PC, Language, Decolonization, and Public Schools

This paper provides a PC critique of two articles that directly relate why PC should be incorporated into public education.  The two articles deal with the notion of decolonizing African education byway of challenging the colonial language.  The first article is titled “Language Policy and Decolonizing African Education” by Kofi Khepera in Journal of Management Policy and Practice Vol. 21(2) 2020.  The second article is titled “Decolonizing the Curriculum to Reinvigorate Equity in Higher Education: A Linguistic Transformation” by M. W. Lumadi in South African Journal of Higher Education https://dx.doi.org/10.20853/35-1-4415 Volume 35 | Number 1 | 2021 March | pages 37‒53. 

The major premise of both articles is that our “mother-tongue” has been colonized and marginalized by Western civilization and this marginalization has interfered with our African children achieving high academic proficiency.  Though the articles deal with children on the African Continent, I will show that African decedent children in America equally suffer a “mother-tongue” depletion.  I will also argue that “decolonizing” is not about a particular “mother-tongue” (i.e., language); there are approximately 2,000 African languages (“mother-tongues).  This is not about having our children learn and utilize a particular “mother-tongue” from Africa.  No. this is about the need to decolonize the vocabulary and ideas of the CC language advanced by Western civilization which today is still the big strategy in the continued efforts to corrupt Africa.   

Though, it can easily be argued that African languages (“mother-tongues” even back to ancient Africa) have CC vocabulary and ideas embedded, without any doubt, our ancient bloodlines lived naturally and organically as Producers and as individuals were integrated with the powerful productive forces of nature and the universe.  So, we can’t say that CC is a flaw of just Western civilization. All civilizations struggle with the dis(ease) of greed, childish thinking, and the desire to “consume” one another physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  The key point is that the indigenous populations and our distant African ancestors were simply far less infected by CC. 

The purpose of this paper is to utilize the arguments of language decolonization in Africa to show that our children in American public schools need to be decolonized from the language of CC.  PC’s vocabulary and ideas capture the powerful productive universal forces that reside in ALL humans and was the foundation of all African languages.

Article 1 - “Language Policy and Decolonizing African Education”

Nine excerpts from this article are PC critiqued [[double bracketed italics]].

P110.  “Mosweunyane (2013) pointed out that before the period in African history labeled as colonization, Africans were teaching members of their societies crucial survival skills that were meant to serve the society as a whole.  Africans during that period were taught how to physically and spiritually exist within their environments.”  [[Before colonization, Africans were using their respective “mother-tongue” to teach children how to be Producers.  They were Producers on the land and recognized that all of life had the powerful productive energy of the universe flowing through all beings (i.e., the spiritual component). They knew that each individual Producer was part of a phenomenal “production chain” with all other Producers.  This covers all of the physical and spiritual survival skills.]]    

P111.  “Dr. Walter Rodney (2018) went further and explained that education develops from normal situations, that “education grows out of the environment”.  Rodney utilized the example of the Bemba people in the pre-colonial northern area of Zimbabwe.  As part of their pre-colonial education, Bemba children were taught to identify as many as fifty to sixty different types of tree plants that were a part of their physical environment.”  [[The Bemba children, as Producers, were given sixty different Tree Vectors in which many inputs (knowledge) was imparted.  Because this knowledge was part of the universal powers of production, the children’s GOP and MOP produced Blue (positive FARTs) for the inputs.  Because of CC,  our modern children don’t see themselves as Producers and all of life as containing the universal powers of production, they reject education (coursework) Vectors and have Red FARTs for the inputs from the teachers and textbooks.]]     

P112.  “Butts and Haskins (1973) (as cited in Wilson, 1987) stated that as children are learning to use a particular colonizer’s language, they also begin the process by which they assimilate the culture system of that language, this includes its meaning, thought processes, and methods of reasoning.”  [[European languages contain CC vocabulary and ideas of greed, childlike duality reasoning, materialism, individualism, and detachment from nature’s environments.  Our children are exposed to educational institutions that perpetuate this type of cultural system.  We have to decolonize from CC.  Arguably, our children can stay in their CC educational institutions, be bilingual (talk their CC talk and walk their CC walk), and learn their CC information but still live and function wholesomely with our “mother-tongue” (i.e., the vocabulary of PC).]] 

P112.  “Kioko, Ndung;u, Njoroge, and Mutiga (2014) declared that mother tongue education has not only educational benefits for the students and the nation but also enhanced economic opportunities.”  [[Here, again, the mother-tongue” is not a particular African language.  It’s the ancient language of PC with captures the powerful productive energy of the universe and helps operationalize that power in everything we do.  PC is the essential and integral part of all ancient “mother-tongues”.  Our children benefit from knowing and using this “mother-tongue”, our economic wellbeing (i.e., material wealth and moral wealth) is achieved through the language and ideas of PC.]] 

P113.  “Efforts to decolonize education in African south of the Sahara must include re-teaching Africans that their mother-tongue languages, philosophies, cultures, and traditions are not pre-logical, pre-critical, pre-literate, or in any way inferior to those of the European or Asian civilizations.”  [[Another major attribute of PC is that explains the philosophies, culture, and traditions of Africa which are logical, critical, and literate and in no way inferior to any other civilization.  Indeed, using PC, our youth will come to understand, intuit, internalize, and practice 24/7 the wisdom of the ancients.  As shown in the book Producer Consciousness: A New Mindset for Education, students can become fully sensitive to the lifestyles and conceptualization of Black historical figures.]]   

P113.  “During the period of enslavement and colonialism in Africa, and elsewhere in the African Diaspora, European language and education policies were stifling and stigmatizing the use of African mother tongues, seeking to replace them with English, and other European languages.”  [[What is the most stifling and stigmatizing today is the CC language injected into the brain-minds of our youth.  All other forms of oppression (racism, homophobia, poverty, underemployment, the prison-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, the food poisoning business, etc.) are symptoms and effects of CC.  We have to realize this to properly decolonize public education.  Otherwise, we unknowingly feed CC.]]

P113.  “According to Vygotsky’s theory (2015), a particular group’s culture is passed on to the next generation by children who are being taught by more experienced elders or other individuals within the group.  Through these social interactions, children are learning ways of thinking and behaving (Berk & Meyers, 2015).”  [[This excerpt is utilized to emphasize the point that the elders have to first understand the difference between the dis(ease) of CC and its many symptoms and then step up and promote PC.]] 

P114.  [[In Africa today there many movements to educated children in their mother-tongue language at the same time being multicultural and multilingual.  On P114, the article provides illustrations.]]

P116. “The use of a language, more specifically, a mother tongue language when educating students, can have a sustained influence on a child’s education (Wilson, 1987).  …..without sustained efforts to remove the influence of European colonial rule on the education systems of Africa, African children and adolescents will continue to learn in distorted cultural environments and practice distorted cultural traditions due in part to what transpired during enslavement and colonialism (Goncu and Gauvain, (2012).”  [[Substituting PC, we can say that PC language utilized in educating students, can have a sustained influence on their education.  PC is the only way to overcome the distorted cultural environments imposed on our children.]]

References

Berk, L. E., & Meyers, A. B. (2016). “infants, children, and adolescents”, (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. 

Butts, H.F., & Haskins, J. (1973).  “The psychology of Black language.” New Yourk, NY: Barnes and Noble Books.

Goncu, A., & Gauvain, M. (2012). “Sociocultural approaches to education psychology: Theory, research, and application”. In K.R. Harris, S. Graham, T. Urdan, C.B. McCormick, G. M, Sinatra, & J. Sweller (Eds.), “APA Educational psychology handbook. Theories, constructs, and critical issues” (vol. 1, pp. 125-154).

Rodney, W. (2018). “How Europe underdeveloped Africa” (New ed.). La Vergne, TN: Verso.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). “Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes”. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press.

Wilson, A.N. (1987). “The developmental psychology of the Black child”. New York, NY: Africana Research Publications.

Article 2 - “Decolonizing the Curriculum to Reinvigorate Equity in Higher Education: A Linguistic Transformation”

Two excerpts from this article are PC critiqued [[double bracketed italics]].

P38.  Decolonising the curriculum is about embedding liberation and equality in all aspects of higher education from changing course content, changing the language of teaching if it benefits the minority at the expense of the majority, changing the way courses are taught, updating assessment techniques, developing research and publication practices, supporting training, resources and funding and modifying recruitment criteria (Saunders 2017; UNESCO 2003, 108). A decolonised curriculum would provide different perspectives on topics, encourage critical thinking and initiate debate leading to discussions on issues that are important to marginalised groups in our community but are usually never addressed in the education systems.  [[Decolonising the curriculum can only be done by addressing the CC language (vocabulary and ideas) used in the classroom by teachers who themselves have been menticided by CC language.  Every aspect of the classroom has been developed under CC language.  We have to embed the liberating elements of PC language and ideas.  In many prior emails, I’ve presented detailed discussions of how this can be done.]] 

P39.  Language plays a prominent role in the development of personal, social and cultural identity. Students with a strong foundation in their first language often display a deeper understanding of themselves and their place within society in addition to an increased sense of well-being and confidence. Naturally, this filters down into every aspect of their lives, including their academic achievement (Odora-Hoppers and Pinar 2017, 9).  [[This is why CC must be challenged in the classroom, at home, in the neighborhood, in the community, in the state, and in the country.  The major point is that PC is our FIRST LANGUAGE!!  It’s the only way to get them to have a deeper understanding of themselves and their place within society in addition to an increased sense of well-being and confidence.  Again, I’ve presented how PC can do this in prior emails and in the book Producer Consciousness: A New Mindset for Education.]]

References

Odora-Hoppers, Catherine, and William Pinar. 2017. The decolonisation of South African schooling: “Looking back, looking forward”, 3–12. National Education Collaboration Trust: Education Dialogue SA.

Saunders, Christopher. 2017. “Decolonisation in Southern Africa. Reflections on the Namibian and South African cases.” Journal for Contemporary History 42(1): 99–114.

UNESCO see United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.