22081 West African Languages: (1 ) Medium and Message ndigenous knoNvledge in Africa, and Hausa, the second most widespread | the Nv-orld over, is expressed in lan- tongue in Africa (after Swahili) and a 0' Jguage, and usually in an "indig- member of the "Chadic" group of lan- enous" language-in short, the mother guages. It is principally spoken in tongue of inhabitants of the locality, or northern Nigeria and central Niger, but a lingua franca in regular usage by is used as well in several other coun- z them. Are these languages simply a tries of the region. The patterns are neutral medium? Are they just instru- nonetheless roughly representative ot a mental "vehicles" for the expression of host of western and central African lan- local knowledge and daily life? Or do guage traditions. the languages themselves play some role, by their very structure and usage, Language as "capital" in wvhat is thought and knovn? Language is very important in Africa. Hausa speakers give every bit as much There are upwards of 2,000 languages importance to spoken expression and on the continent, the number varving language as suggested above. MAlcgana as a function of the way in which dis- jari ce a traditional saying maintains: tinctions are drawn among neighbor- "Language is capital." In the Ifausa ing or related speech traditions. Afri- lexicon, the word hausa itself signifies can cultures have been largely oral not just the speech of that particular ones for centuries though varieties of population group, but "language" in wTiting (Western, Arabic and a few general and underlying "meaning." MWe codes of African origin) have become ne iw Hausarka? people will ask: "What increasinglywell known. In many areas, language do you speak?", or, literally No. 29 the status and role of ipraise-singer" or 'What is youir 'Hausa?"' Ban gane ba February 2001 "griot" is institutionalized to the point wvhere an entire caste of people devotes its life to learning and orally declaim- 'K N* 1t j.if _ Indigeraion Anowiede O ing the history and traditions of the lo- - cality and of its leading inhabitants. Af- by the ha s e < Learnng Cehte*a t i-at rican cultures also typically place great IK p eXp i emphasis on social relations and com- Bank, o tln iNO munication, all of which adds to the ment inst critical role played by language in the thisarileae of the organization of communitv and of and should,not steat.+ S ,1 vo W knowledge. Woiid Ba1* C porits this initiative, A ybo The examples in the paragraphs to amilable at ;7/afr folloNv are principally drawn from ik/Aefaulh ., 2 IlIausarshi is a common way of saying that "I don't under- Once again, the primary information conveyed by this stand what he means."' aspectual organization of the verb concerns the state of hu- At least three levels of Hausa language may have a bearing man intention and commitment with respect to the action, on how thought is formulated and knoNledge expressed: the not the time, even if there are analogies wvith a tense system. grammar of the language, its lexicon and the social patterns Someone who is leaving a party or house will therefore say to governing its usage. their host Naa-which, translated as a temporal statement, xvould signify (nonsensically) "I have left." What is meant, The deep structure of grammar? howvever, is that the person has decided to leave, and there- fore the act is as good as done in the intentional realm. One of the 1 ist things to strike a non-Hausa speaker-and a non-African in particular-in going beyond the fundamentals A focus on intention of the language is that the verb system is not really organized into tenses. In other words, the primary information that the In a similar vein, the principal concern of the Hausa speaker grammatical form of the verb phrase conveys is less when is often with the nature of one's resolution or commitment something happened or will happen than it is how that action to perform an act and wNith the process of decision itself, is viewed by the people involved and what the nature of their rather than with the exact date and duration of the act's per- intentions is with respect to it, Though the divisions of the formance. Hausa speakers sometimes express frustration verb parallel to some degree the tenses of many non-African with \Vesterners' frequent use of the word 'perhaps" languages, they are better described as "aspects." Action is (wacakila in Hlausa) in their conversation and planning. The thus linguistically divided into the categories belowv: habit is seen as a way of avoiding commitment. A popular say- ing puts the point succinctly: 114takila abin da ya hawIn-a mawi Verb aspect Example Meaning in Hausa English equivalent Hausa phrase Meaning "Tense" Completive Yaa tahi His leaving can be regarded "He left' Past tense as completed. (Commitment is accomplished.) Continative Yca naa tahiya He is in the process of leaving "He is leaving" Present tense or going. (The intention is being or "going" accomplished.) Projected Zay tahiya He plans to leave or go "He will go" Future tense Potential Yaa tahi "He MAY go." "He will very likely go WNeak future (His commitment is real if circumstances permit' (no equiva-lent tense) but conditional.) Intentional Yet tahi He should or must go. 'The transcription used for Hausa words and phrases throughout this article is, in gencral, the onc currently prescribed by UNESCO. The table and paragraph to follow are one exception. Long sounds are represented by doubled vowels, as was formerly the case, because there is no other handy way to bring out differences among the verb aspects. A "grave" accent indicates a low tone, and such an accent on the second vowel in a cluster indicates a falling toIIe. 3 nfasarct kayva! "Perhaps is the word that saves Iliterally "pre- among people (both consanguineous and covenantal) and vents"I the WNesterner from lying." for shades of behavior is extremely developed. Three ex- Such patterns of expression by no means exclude attention amples: (a) nur&ur1usa - which can best be rendered as to schedules and timing, and temporal planning concerns "continually putting off paying someone"; kwakyara for have certainly become a more prominent fact of Sahelian life "blurting out what ought not to have been said"; and santi in the last half-century. At the same time, this perspective or (or fanya)-which designates "saying something ordinary ,,paradigm" may not b)e so poorly adapted to circumstances during a group meal that, due to general pleasure with the where logistics have long been highly unpredictable and last- quality of the food, sends everyone into peals of laughter"! ing commitment has been essential to getting things done - and it may have relevance to the future needs of African soci- Lexical creativity etv as well. Any African language can be used, of course, to say whatever Using words where it counts one wants, and assimilation of new ideas and terms is no less prevalent in these languages than it is in English, French or The notion that language does not just express thought, but Chinese -an example of what social scientists call "lexical also shapes or influences it to some extent, has a long history creativity." Hausa is no exception to the rule. New terms have in western linguistic and cultural thought and remains hotly been created over the years for a host of initially foreign con- debated. Benjamin Lee WVhorf and Edward Sapir were among cepts, with sometimes poetic results. The United Nations was the first to articulate it, and the "NVhorfian" or "WNharf-Sapir dubbed nmjalisar dinkin duniva or "the assembly to unite hypothesis" still stirs controversy. WVithout steering toward [literally, 'sew together'] the world." those particular shoals, one can at least entertain the idea The small French-made Solex motorbike -a simple con- that the form of a language is part and parcel of indigenous traption where the motor rode on top of the front wheel, driv- know ledge and a factor to be studied-and savored-in the ing it by friction -was baptized in Hausa kare ya cdauko attempt to preserve it. tukunya: "the dog carrying a cooking pot." And its slightly Whorf himself paid attention not just to the structure of larger cousin, the "mobylette", was christened more ono- languages but to their lexical properties as well: i.e., the vo- matopoetically dan bututu. (The letter "c " being what lin- cabulary, and, more specifically, the differences between the guists call an "implosive" sound.) There is, in fact, a Hausa areas of experience that different languages seem to empha- Language Board in northern Nigeria that rules -much like size by the richness of their lexicon. He was fond of remark- the Academie Frangaise-on neologisms and appropriate ing that Eskimo languages have multiple words for different ways of expressing new ideas. But what a language commu- varieties of snow, but only one for all types of motorized con- nity has traditonally - if implicitly -chosen to represent by veyance; whereas in English it is nearer the reverse. Critics a single specialized term as opposed to a longer explanation have aptly pointed out that ski enthusiasts likewise have mul- says something about the ideas and perspectives that re-oc- tiple terms in English for varying snow conditions. But the cur most often in thought patterns and expression. idea that the relative development of different areas of expe- rience in the lexicon of a language says something about the Speech behaviors distinctions that are important to its speakers still merits consideration. If language has some influence on thought and expression, it An examination of a Hausa dictionary brings some similar is shaped in turn by patterns of u1sage-the roles people play ideas to mind. Once again, there are relatively few traditional in employing it and the ends to which they put it. This is, of words for motorized tool-though a number of introduced course, the domain par excellence of socio-linguists. Deborah ones-but the terminology for varieties of relationships Tannen has written some works well known in the United Northern Hausa is use throughout all these examples and quoted expressions. 4 States about variations in the speech behavior of American Niger. It required, of course, an electrical generator to boot, men and wvomen, including striking differences by gender in as there was no electricity in the town. Unfortunately, once the meaning of interruptions and overlapping: breaking into delivered over 500 kilometers of washboard laterite road, what someone else is saving or completing it for them. neither piece of machinery showed any sign of life and both Stated most simply, for men it tends to be an aggressive and resisted the best ministrations. The only recourse was the competitive act, for women it can be a kind of support. garage of the local arrondissement, or county seat, where a An interesting aspect of speech patterns among the Hausa crexv of barefoot mechanics worked under an adobe mud is the frequency -and the role-of similar kinds of "overlap- shelter behind the administrative offices with few tools to re- ping." The author was once responsible for transcribing word pair a small fleet of battered Land Rovers. for word the proceedings of a village conference on livestock The mechanics were glad to oblige, but as they started conducted in Hausa. WNhen the discussions had been re- work our qualms grew. The group of them -five or six -pro- corded and transferred to paper, an interesting thing ap- ceeded to squat around the equipment and to poke and pull peared, something we all knew but had never paid much at- at it from various angles, while keeping up a rapid and some- tention to. A number of very pertinent suggestions about times raucous dialogue about what they were doing. One how to stable cattle in the village and provide for their fodder thought at this point that the projector was history. But (something not traditionally done in that region) came out within fifteen minutes they had both pieces of equipment during the sessions. On close examination of the transcript running perfectly. Somehow they had managed to use the and audition of the tapes, however, it was clear that nearly no complementary experience and intuition of all group mem- one had expressed a complete or well-formed idea on the bers -mediated through language-to solve a problem they topic. Rather, one person would utter the beginnings of a had never encountered before. In an era when international sentence or thought, someone else would add to it, a third business headlines the critical-and generally deficient- Would round it out or reformulate it: and the discourse skills of teamxvork and "organizational learning" within the bounced around the straw enclosure with few, if any, disquisi- xworkforce, these very habits, partly built into language form tions or even individually-completed sentences. Yet, through and usage, may turn out once again to be quite applicable. this medium, some useful ideas and resolutions took form. Food for thought From talking the talk to walking the walk None of these anecdotal examples should be taken too far or There are many parallels to this practice of group or interper- given too much weight. The underlying argument and experi- sonal complementarity in the social life of the region as well. ence, though, seem worthy of the attention of those inter- .Another story will illustrate the point. At a similar stage in ested in indigenous knowledge: part of that knoxledge lies (personal) prehistory, this author was responsible for setting in, or is at least supported by, the medium of language itself. up the first film projector ever seen in the town of Madaoua,