Language Dynamics and their Influence in Zambia’s Political Discourse

Abstract

Purpose – A world with an increasing number of questions needs people willing to contribute solutions. The fulcrum of this study is centred on assessing the language dynamics and impact of the English language hegemony over local languages in the social, political, and economic life of the Zambian population. The study gleans on the implications of English hegemony and its concomitant colonial undertones and effects particularly on marginalised groups. Notably, the study provides a critical and reflexive development study analysis that eschews the norm: this approach – leaning towards the developmental interests of indigenous and local constellations – enables a rethink of who really benefits from language policies and politics, allowing for a repositioning of who in fact the language development paradigm is for. Method of Enquiry/Design – Data were collected through an analysis of both latent and extant literature derived from a variety of scholarly sources on language dynamics and imperial notions associated with domineering languages. This approach of navigating through a juxtaposed pool of scholarly works provided a confluence of propositions that informed the study’s inferences, particularly by highlighting the subtleties embedded in the English language hegemony. Most significantly, the themes are also informed by this author’s own personal field anthropological observations; having been born and grown up in Zambia under this same hegemonic English language environment. Findings – The study finds that language regimes that put English above local languages (as is the case in Zambia) have enormous ramifications on the education and emancipatory objectives of locals, especially the marginalised groups. For instance, women are burdened in the sense that they must – in addition to the confronts associated with the imposition of the English language – also struggle to navigate the already challenging patriarchy terrains that are rooted in the Zambian cultural and political settings. Imposing additional inequalities makes the attainment of societal development goals a tall order to achieve. The study concludes that to redress this situation, the local educational curriculum needs to be re-designed and aligned to respond to the aspirations and context of local constellational demands. Also, Black consciousness as an ideology framed in liberation philosophy needs to be re-energised as a pathway towards a society free from systematic foreign oppression; this is the only way that sustainable development could be attained in Zambia. Originality/Value – The study exposes the prevalent fallacy – especially by Western institutions – that Zambians willingly seek out to learn the English language: To the contrary, the choice and acquisition of the English language is often a result of coercive circumstances. In contemporary Zambia, the English language is – to a greater extent – a means to an end; a means for survival in the modern environments that prioritise English language over any local language or local skill. In Zambia, the criteria for skill or intelligence are only seen through the prism of English language competency. Local initiatives and skills suffer stigma as they are perceived to be primitive, backwards, and redundant. English and ‘whiteness’ are seen as the ‘standard measure of goodness’. In fact, many white-collar job workers are ashamed of speaking their local languages in public spaces. In this context then, English in Zambia is not a luxury but a convenient necessity that allows local people to navigate other critical avenues of contemporary life. The study also lays bare the fact that the English language hegemony has brought about elements of distortion of ethnic identity particularly on how people can access their cultural rights. Furthermore, far from being a neutral language – English, in fact aids the entrenchment of neo-imperialist tendencies such as discrimination, exclusion, and subtle promotion of economic inequalities, and educational elitism.