Indigenous language orientation for effective citizenship education in 21st century Africa: reflections on the Nigerian experience

Authors

  • Adeyemi Adegoju Obafemi Awolowo University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v7i3.273

Keywords:

citizenship education, citizenship rights, inclusive participation, linguistic rights, mass mobilisation, social struggle

Abstract

Efforts geared towards effective knowledge production in most African states have suffered grave setbacks owing to their extreme reliance on foreign languages to mobilise the people for national development. Apparently, citizenship education does not take cognizance of the social realities and the low level of education in Africa, as the predominant use of foreign languages has excluded the majority of the African people, who use only their indigenous languages, from national development processes. Consequently, a gulf is created between the vision of the leadership and the aspirations/willpower of the populace. To redress this unwholesome trend in twenty-first-century Africa, this article calls for a pan-African orientation that prides itself on deploying African indigenous languages for mass mobilisation. Drawing on the Nigerian experience of propagating citizenship education, the paper appraises government sensitisation drives on issues such as the country’s re/branding project, political socialisation, safety practices of food/drug consumption and environmental sustainability. It is the contention of this paper that in order to bridge the knowledge gap between the elite and the unlettered, there should be an aggressive paradigm shift towards using indigenous African languages to mediate and negotiate government-citizenry transactions for the evolvement of the personally responsible, participatory and justiceoriented African citizen.

Author Biography

  • Adeyemi Adegoju, Obafemi Awolowo University
    Adeyemi Adegoju holds a Ph.D. in Stylistics/Conflict Rhetoric from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He teaches literary stylistics in the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. His research focus spans linguistic criticism, semiotics, rhetoric and African language/cultural studies on which he has published a number of articles in refereed international journals such as Geolinguistics, Linguistik Online, The Public Journal of Semiotics, Journal of Pan African Studies, The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture, African Study Monographs and The English Academy Review: Southern African Journal of English Studies. He has also contributed chapters to books published by Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal; Africa World Press of Trenton, NJ, USA; Universal Publishers, Boca-Raton, FL, USA; Nova Science Publishers, NY, USA; and VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Germany.

Published

2014-04-28

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Adegoju, A. (2014). Indigenous language orientation for effective citizenship education in 21st century Africa: reflections on the Nigerian experience. Sociolinguistic Studies, 7(3), 273-292. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v7i3.273