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Language, Education, and
Public Policy in Eritrea
African Studies Review, Apr 2003 by Woldemikael, Tekle M
Given such uneven acceptance of mother-language instruction among
different language groups, the question naturally arises: How or why did
this differential implementation of the policy came about?
Tigrinya and Tigre
Tigre- and Tigrinya-speakers together constitute the majority (more than
80 percent) of the Eritrean population. It is estimated that both
languages originated about one thousand years ago. Tigrinya is a written
language and is spoken by over 50 percent of the population. Tigre is
spoken in the Red Sea coast and eastern Sudan and Metahit, the name
given to the northwestern and western arid lowlands of Eritrea, and is
spoken by an estimated one million people. One-third of the Eritrean
population speaks Tigre as a primary language. It is the second language
of some ethnic groups in Eritrea such as the Bilen, Tigrinya, Nara, and
some Saho. Tigre is also a written language. Some Catholic and Swedish
evangelical missionaries first wrote Tigre in Ge'ez script around the
188Os, producing texts mostly for religious purposes. They wrote books
that describe the Tigre culture, folklore, and grammar. Tigrinya,
however, is the more widely published of the two languages, It has a
wide range of written texts including novels, poetry, instructional
books, and newspapers, and has a longer history of being used for mass
communication and instructional purposes. One Eritrean writer contended
that if Tigre, rather than Arabic, had been made one of the two official
languages (with Tigrinya) in 1952, then Tigre would have been as
developed as Tigrinya is now (Ahmed Dahli 1996:
Since at least 50 percent of the Eritrean population speaks Tigrinya as
their mother tongue, it is to be expected that the Tigrinya-speakers
would have the lion's share of students attending primary schools. But
with 68 percent (370 out of 549) of the total number of schools teaching
in Tigrinya in 1996-97, the absolute dominance of Tigrinya as a medium
of instruction in Eritrean schools exceeded our expectations (table 3).
This also meant that the Tigrinya speakers have made a remarkably
successful switch from using Amharic as the language of instruction in
primary education to using Tigrinya in their communities.
Because of the size of the Tigre-speaking community (31 percent of the
population) and the long-term involvement of Tigre-speakers in the
Eritrean nationalist struggle, one would have expected strong support
for teaching in their mother tongue in predominantly Tigre-speaking
areas. Tigre also was one of the first two languages to be introduced
and used as a medium of instruction after 1976 in primary schools in the
EPLF-controlled base area. The EPLF and the government of Eritrea have
shown consistent commitment to developing Tigre as a language of
instruction. Both have conducted seminars and public discussions to
persuade Tigrespeakers to accept Tigre as a medium of instruction in
primary schools in their communities. From 1977 to 1996, the EPLF and
the government produced over forty teaching materials, including
textbooks, for primary and adult schools, teachers' guides, and some
general literature (Negusse Woldu 1996:1-12). The significance of their
commitment becomes clear when we compare their efforts with that of the
rival liberation front, the ELF. Eyewitnesses have informed me that the
ELF banned teaching and writing in Tigre, and that it burned teaching
texts that were produced by its cadres who were unaware of the
organization's ban on the development of the language.3 It was very
surprising, therefore, that only 5 percent of the schools (29 out of 549
schools) were using Tigre as a medium of instruction in 1995-96 and that
in 1996-97 only a small number of children (3 percent, or 7139 students
of the total number of 240,737 students) were learning in Tigre, as
opposed to those taught in Tigrinya (82 percent, or 196,350 students)
and in Arabic (12 percent, or 28,452 students in 20 percent of the
schools) (tables 3 and 4).
Clearly many Tigre-speaking parents have chosen Arabic instead of Tigre
for the primary education of their children. From 1993-94 to 1996-97,
there has been an 8 percent growth of schools using Arabic, while those
using Tigre have shown a growth of under 1 percent for the same period.
As one of the Arabic panel members who himself was a Tigre-speaker
stated, "We found people reject Tigre; they said no to Tigre or no to
Nara.... They say we want schools in Arabic. The government policy is
based on identity...." One reason for the rejection of Tigre may be its
close affiliation to Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia.
Although Tigre is arguably the closest existing language to the Ge'ez
language from which both are derived, I have found most Tigre speakers
unaware of this close relationship. A number of Tigre-speaking
informants have told me that the Tigre-speakers have been suspicious of
the attempts to write their language in Ge'ez script, for they associate
the Ge'ez script with Amharic. They view Amharic negatively, as a
language of domination that they were forced to learn and speak until
Ethiopia was defeated in 1991.
On the other hand, Tigre-speakers often overemphasize the relationship
between Arabic and Tigre. Islam in Eritrea is connected with Arabic and
evokes strong feelings among Eritreans. The Arabic language came with
Islam over one thousand years ago and has influenced the religious and
communal life of the Muslim communities in Eritrea. The moral principles
of all Muslim Eritreans are derived from the Qur'an. They pray in
Arabic. Their religious leaders use Arabic in mosques, teachers use it
in Qur'anic schools, and judges use it in administering the Shari'a law
in Islamic courts. Thus the demand for Arabic comes from inside of
Eritrean communities and not as an outside influence. As Jabir Sa'ad,
one of the panel members in the Ministry of Education, described the
situation: "We conducted seminars among the elders and religious
leaders, and local leaders to overcome resistance on the use of mother
tongue. We were told that we were pushing them out of their religion.
They say Our children should be able to pray in Arabic'" (interview,
Asmara, Dec. 17, 1997).
Thus the use of Arabic in public schools has been growing fast because
of the overwhelming public demand for it. From 1993-94 to 1996-97, there
was a net increase of thirty-two schools using Arabic, surpassing the
rate of growth of all other languages, including Tigrinya (twenty-two
net increase), Kunama (zero increase), Saho (seven net increase), and
Tigre (eight net increase) (table 3). The lack of public enthusiasm for
using Tigre in schools can be seen if we look at the language of
instruction in schools that are supported by private initiative. From
1993-94 to 1996-97 only one private school was using Tigre, whereas
eleven private schools were using Arabic and seventy-one private schools
were using Tigrinya (table 3) (Government of Eritrea 1997:49).
Ahmed Dahli (1996:13) claims that the Tigre language "deserved to be a
partner of Tigrinya in the constitution of Eritrea,... for the Tigre
language is not less than Tigrinya as a language that can be used for
development and growth." The Language Panel members in the Ministry of
Education have insisted that for pedagogical and social reasons there
will be greater acceptance of Tigre as a medium of instruction in the
long run. They cite studies that show that although parents want Arabic,
their children like studying in their mother languages because they can
better understand the educational materials. The Ministry of Education
also has claimed that their own studies show that the sixth graders who
study in Tigre perform better academically, know more about their
culture, and have a stronger sense of pride in their identity than those
who study in Arabic. In addition, they believe that studying in their
mother tongue increases the speed with which the students acquire a
second language such as English. Nevertheless, the acceptance of Tigre
as a language of instruction faces deep resistance. As Dahli states,
"The Tigre speakers zealously love their language but are blocked by
their blind embrace of the Arabic language and thus, they are depriving
Tigre speakers all elements to move freely to capture diverse fields of
knowledge and technology."
The Case of Minority Languages
The various speakers of minority languages-including Kunama, Bilen,
Saho, Afar, Hadareb, and Nara-have chosen different paths in
implementing the language policy directives of 1991. In the process, the
preexisting uneven development among the Eritrean languages has grown.
The Kunama people have been more receptive than all the other minorities
to the new policy of instruction in their mother tongue. In 1995-96,
there were twelve schools conducting classes in Kunama. After grade
five, the teaching continues in English as a medium of instruction, and
Tigrinya and Arabic are taught as subjects. Many Kunama speakers have
become bilingual, with a predominance of Tigrinya as a second language.
They believe Tigrinya is more valuable for upward social mobility than
Kunama or Arabic because it is more widely spoken and has attained a
national stature. In the border areas with Sudan, however, Kunama
speakers know three or four languages, including Arabic, Kunama, and
Tigre and Tigrinya. Even Amharic is spoken in some communities as many
children learned it in their primary schools during the Ethiopian
occupation.
Kunama is perhaps the most developed of all minority languages. Its
development is linked to the coming of missionaries. In order to conduct
their missionary work, the Swedes started writing the language around
1867 using the Latin script. Italian Roman Catholic missionaries
established residence around Barentu and translated the Gospel into
Kunama. In the 1940s they opened an elementary school with boarding
facilities in which they used Italian as a medium of instruction. Until
the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974, the missionaries offered teaching from
first to eighth grade for future priests and teachers, many of whom were
sent to Asmara for further training. With the growing political unrest
in Eritrea after 1974, the Swedes left the country and did not return
until 1978, when they reopened some of their elementary schools, giving
instruction in Kunama. In 1988, the schools closed again and did not
reopen until the end of the nationalist war in 1991.
In 1997, the Curriculum Department of the Ministry of Education set up a
Panel on Kunama language to study the variations in dialects, working on
standardization and orthography of the language. The missionaries had
developed two dialects in a written form, including the Barka dialect
used by the Catholic missionaries and the Marda dialect used by the
Swedish evangelical missionaries. The Panel on Kunama followed the
pioneering work of these missionaries. It reduced the dialectical
differences from seven or eight to two: the Barka and the Marda
dialects. "The Voice of the Masses," which started broadcasting in
Kunama in the mid-1980s, has influenced the language shift toward the
Marda dialect.4 Many government and mission schools in the Kunama region
have accepted the government's language policy without resistance.
Like Kunama, Bilen developed as a written language in connection with
missionary activity. Missionaries used the language for religious
purposes, and some Bilen intellectuals have written essays, language
training manuals, dictionaries, novels, grammars, and religious and
educational texts in the language. The first text in Bilen language,
written in 1882, was a description of the grammar of the language and
the culture of the people and was written using the Ge'ez script
(Kiflemariam Hamde 1996:8-12).
The Bilen speakers live in close proximity with Tigrinya-speaking
Christians and Tigre-speaking Muslims, and they tend to know both Tigre
and Tigrinya as their second and third languages. Bilen-speakers are
divided almost equally between Muslims and (mostly Catholic) Christians.
Rather than demanding the use of the Bilen language as the medium of
instruction in their communities, those Bilen who are Muslim have opted
for Arabic primary schools and those who are Christian have opted for
Tigrinya. The present underdevelopment of Bilen as a language of
instruction is partly a result of the manner in which education was
introduced to the region. The beginning of formal education in the area
came with the setdement of the missionaries around Keren in the late
nineteenth century (Olsen 1997:11). Although missionaries were the first
to write Bilen using Ge'ez script, they never used the language for
teaching purposes. Instead, as in most schools in Eritrea, they taught
in Italian during the Italian period, in Tigrinya and Arabic during the
British administration, and in Amharic during the Ethiopian rule
(Government of Eritrea 1996:49
There has been a controversy over which script to use for writing Bilen
(Kiflemariam Hamde 1996:11-12). There is a compelling argument that
Bilen can be written and read easily with only a slight modification of
the Ge'ez script. In 1992, some interested Bilen-speaking individuals
produced two grammar books and a Bilen-English dictionary using Ge'ez
script. The EPLF and the government of Eritrea have used the Latin
script, however. In a Conference on Eritrean Languages sponsored by the
EPLF in 1985, the Front made a decision to use Latin script in writing
Bilen and all other minority languages, putting the policy into practice
in 1987. The explanation for the choice of Latin over Ge'ez script is
mostly political, having to do with the decision of the Eritrean
government to accommodate public sentiment rather than to build on the
existing experience of writing the Bilen language in Ge'ez script. Like
other Muslims, the Muslim Bilen see Ge'ez as part of the Christian
religion and the Ethiopian government. The government hoped that both
Christian and Muslim groups would use the Latin script without feeling
that one group was favored over the other.
In 1993 the government set up a committee to deal with technical and
scientific terms and to standardize the Bilen language. By 1996 texts
for math and science were published in Bilen, but there still was no
single school that used Bilen as a language of instruction. The
government schools gave instruction in Tigrinya and the teachers were
Tigrinya-speakers. Since 1997 there has been one first-grade class in a
government school offering instruction in Bilen language following the
government-recommended curriculum, script, and orthography.
Many of the other speakers of minority languages in Eritrea, including
Afar, Saho, Nara, Hadareb, and some Bilen, prefer instruction in Arabic
to their mother tongues (tables 2 and 3). As with the Tigre-speakers,
the resistance of the communities to giving instruction in their mother
tongue is related to the popularity of Arabic as a language of choice
among Muslims On the other hand, the Saho, although mostly Muslim, have
partially accepted the Eritrean government's policy on language use in
their schools. Like most Muslim Eritreans, the Saho have ambiguous
feelings about the use of their mother tongue in schools, and many have
opted for schools in which Arabic is the medium of instruction
(Government of Eritrea 1997). There have been, however, a large enough
number of schools teaching in Saho to warrant further analysis (see
tables 2 and 3). In 1996-97, there were eighteen government-run primary
schools, constituting 3 percent of all the schools, offering instruction
in Saho. This represented an increase of seven schools compared to the
period from 1993-94 to 1996-1997 (table 3). These schools were mostly
new, for there were hardly any schools in Saho districts before
independence.
There are three possible explanations for this partial success. First,
the EPLF and the government have followed a flexible policy toward the
Sahospeakers. For example, although the EPLF started using Ge'ez script
when it began using Saho as a language of instruction in 1983, it
stopped its policy right away when it faced public resistance. In 1985,
the EPLF introduced Latin script, claiming that the problems of
pronunciation were minimized when Saho was written in Latin. A more
likely reason for the switch to Latin script was political, however,
because the Saho speakers, just like the Tigre- and Bilen-speaking
Muslims, associate Ge'ez script with Ethiopian Christian faith and
practices. By 1990 the EPLF had prepared Saho textbooks in all subjects
using Latin script. It was able to offer instruction in Saho in grades
one to five in predominantly Saho regions.
Second, the Saho are a small nationality living in close proximity to
Tigrinya-speaking Christians. They interact with Tigrinya speakers in
their everyday life, and most Saho speakers are bilingual and trilingual
in Saho and Tigrinya and/or Tigre. Third, the Ministry of Education
presented many workshops, seminars, and lectures to communities,
religious leaders, and village elders to explain its policies of using
one's mother tongue.
In many cases, resistance to the policy of use of the mother tongue in
Eritrean schools has to do more with seeking direct economic and
political rewards and benefits from learning regional and international
languages such as Arabic and English In fact, one can make a compelling
argument that other than Tigrinya and Arabic, which have been designated
as working languages, there is hardly any material benefit attached to
being literate in the other Eritrean languages. Since English, Tigrinya,
and Arabic are widely used in official communication, a person knowing
all or a combination of these languages has an advantage in gaining
economic and political opportunities and rewards in the modern sector of
Eritrean society. In fact, one can function effectively in the lower
official circles of the Eritrean government knowing only Tigrinya but
not knowing only Arabic or English. Tigrinya is the language of military
training and communication. In the higher circles of the governmental
hierarchy, however, English is an essential medium of internal and
international communication. Thus, learning Tigrinya, English, and
Arabic are advantageous in the job market as well as in governmental and
international transactions.
Moreover, learning Arabic and English opens up opportunities for
employment outside of Eritrea. Since the citizens whose mother tongue is
Arabic are few, the existing system works to the advantage of the
Tigrinya speakers at the expense of other language speakers. In addition
to learning their mother tongue, the Tigrinya-speakers have to learn
English and Arabic while the non-Tigrinya-speakers have to learn
English, Arabic, and Tigrinya. Since Tigrinya is a written language with
a comparatively more developed body of literature, and is widely used in
official and unofficial transactions, the incentives for wanting to
learn and master Tigrinya are great. Non-Tigrinya-speakers, whose mother
languages are still at an early stage of being written and developed,
are expected to learn Tigrinya, Arabic, and English. Thus, for
non-Tigrinya-speakers, learning in their mother language is an
additional burden they have to bear. As an Eritrean expert remarked,
instead of focusing on teaching major foundational and essential
subjects, most Eritrean schools devote a large part of their time to
teaching the various required languages; therefore, schools have
practically become "institutes of languages" (Berharie Woldemichael
1995:38). That more than 50 percent of the material taught in the
Eritrean schools in 1996-97 was language-related attests to this fact
(Hoyle 1997:128).
Conclusion
Most writers are pessimistic about state-sponsored social engineering
(Scott 1998; Fardon & Furniss 1994; Van Binsbergen 1994; Laitin 1992).
They believe that centrally planned language policy will often have
little effect. James Scott (1998) has presented an incisive analysis of
why large-scale plans to redesign and improve social and economic
arrangements in various states have failed with tragic consequences to
millions. He argues that large-scale authoritarian plans have gone wrong
when they tried to enforce schematic visions that violated the complex
interdependencies that were not-and could not-be fully understood. He
also argues that the success of designs for social change depend
significantly upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as
important as formal, epistemic knowledge (Scott 1998). As Fardon and
Furniss state poignantly: "Experience suggests that the state can
sponsor dramatic language reform only under exceptional circumstances
(as in the revival of Hebrew in Israel) but that its capacity to
engineer perverse effects is always remarkable" (1994:24). They
recommend language sponsorship that is pragmatic, with "a modest and
constantly revised understanding of the changing patterns of language
use combined with a willingness to seize opportunities that arise at
levels between the state and the immediate locality" (1994:24).
The Eritrean experience is still at an early stage. In order to succeed
in its social engineering, the government has shown considerable
flexibility in its application of the language policy. And the policy
seems to follow some of the guidelines that experts such as Richard
Fardon, Graham Furnish, Wim Van Binsbergen, and David Laitin have
recommended. For example, Fardon and Furnish praise the Nigerian policy
of assuring knowledge of at least one and often two or three major
languages at the secondary-school level. This policy is aimed at
encouraging language versatility as well as reducing the link between
language, ethnicity, and political affiliation. Eritrea, however, has to
find ways of making knowledge of Eritrean languages other than Tigrinya
and Arabic emotionally and materially rewarding for its citizens. There
is also a need to minimize the trend of turning Eritrean primary schools
into institutes of languages.
Whether Eritrea will follow the lead of other countries and abandon its
language-planning policy only time will tell. So far, its attempt has
had a mixed outcome. It has been successful in gaining acceptance of its
mother-tongue policy among the Tigrinya-, Kunama-, Arabic- (Rashaida),
and to a limited extent, Saho- speakers. Others, mostly but not
exclusively Muslims, including Tigre, Nara, Afar, Bilen, Hadareb, and
some Saho, have resisted the government's initiative and have opted for
Arabic, and in the case of Christian part of the Bilen-speakers,
Tigrinya.
The outcome that Eritrea expects from its language policy is that every
person will be well versed in her or his mother tongue and also will
have the ability to communicate in one of the working languages of
EritreaArabic and Tigrinya-and in the international language of English.
This expectation is now close to realization and actually resembles the
outcome that most African countries aim for, aptly characterized by
David Laitin (1992, 1994) as the "3 ± 1" solution. According to Laitin,
market forces in many African countries demand that upwardly mobile
citizens have facility in their vernacular (primary language), an
African lingua franca, and a colonial or international language. If the
individual's vernacular is the same as the lingua franca, then the
person will need to learn only two (3 1) languages. If the person's
vernacular is different from the language taught in the region's primary
schools, the citizen has to learn four (3 + 1) languages (Laitin 1992,
1994; Pardon & Furnish 1994). In Eritrea, a "3 ± 1" outcome would give
all Eritreans the ability to communicate effectively with each other and
with most of the rest of the world.
In the long run, Eritrea might abandon its policy of giving instruction
in all Eritrean languages, for the simple reason that the increasing
burdens of economic, social, and cultural development encroach on the
limited resources available for language-planning policy and
implementation. As Williams points out, in all cases of language
planning, the delicate choice of whether to promote one; or many African
languages in the educational domain and public agencies of new states is
becoming less and less a matter of free choice. The dominant trend
toward the globalization of economic, political, and cultural
relationships is a major factor in language choice. But there is also a
countertrend, which emphasizes the value of cultural diversity and the
worth of each specific language and is especially concerned with
endangered languages in Africa. Since the coming of independence to
African countries, the truly endangered languages in Africa are
threatened more by policies favoring the strongest African languages
over the others than by strong international languages (Williams
1996:50).
In the case of Eritrea, the threat comes from Arabic and Tigrinya, the
two most dominant languages. With an overwhelming consent of the Muslim
and the Christian communities, Arabic and Tigrinya are capable of
replacing most of the Eritrean languages. Given a chance, Arabic could
easily become the dominant language of instruction and communication
among Muslim Eritreans, in the same way that it has come to dominate the
Sudan and North Africa; the same can be said for Tigrinya among the
Christians. The government is fully aware that Arabic, as an
international language and the language of countries surrounding
Eritrea, may eclipse Tigrinya, which is only a regional language at
best. This does not mean that the various mother tongues will disappear,
but it does mean that their languages will not develop to their full
potential within the Eritrean political spectrum. And while people will
not lose their distinctive identities, this situation might create
social pressures that will force Eritrea to revisit its recent troubled
history of the Christian-Muslim split, which arguably has fractured the
society for the last fifty years. Whether Eritreans' sense of unity is
strong enough to withstand divisions based on religion, language, and
other cultural sentiments is an open question. What we can say
confidently is that the government of Eritrea has deliberately followed
a policy that is variable enough to accommodate the conflicting demands
of Eritrean communities without abandoning its policy of teaching
children in their mother tongue at the primary school level.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank members of the Ministry of Education who provided
me with substantial information for this research, including Tesfamikael
Gerahtu, head of the Curriculum Branch, the late Negusse W. Ghebru and
all the coordinators of Panels of the Mother Language Instructions in
the Curriculum Branch, arid Isayas Merhatzion of the Department of
Research and Human Resources Development. I am also grateful to Ababa
Habtom, head of the Preschool Panel, Ministry of Education, and Zemehret
Yohannes, director, Ministry of Information and Culture, Government of
Eritrea. I have benefited greatly from the comments I received from M.
Crawford Young, Tom Killion, and Salaheddin Nur on an earlier version of
this article.
Notes
1. I conducted an interview with Kidane Tseggai, a representative of the
Ministry of Local Administration of the Government of Eritrea, on July
9, 2001. From the information I gathered, the approximate population of
Eritrea in 2000 was 2,926,401. This figure excluded soldiers and those
who lived abroad in refugee camps and as exiles and immigrants around
the world. See table 1 for details.
2. While it is common to use the same name for a language and an ethnic
group in Eritrea, the use of Tigrinya to refer to a language and to the
people who speak it is a new development, which made its appearance
since the establishment of the state of Eritrea. It is beyond the scope
of this paper to speculate why the government started to refer to the
Tigrinya-speakers as the Tigrinya people.
3. This information is based on a conversation I had on December 16,
1997, in Asmara with a former ELF official who is now an official with
the government of Eritrea.
4. "Dimtsi Hafash" (Voice of the Masses) started broadcasting in
Tigrinya, Tigre, and Arabic in 1979 and added programming in Afar,
Kunama, and Amharic in mid-1980s. See Killion (1998:351-52).
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Tekle M. Woldemikael is an associate professor and Chair of the
Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Redlands,
Redlands, California. He is the author of Becoming Black American:
Haitians and American Institutions (AMS, 1989). He has published a
number of articles on ethnicity and nationalism in Eritrea and on
Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees in the United States.
Copyright African Studies Association Apr 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Co
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