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Is Multilingualism a Problematic Paradigm in Ethiopia?

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13537113.2013.788919

1557-2986

Alemseged Abbay,

African history and culture analysis

Abstract In Ethiopia, the promotion of Amharic by state nationalism was one of the factors that engendered counternationalisms such as the Eritrean secessionist movement. However, a free market of languages along with the domestication of English can contribute to managing/resolving communal conflicts and can usher the country into the global era. Such a liberal language policy does not jettison vernaculars; on the contrary, it permits them unlimited space to coexist or compete with one another and with English for primacy. Amharic will remain primus entre pares in the foreseeable future. However, the free market will catapult one or more of the major languages in the country as well as English to an official status, keeping the vernaculars for their emblematic values. Notes 1. In order to establish legitimacy, the Amhara rulers of Shewa who, in 1270 took over power from the Cushitic rulers of Lasta (Zagwe Dynasty), claimed that they descended from the Semitic rulers of Axum. Harnessing the myth of the union of the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba and Israeli King Solomon, they claimed that they were restorers of the "Solomonic" Dynasty that started with Menelik, the supposed progeny of Sheba and Solomon, who, according to the mythology, became the first Ethiopian king of the "Solomonic" Dynasty. The last monarch, Haile Selassie I claimed that he was the 251st "Solomonic" Emperor of the country. 2. Ted Gurr, "Ethnic Warfare on the Wane," Foreign Affairs 79(3): 52–64 (2000). 3. Neil Smith, "Introduction: Altered States," in Heather Gautney, Omar Dahbour, Ashley Dawson, and Neil Smith, eds., Democracy, States, and the Struggle for Global Justice (New York and London: Routledge, 2009), 1–16. For an opposite view that says globalization neither kills the nation-state nor homogenizes humanity, see Chester D. Haskell, "Language and Globalization: Why National Policies Matter," in Steven J. Baker, ed., Language Policy: Lessons from Global Models (Monterey, CA: Monterey Institute of International Studies, 2002), 3–6. 4. Globalization is a multifaceted phenomenon that has engulfed Ethiopia in the form of popular culture, political culture (democratization, human rights, etc.), social culture (beliefs, values, lifestyles, etc.), economic culture (capital investment, etc.), information technology (Internet, social media, etc.), religious culture (militant Protestantism, especially in its Pentecostal version), etc. And the principal carrier of globalization is the ubiquitous English. A microcosm of this phenomenon occurred during the first half of the first millennium C.E. The Horn of Africa, along with the Mediterranean World, was washed over by Hellenism. In the process, the Axumite society, in what is today northern Ethiopia, domesticated Greek that was the principal carrier of Hellenism so much so that its gold, silver, and bronze coins were inscribed primarily in Greek; so were the celebratory victorious military campaigns narrated on stone inscriptions. 5. Peter L. Berger, "Introduction: the Cultural Dynamics of Globalization," in Peter L. Berger and Samuel P. Huntington, eds., Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 1–16. 6. Taddesse Tamrat, "Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn," in Roland Oliver, ed., The Cambridge History of Africa 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 72–74. See also Donald N. Levin, Greater Ethiopia: the Evolution of a Multiethnic Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974). 7. Merid W. Aregay, "Political Geography of Ethiopia at the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century," in IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici, Tomo I (Roma: Academei Lincei, 1972), 620–22. 8. Donald Crummey, "Society and Ethnicity in the Politics of Christian Ethiopia during the Zamana Mesafint," The International Journal of African Historical Studies 8(2): 271 (1975). 9. Samuel Gobat, Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia (M. W. Dowd, 1851; reprinted in New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 279. 10. Abraham Demoz, "Problems of Terminology in Modern Amharic," in IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici, Tom II (Roma: Academei Lincei, 1974), 215. 11. Edward Ullendorf and Abraham Demoz, "Two Letters from the Emperor Yohannes of Ethiopia to Queen Victoria and Lord Granville," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London: University of London, 1969), 135–42. 12. For instance, the preeminent linguist and one of the founders of the Amharic Department in the Haile Selassie I University, now Addis Ababa University, the late Abraham Demoz, was known for being a "Tigre." However, few people knew, or cared to know, that he was from Akkele Guzai, Eritrea. For the non-Tigrinya-speaking Ethiopians, though, anyone who spoke Tigrinya was just a "Tigre," an appellation that the Eritrean political actors abhor. Postindependence Eritrea has come up with the name "Tigrinya" for its Tigrinya-speaking population. Rather than sharing "Tigrayan" with their kin south of the river Mareb, they prefer the name "Tigrinya" for both their language and people. In uncommon deviation from the government position, an Eritrean ex-combatant and a writer rejected the appellation: "'Nya' … is a sound and a grammatical conjugation that has intruded from Amharic into our language. The language we speak should be known as lisane Habesha or lisane Tigray. The people who speak the language should be known as 'Tigrayans' or 'Habesha,' not 'Tigrinya' because, grammatically, it does not make sense" (Interview: Abba Yisaaq Gabre-Iyesus, Asmara, 12 July, 1994). 13. "AB," interview, Asmara, 22 June, 1994. A former EPLF combatant who was a high-ranking government official at the time of the interview, "AB" preferred to remain anonymous. 14. Yonas Mesfun Asfaha, Jeanne Kurvers, and Sjaak Kroom, "Literacy and Script Attitudes in Multilingual Eritrea," Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(2): 223–40 (2008). 15. Bahru Zewde, "The Changing Fortunes of the Amharic Language: Lingua Franca or Instrument of Domination?" in Verena Boll, Denis Nosnitsin, Thomas Rave, Wolbert Smidt, and Evgenia Sokolinskaia, eds., Studia Aethiopical In Honor of Siegbert Uhlig on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (Wiesbaden: Harrasswitz Verlag, 2004), 303–18. 16. Swahili is not a language that belongs to a politically dominant ethnic group in Africa and yet it is the official and national language of Tanzania. English, Portuguese, and French, in Anglophone, Lusophone, and Francophone Africa, respectively, are colonial languages appropriated in order to maintain unity and to preserve national integrity. The anticolonial struggle in India relied upon English, not Hindi, and pan-Indian identity is solid. 17. The Nigerian constitution gives Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo official status, co-equal with English. In practice, the latter performs all official duties. Article 8 of the Constitution of Ireland enshrines Gaelic as the first official language and English as the second language of the Republic. In practice, English remains functional with Gaelic enjoying symbolism. The constitution in Belarus too establishes Belarusian as the official language and, yet, it is merely symbolic. Russian is functional. 18. Ernest Renan, Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? (Paris: Calman-Lévy, 1882). 19. Hugh Seton-Watson, Nations and States (Boulder: Westview Press, 1977), 148. 20. See Negarit Gazetta, Articles 13–15, 1944, cited in Robert Cooper, "Government Language Policy," in Marvin Lionel Bender, Jean Donald Bowen, Robert Leon Cooper, and Charles Albert Ferguson, eds., Language in Ethiopia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), 189. 21. Afework Gebre Iyesus, Dagmawi Atie Menelik (Rome, 1908, republished in Addis Adaba: United Printers, 1973), 54. 22. Hearing: Statement by the Secretary General of the Unionist Party, Tedla Bairu, Four Power Inquiry Commission, 17 Dec., 1947. Appendix 121. Foreign Office 371–69365. 23. Hearing: Statement by the spokesman of the LPP to the Inquiry Commission, 18 Nov., 1947. Appendix 123. Foreign Office 371–69365. 24. American Consul, Asmara, to the Department of State, Washington, DC Despatch No. 87. 16 Jan., 1953. 25. Walde-Mariam, "Ertra na man," ("Eritrea for whom[?])," Part 4, Nay Ertra Semunawi Gazeta (May 1947), 4, emphasis in the original. 26. US Embassy, Addis Ababa, to the Department of State, Washington, DC, Despatch No. 259, 13 April, 1951. 27. Yemane Ghebreab, head of the political department of the government, said that "We look at colonialism more favorably than other peoples in Africa and Asia," cited in Ian Spears, Civil War in African States: the Search for Security (Boulder and London: FIRSTFORUM PRESS), 4. 28. Marvin Lionel Bender, "Ethiopian Language Policy 1974–1981," Anthropological Linguistics 27(3): 273 (1985). 29. Patrice Lumumba, in Eyamba G. Bokamba, "D. R. Congo: Language and 'Authentic' Nationalism," in Andrew Simpson, ed., Language and National Identity in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 223. 30. Tracy X. Karner, "Ideology and Nationalism: The Finnish Move to Independence, 1809–1919," Ethnic and Racial Studies 14(2): 152–69 (1991). 31. Fiona McLaughlin, "Senegal: The Emergence of a National Lingua Franca," in Andrew Simpson, ed., Language and National Identity in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 86–87. 32. Simpson and Oyelade, "Nigeria: Ethno-linguistic Competition in the Giant of Africa," Andrew Simpson, ed., Language and National Identity in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 182–3. 33. Renan, Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?, 20–21. 34. Bokamba, "D. R. Congo," 227. 35. Zewde, "The Changing Fortunes," 304. 36. Robert B. Phillipson, Linguistic Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 80. 37. Julius Nyerere, as cited in F. Topan, "Tanzania: The Development of Swahili as a National and Official Language," in Andrew Simpson, ed., Language and National Identity in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 258, 262. 38. Joseph Lo Bianco, "Real World Language Politics and Policy," in Steven J. Baker, ed., Language Policy; Lessons from Global Models (Monterey Institute of International Studies, 2002), 11. 39. Lars S. Vikor, "Northern Europe: Language as Prime Markers of Ethnic and National Identity," in Stephen Barbour and Cathie Carmichael, eds., Language and Nationalism in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 125. 40. Ibid., 128. 41. Robert B. Howell, "The Low Countries: A Study in Sharply Contrasting Nationalisms," in Stephen Barbour and Cathie Carmichael, eds., Language and Nationalism in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 146. 42. Phillipson, Linguistic Imperialism, 9. 43. Shoichi Kobayashi, "English Can Save Japan," The Japan Times (3 Aug. 1999), 16. 44. "Can English Save Japan?" The Korea Herald (24 Jan. 2000). 45. Phillipson, Linguistic Imperialism, 30.