By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology
Since the British colonized the then Northern Rhodesia now independent Zambia in late 1800s, we have been made to believe that English is the only, best, and superior language to express thought. We have English as the official language which we use in education from the first grade all the way to secondary school and university. Since Zambia’s independence about 50 years ago, with Zambia now having over 17 universities, we have never really seriously questioned or even explored whether English is the only and best way to express sophisticated thought. What about our 17 major Zambian languages which include Nyanja, Bemba, Tonga, Lozi, Kaonde, and dozens of others? Can they be used to convey sophisticated thought?
Communicating in a Zambian Language Video Clip
I have always known that our indigenous Zambian languages may be best for communicating, exploring, and even for research and development, technical inventions and innovations which we have been erroneously made to believe are only possible using English only. There is a 2.12 minute video clip that has been viewed more than 56,000 times that clearly confirms that we can use our Zambian languages to explain basic principles of electricity as one example. The language the boy used to explain his ideas is Lusaka Nyanja which is the lingua franca of the Capital City of Lusaka. In the video clip, a poor boy from Misisi compound in Lusaka holds a model he had built from discarded material himself to explain basic principles of electricity.
He does this in such a surprisingly articulate way, that even I, as a grown man who has a Ph. D but not in electrical engineering, could instantly grasp the principles of electricity from the Kariba Hydroelectric Dam to my own domestic use may be in Lusaka or Kitwe, or Luanshya. Some have suggested that Zesco should have used this boy to explain power shading to the public.
Recommendations
The vast majority of viewers of the video clip comment that Zesco should sponsor the boy, government should sponsor the boy, and some even have said they could individually volunteer to sponsor the boy to get an education. He is clearly a boy who lives in poverty right now. My own reaction is that large institutions like Zesco and especially the Zambian government may already be preoccupied. Samson Phiri who made the video can track down the boy. He can start a fund drive that will first and foremost educate the boy. I would start by donating a hundred dollars myself toward the fund. If there is more money, he can start a program that will educate all the boys and girls who have been found to be as intellectually creative as that boy. There are thousands of talented boys and girls in Zambia who are like the boy in the video. But because of poverty and lack of opportunity, the boys and girls cannot use their creative talents for themselves as well as for the whole nation.
First and foremost, we have to make sure that corruption is completely removed. If the 56,000 viewers of the video clip each donate just 5 dollars or K65.00, a total of 280,000 dollars or K3.6 million would be raised. If we can keep all the corruption out of this, this would be enough money to educate the boy, but may be hundreds of other boys and girls who have similar creative talent but live in poverty. If we harness this boy’s creative talents, there are also other benefits for you and me and the whole country. There are many possible benefits but I identify the possible two.
Teaching Pedagogy
What the boy is illustrating in the video clip is what is called teaching pedagogy in sophisticated lingo. The boy clearly illustrates teaching methods or how we should teach from the first grade, all through secondary school, up to higher education in colleges and universities. His methodology and simplicity should be incorporated into teaching which may involve bilingualism. This means teaching both in indigenous Zambian languages and English language in order to maximize clarity when explaining a complex subject to anyone especially students in a classroom and even the public. All my fellow teachers from grade one to college lecturers should take note of the basic fundamental principles of this video clip.
Construction of Models
The simple hand held but quite sophisticated model illustrating basic principles of electricity and the power grid can be manufactured on a large scale by Zesco and other manufacturers in Zambia. These models can be of so many different types of sciences which could be sold to thousands of schools. The models could be in biology, physics, chemistry, geography, astronomy, botany, medicine, anatomy, physiology, computers, engineering, and many others. The simple but cheap models could be exported to neighboring and other countries in the world which could also use them in schools, colleges and university. That could create both jobs in the country and exports. Instead of waiting for hard to convince foreign investors, Zambian entrepreneurs, companies, educators, individuals and others could easily join in this very exciting possible profitable venture that could help enhance education.
Creative Talents in Zambia
There are thousands of young boys and girls in Zambia who have creative talents but live in poverty. One such boy is my own nephew Abiuldi Banda who lives in poverty with his parents, his brothers and sisters in Lundazi. But the boy had incredible creative talents, curiosity and was always experimenting building and testing different models of science from when he was a small boy. Once he completed Grade 12 in 2012, he was admitted to UNZA. But his parents did not have money and the government bursary was not available to him. He is now languishing with wasted talent that he and the nation could benefit from. There are thousands such boys and girls in Zambia. As a nation we just need to harness these talents for the benefit of both the individual boys and girls but also for the entire nation of 13 million people. Mr. Samson Phiri could start the ball rolling without waiting for the government, Zesco, or someone else to start what would be the best project for the nation ever.
Zambian Languages and Sophisticated Idea
If you are still skeptical that Zambian languages can be used to express sophisticated ideas that can only be expressed in English, I believe in practice. I wrote an academic article in English a few years ago. I translated the abstract into Tumbuka and Nyanja languages. You can try also to translate the abstract into Lozi, Kaonde, Tonga or Bemba Zambian languages. There is a link to the complete academic article in English. The title of the article is: “Eurocentric Destruction of Indigenous Conceptions: the Secret Rediscovery of the Beautiful Woman in African Societies.”
Amazing ! give that young man a bells
Am impressed with the boy can Zesco /GRZ please adopt this boy and educate him and i believe the Country will benefit from the boy in Future.
Half of the words he used were English or derivatives. He can’t even say numbers in Nyanja. Nothing impressive here.
You want to educate the boy in the same system that has killed your creativity. You want to take him to school where he should be taught in english. If he fails english and gets super distinctions in all the other subjects he will be denied entry to unza, cbu or pretty much any other college. We all know the brilliance of our people. Let us just concentrate on changing the education system first before we condemn more of our children into regurgitating intellectuals we call professors. In terms of intellectual independence he is better off where he is now than being brainwashed in your education system prof.
This boy should go into politics,he has more brains than this socalled politicans.
Mr Samson Phiri,I need to get hold of that Misisi Technican Boy and recommend a circuitry after His Transformer so that instead of giving out 12V on his supposedly 11KV grid,it supplies 220V to supply domestic power output to feed some ac energy saver bulbs in his homestead in Misisi.Then the concept will be highly appreciated.
Send Abiud’s video to MIT in Massachusetts, they have programs for young men from developing countries where his ideas can get fostered and he will get a mentor.
Genius! This boy is sharp. Am interested in knowing him more….
Could we Please have this Boy on Sunday Interview, So that we get to know him better and bring in a lot of Brains on board to help him and help ourselves (Mother Zambia)
Thanks Prof Mwizenge, those who have been to school know that cultures and languages can be taken to extinction. Social science is full of examples of languages that have died. Zambian languages will go extinct because our population is being encouraged to feel embarrassed about using them in so-called advanced subjects. We are told that It is primitive to use Zambian languages. We are now doing everything in English.
However, there is no language on earth that cannot be adapted for any subject. When Mwalimu Nyerere introduced Swahili as a medium we all know what he was told
“Algebra, Geometry in Swahili? Hahahaha!” was the reaction from those with inferiority complexes. Nyerere persevered and presently they teach Biology, Trigonometry, even IT in Swahili. However, because of many…
However, because of many such inferiority complex neighbours in countries like Zambia, Tanzania could switch back to English. The neighbours feel Tanzanians cant compete globally because they speak only Swahili. Its a lie. Russians compete globally, Italians compete globally, Japanese compete, Chinese compete, why cant an African compete in his language?
Here in Southern Africa a language spoken only by about three million people and which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi JiTonga and other bantu languages is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. Its called Afrikaans. The people who speak this language are fighting tooth and nail for it to stay while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally. Ati tulo imwe bantu
However, because of many such inferiority complex neighbours in countries like Zambia, Tanzania could switch back to English. The neighbours feel Tanzanians cant compete globally because they speak only Swahili. Its a lie. Russians compete globally, Italians compete globally, Japanese compete, Chinese compete, why cant an African compete in his language?
Here in Southern Africa a language spoken only by about 4 million people and which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi and JiTonga is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. Its called Afrikaans. The people who speak this language are fighting tooth and nail for it to stay while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally. Ati tulo
However, because of many such inferiority complex neighbours in countries like Zambia, Tanzania could switch back to English. The neighbours feel Tanzanians cant compete globally because they speak only Swahili. Its a lie. Russians compete globally, Italians compete globally, Japanese compete, Chinese compete, why cant an African compete in his language?
Here in Southern Africa a language spoken only by about 4 million people and which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi and JiTonga is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. Its called Afrikaans. The people who speak this language are fighting tooth and nail for the language to go forward while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally and therefore must be discarded. Ati tulo
Here in South Africa a language spoken only by about 3 million people and which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi and JiTonga is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. Its called Afrikaans. The people who speak this language are fighting tooth and nail for it to stay while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally. Ati tulo
Imwe ba LT let me finish my contribution ala!
Here in Southern Africa a language spoken only by about 3 million people and which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi Kaonde, Lingala, Tumbuka and JiTonga is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. It is called Afrikaans. The people who speak this once dominant language are fighting tooth and nail for it to stay while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally. Ati tulo
As for that electrician boy lets stop speaking in hypothetical or speculative terms. Instead of “would” how about starting a crowd funding project for the boy right away? Just give us the details ba Mwizenge and we start contributions
Here in Southern Africa a language spoken only by about 3 million people and which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi Kaonde, Lingala, Tumbuka and JiTonga is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. It is called Afrikaans. The people who speak this once dominant language are fighting tooth and nail for it to stay while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally. Ati tulo
Here in Southern Africa about 3 million people speak Afrikaans a langauge which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi Kaonde, Lingala, Tumbuka and JiTonga. The language is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. It is called Afrikaans. The people who speak this once dominant language are fighting tooth and nail for it to stay while Zambians argue that their languages cant be used internationally. Ati tulo
Here in Southern Africa about 3 million people speak Afrikaans a langauge which is younger than ChiNyanja, ChiBemba SiLozi Kaonde, Lingala, Tumbuka and JiTonga. The language is still being used in schools from Grade 1 to Tertiary. It is called Afrikaans.
What’s the Prof talking about? His discourse is so jumbled. Is he talking about use of indigenous languages or supporting young brilliant minds?
He forgets one cardinal african principle that most of us “educated” africans have discarded. That of supporting each other thru the extended family system. Before telling us to raise money for the undoubtedly talented misisi tech he should have supported his nephew Abiuldi.
Comment: l equally got confused because l noticed the Prof talked about his nephew whom he himself hasn’t helped to foster education. Hypocrisy is at play here and the audacity to show pictures of the brilliant boy whom he has failed to help is annoying beyond comprehension. Charity begins at home so he should not have shown us his true Zambian mentality. However, the idea of helping creative minds is a welcome initiative.
I think lets encourage English because Zambia is a multiple ethinc country ,which will unity us.Let leave the local direct as they are for communications only .
With such poor English grammar as yours we have a good reason for dumping English altogether
@Phiri.
You may recall, a few years ago, Celtel used to run an inter-university competition for institutions from most English-speaking countries in Africa. Because participants had to respond to questions in the English language, students from Tanzania, where tuition is mainly in Kiswahili, could not go beyond the first round, a situation that proved embarrassing at many levels, no wonder the competition was eventually discontinued.
Surprising omission of the boy’s name in the article by the good prof
Sorry, the facebook video did not have the boy’s name. Otherwise I would have included it. That’s why I am saying Mr. Samson Phiri should tack down the boy.
Maiden Publishing house interested in being one of the sponsors for the boy
Surprisingly the author does not seem to realize the irony of not helping his nephew. It also appears that the author either was too involved in social sciences or spent too much time abroad to realize that those water heaters were common in Komboni early in the 90s and if he ever attended JETS, he would have seen such projects in Entomology – not to take anything away from his nephew. In my opinion, the author has failed his nephew!
if the author could manage to sponsor his sons in a US college, then he definitely could have managed to sponsor his nephew to UNZA. how selfish. he doesn’t seem to practice what he preaches. shame on him.