The launch of Language in The Gambia Forum was with Hon. Sidia Sana Jatta on 4th October 2022 with a talk entitled ‘Status and teaching of the national languages during and after the colonial rule in the Gambia’.
Dr Seraphin Kamden from the School of Oriental and African Studies was the facilitator of the meeting.
Sidia Sana Jatta opened the discussion by expressing his thoughts on how national languages could be better integrated in all aspects of Gambian society, lamenting on the continued invisibility of national languages in prestigious domains such as the media. Concerning the topic of which language to use as a language of instruction, he recalled that The Gambia has been using English as its only language of instruction since its Independence. He clearly explained why this situation was deplorable. During the discussion where he was asked to expand on the some of the points covered during his talk, he explained why he felt that his experience of being taught in Mandinka for two years (the experiment lasted only two years) while he was a primary school child (during the colonial period) had had a long-lasting positive impact on his learning abilities. The first language he ever learned was Mandinka, one of the languages of his home, and he explained how it shaped him as a learner. After being kept out of school for two years, he still outperformed his peers in his new English medium school.
During the discussions, we learnt about Sidia Sana Jatta’s role in the development of the orthography of Mandinka, but also Pulaar and Olof in the late 70s. This programme had to be aborted after two years due to lack of government support, e.g. the materials his team developed as part of this programme had all to be written by hand which was not sustainable.
Sidia Sana Jatta also brought to our attention a variety of settings where the (absence of) use of national languages is noticeable, e.g. Gambians who cannot speak English are denied access to many high ranking public government positions.
Dr Seraphin Kamdem’s many questions also allowed Sidia Sana Jatta to discuss the connection between the continued pressure on national language and politics. For him, a lack of political will is largely responsible, for example, for the current English as a language of instruction policy which de facto prevents many children form accessing learning.
It was interesting to hear the views of representatives of Curriculum, who stressed that national languages should be used as the languages of instruction, while also expressing their disappointment with politicians and intellectuals for not taking a serious commitment to embracing national languages in the Gambian education system.
In conclusion, Sidia Sana Jatta presented the scarcity of reading materials in the national languages as a critical issue. Developing such materials, according to him, would help people to understand better their own language. He also expressed that more people should be doing research into the languages of The Gambia and therefore more support for those interested in conducting research in those areas should be given.
A warm thank you to all those who attended.