural heterogeneity must accord every member of that society full recognition in a kind of do to others what you would have them do to you. Further, it acknowledges that a global citizen is first and foremost a member of a particular language group; and that the ideal 'world without frontiers' makes it imperative to provide a curriculum that enhances minority children's feelings of self-worth. Intercultural education also acknowledges that when given official backing, each language can be a vehicle of education and can provide economic opportunities and enhance the status of the individual.

Of tremendous interest to speakers of minority languages are the implications of globalisation to their survival. To allay fears it is best to regard globalisation as implying a giant jigsaw puzzle consisting of a myriad of perfectly fitting pieces of different sizes and shapes. Fitting in is the key word. Nyati-Ramahobo (1997) rightly notes that 'if we know ourselves, then we know how to fit, rather than trying to fit in when we do not know our shape and size (p.211). This is vitally important for sub-Saharan Africa. If early childhood education does not contribute to their understanding of who they really are, then in adulthood, globalisation will disarm them even the more. The global citizen of tomorrow must not only be skilful in technical competencies but also in his / her social and personal relations within his / her community. Fayose (1991:75) sees children's literature as working to educate, edify and entertain. This author sees a need by African children to understand African concepts and ways of life through literature whose subject matter is derived from the African worldview and written in a language and style the African child can comprehend. Because all communities use literature to depict a good image of themselves, the school use of EL that is indigenous to the community helps to raise the self-esteem of minority children. Put another way, EL provides them a view of themselves that does not exclude them or portray them as insignificant because of their small number.

Recent global events, some still current, bring new challenges for the education children receive. At this time in our history the world is experiencing the worst forms of violence meted out at minorities. The genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia are unforgettable. Yet these are only the peaks of a huge problem ranging from incidents sparked off by xenophobia, ethnocentrism, intolerance, racism, human rights abuses, terrorism, exclusion, or aggressive nationalism. Consequently, no country has remained unaffected: if not as the country of refuge for displaced survivors, then the country has had to act as arbiter in the United Nations peacekeeping contingents scattered all over the globe.

For educators, these events are reminders of the need to learn during peacetime to cultivate a democratic coexistence with ethnic minorities and assuring that the benefit of this learning is not lost to the children of tomorrow. Since children spend long hours at school, the education system is the right vehicle for promoting early in the child a sense of tolerance towards minorities and international understanding. More recently at a ceremony to mark for the first time the International Mother Language Day this view was echoed by UNESCO's Director General. He said, 'Favouring the promotion of linguistic diversity and the development of multilingual education from an early age helps preserve cultural diversity and the conditions for international understanding, tolerance and mutual respect' (Matsuura, K, UNESCOPRESSE, 21 February 2000).

Thus far, the value of EL for children's understanding of democratic coexistence has been discussed. As a school subject EL has several pedagogical values in the primary school. The next section considers these. A few examples of English translations of actual riddles and poems have been included to capture part of their appeal, one that will no doubt be lost to minority children as a result of this translation.

The Value of Children's Literature in one's Native Language Minority children living in rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa are brought up on vibrant and living oral forms of the literature of their communities until they enter school and yield to the new and strange influences inherent in school. Since schools de-emphasise early childhood stories in the mother tongue, today few older children recognise them as literature. Adults may recall the riddles, proverbs, count songs, trickster tales, animal stories and traditional myths that formed part of their home games long before they were brought before the stern-looking personality called 'teacher'! For minority groups all this literary wealth has to be dropped on entering school yet these traditional tales satisfy several needs for beginner readers in the elementary school. They offer the literacy skills that the learner gradually transfers to reading and later, to the learning of a second language. According to Fillmore and Valadez (1986) children better learn to read in a language that they already speak. Another value lies in the community wisdom of many generations contained in them. Such wisdom is worth preserving and transmitting onto children without the risks of loss or distortion through translation. I see two related developments: developing all these genres into easily retrievable reading/teaching materials, on the one hand, and using them in a literature-based reading instruction programme in the primary school, on the other.

Using EL materials achieves greater comprehension and enjoyment. For example, certain literary terms create untold difficulties to learners when they have to grapple with them in a second language. Because teachers have not learnt to use examples of these terms from the child's EL, these literary terms are often taught as features of the English language and not as aspects of the discipline of literature. No link is made with the child's experiences of EL. Following are three examples to help demonstrate the power of EL to transmit vividly a given set of literary concepts, viz., metaphor, imagery and symbolism:

1. Teaching the concept metaphor: Metaphor is often taught late to children because of its assumed abstract nature. It is even more difficult to teach via a second language. However, if we accept Mapanje and White's (1983) view that some riddles are actually about metaphor, then examples of riddles in the mother tongue help. The learner may be able to see that a metaphor is what is being referred to in the riddle when it is described as something else. Here are two examples of riddles, one from Malawi and the second from Nigeria demonstrating metaphorical reference: a. I killed game. When I skinned it, I threw away the skin; I threw away the entrails, and ate only the flesh. What was it I killed?(Chichewa, Malawi). [=a pawpaw / papaya]. b. They cut off his head; they cut off his waist; his stump says he will inherit the title of his father's house. Who is he?(Yoruba, Nigeria). ( Mapanje & White, p. 183). [=a yam].

2. Teaching the concept imagery: Because the concerns of EL may be familiar to the learners, elements of humour and the imagery therein form a part of their life experience. The following example is a song sang by women of the Bakgatla in Botswana complaining about their husbands. Note how the mocking language from the woman (still evident in the translation) fits the image of an irresponsible husband sauntering home, drunk:

'I am Your Betrothed' I heard it said that I was betrothed And one afternoon when I was at home, As I was sitting, I saw a fool coming. He came dragging his coat on the ground And his trousers were made of khaki. I said to him, 'Fool, where do you come from?' He replied, 'I am your betrothed.' I gave the dog a chair and his tail hung down.

(Mapanje & White, P.83)

3. Teaching the concept symbolism: Children's first encounter with symbols is through folk stories that make use of familiar objects. In a rural setting without street lighting or skyscrapers, familiar objects in the sky take on special significance at night for rural people such as this translation of a San prayer does. Note how it captures the idea of rebirth by using our familiar knowledge of the phases of the moon. Each appearance and disappearance of the moon signifying the rebirth and that symbol of the moon helping the listener to comprehend the belief that people return after death:

Re- birth Young moon, take my face up yonder, Give back to me your face up there, take away this pain. Give me your face small moon, That dies, and when you die Living you return again. When we see you, and no more we see you, You lie down to sleep and come again. Give me that I shall be like you, This joy that you possess forever Yonder with you, that living you come back When we did not see you there. Once when your child the hare Cried to you, his mother, not to let him die, You told us too that when we died We should return again.

(Mapanje & White, pp. 114 - 115).

There are also other pedagogical values of EL. Children's EL serves a practical purpose within its locale. It highlights the shared world that we live in with people, animals, insects, plants, rivers and many more. The stories help to capture, for instance, the concerns of the animals as imagined by the people who understand their behaviour well because they live close to them. Talking animals appear in the folktales of all cultures but these are never animals foreign to the locale of the story. Learners get to understand the animals around them, along with the characteristics of these animals, so that they can approximate the closeness or distance they ought to observe with each of these animals. Given that certain animals are ferocious, such vital knowledge is needed early in a child's life since personal survival itself might one day depend on it.

Community survival too depends on this practical knowledge. In a discussion of the survival of the San and Khoe minority communities in South Africa, Crawall (1998) demonstrates the advantage of traditional knowledge systems over western scientific ones. He says traditional knowledge systems do not present knowledge in compartments but they combine 'botanical, zoological, environmental knowledge, with social customs, sustainable management practices and value systems'. In this way, ideas regarding sustainable use of the environment are not clouded in specialists' jargon. Instead, ideas are made more stimulating and relevant to everyone. A great deal is lost when school does not use such valuable education early particularly for minority children who have to wait until they have mastered the language of school before they can access it. It is for this reason that Crawall (ibid.) rightly laments that the current education system of his country fails to stimulate local economies because it does not emphasise indigenous knowledge. It is this knowledge for instance, often retained in an oral form and passed on from generation to generation that sustains the natural resources of tourist attractions such as the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) upon which Botswana's tourist industry depends. Yet when children from the CKGR have to go to school where they would spend a good part of the day, this knowledge becomes inaccessible because it is being transmitted in a second language. Reading materials derived from outside the community fail to render the authenticity of this knowledge because they are several removes from the original.

The poem below captures the interdependence of the hunter in search of honey, and the honey-bird, which leads him to the hive and later feeds on the grubs after the hunter has left (Mapanje & White, p 62). It is from the Hurutshe people of South Africa: The Honey-bird Bird of the thorn apple trees, Bird with more kind-heartedness than a chief, Do not give me a tree, give me an antheap; I have no axe to chop a tree with: Tswedi tswerre. I have my digging stick of sickle-bush wood, A digging stick to dig an antheap with. If you give me, I shill give you without being asked, I shall give you honey-comb larvae in it: Tswedi tswerre. Bird of the bees. (p. 62)

Literature instruction through a second language often underestimates (and sometimes, even overestimates) children's ability to responsiveness to literature. Unaware of what children already know, teachers may tend to provide selections that are either too simple or too difficult. Perhaps this is because it is being rendered too early in a second language. With more familiar language and settings children develop into critical readers and are able to recognise that some stories are set in fantasyland. They can then see the world where, for instance, Lion can preside over a meeting of fellow animals as unreal. What better way than this to foster their critical thinking skills early in their lives using a language they have confidence in? Such stories can easily be understood because firstly, the characters embody the virtue or vice they represent: hyena for wicked greed; hare for mental agility; lion for fearlessness; and so on. Such experience with clearly demarcated or 'flat' characters is helpful in the child's development as a skilful reader. Secondly, when the teacher asks the right kind of questions about what has been read, the stories become stimulating experiences for the learners. Perhaps it is this failure to promote originality that arises from genuine understanding of information that is rendering our school systems as producers of imitators and not thinkers. The right kind of questions are those that ask the learners to say what they genuinely feel about the story, the events in it and what it is that makes them think so. When reading instruction is based on literature alien to the learners and is given in a second language the benefit of all these valuable skills is lost.

In selecting literature in the second language, the features of EL could help educators. In many communities EL is used to inculcate social values such as bravery, perseverance, togetherness and good behaviour. EL therefore is children's first lesson in the community's morals. When good overcomes evil, or when small overcomes large, children are reassured that in a world where everyone is stronger and bigger, they can win in the end. Even here characterisation is straightforward. Because it is often the qualities of character which cause conflict in the story, the narrator quickly reveals these. For example the virtue, humility, patience, and sweetness of voice of a young female character in the story all combine to capture the good girl image (or absence of it), so revered in African communities. In contrast, the ideal male hero is kind, obedient and respectful, yet strong, virile and courageous. With a worldview which believes in community cohesiveness, the loner may always be depicted as quarrelsome, ugly, cross, vindictive and mean; the type that engages in witchcraft or child molestation. Quite often virtue is rewarded and evil is punished thus providing a happy ending which enables the children to overcome fears they sometimes cannot often express. Their response to frightening bits is not flight but elevation to higher drama and suspense because they know good judgement will eventually prevail. And, since all societies use literature to project a good image of themselves and to inculcate good moral values, every child deserves this wealth irrespective of how few people who speak his/her language. EL therefore provides a vital foundation for the future enjoyment of literature.

Children's EL also deserves prominence for yet another reason. This is the fact that people created traditional stories generations ago that had no scientific explanation for phenomena. Many "why" stories explain in often magical proportions the origins of a particular phenomenon. The characters themselves may have supernatural powers, such as spirits, ghosts, medicine men, rainmakers, witches or giants. Cullinan (1976) observes that all this is very suitable for children because by using the superstitions, feelings and dreams of pre-scientific logic, the literature provides them with an uncomplicated view of the world. Since a good amount of EL is available in the home, promoting minority languages will enable minority children learn to account for the social phenomena of beliefs, attitudes, values and cultural events prevalent in their community in order to understand who they really are. An understanding of past events via EL helps in critical thinking over issues, influences sympathies and sharpens the child's awareness of society's beauty as well as society's evils .A further justification for children's EL in the learner's home language is further upheld by Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Consider for instance the characteristic repetition of events, sometimes in the form of a chorus, found in folktales and chain riddles. This seems to suit children's inability to deal with abstract notions of past events when they are between the ages of 2 and 7 years. Other stories are characterised by events and/or characters arranged in sequence for the same reasons (Cullinan, 1976:85). Hence three characters may be big, bigger and biggest or days may become dry, drier and driest until a solution appears. At this stage the learner is gaining literary development which prepares them for the more difficult school texts higher up in the education ladder.

It is only best that the initial encounter with literature is in the child's home language. However, when such experience is rendered through EL, that experience is evidently very enriching.

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