I have for many years now been convinced that public libraries, as their name suggests, should be like temples of knowledge for as many people as possible, facilitating access for all to information, contributing to promoting creativity and knowledge production and, hence, to the empowerment of men and women, at the level of the community, of the nation, in towns and villages. Such a vision implies that the current structures be completely overhauled. Currently, they bolster the divisions and rifts in our societies that I mentioned at the outset.

Language is the bedrock of our individual and collective identity, but also first and foremost the matrix of creativity and the key tool for building and sharing knowledge and know-how. Language is also the best leverage of development, and by development I mean the gradual mastery of the environment in the broad sense (cultural, social, political, spiritual, scientific, economic, physical…) This process of overhauling structures rests on three pillars: a national language policy that strengthens our societies’ linguistic diversity; the overhaul of our education systems; and a network of public libraries criss-crossing the whole country and in phase with the regional level.

The first pillar: the formalization of a national language policy based on a functional and respectful multilingualism

I am convinced that none of our countries will be able to last out the 21st century without formalizing and implementing such a policy. Their very survival in an increasingly globalized world is at stake. This conviction is legitimized by the unequivocal statement in the Cultural Charter of Africa, adopted by Heads of State and Government of the continent at Port Louis (Mauritius) in July 1976 and revised at the Khartoum Summit of the African Union in January 2006, under the name of “Charter for African Cultural Renaissance.”

This declaration recalls that “under colonial domination, the countries of Africa found themselves in the same political, economic, social and cultural situation; that domination at cultural level led to the depersonalization of many African peoples, the falsification of their history, which was systematically denigrated, and to the undermining of their African values. They were thus tempted to gradually and officially replace their own languages by the language of the colonial powers. Colonization promoted the emergence of an elite that all too often suffered from acculturation and was won over to assimilation, with a wide rift opening up between this elite and the majority of the African people.”

Elaborating and implementing a language policy that restores a balance between the European languages inherited from colonization and African languages and that makes the latter official working languages in all domains of public life, in partnership with the other languages, would lay the legal and operational groundwork for active participation of a greater number in the building of an inclusive knowledge society. The African Academy of Languages, a specialized institution of the African Union, based in Bamako, has set itself the task of supporting each AU member country in drawing up and implementing just such a policy, the reference framework of which would be two founding texts – the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance and the Linguistic Action Plan for Africa which came out of the Khartoum Summit.

The goal is to arrive at recognition of the worth of all languages in an approach founded on functional respectful multilingualism which I would define as follows:

A strategic approach to the management of African language pluralism, taking into account both the principle of language equity and the recognition that languages actually have different functions. This approach goes hand in hand with decentralization and African integration and is based on the notions of a language of identity, a vehicular language and a language of international communication. It fosters the respect for languages and the “delegation of linguistic sovereignty” through the practice of the principle of subsidiarity between the local, regional, national and African levels.

This approach reflects our conviction that the plurality of languages, which is the norm in Africa, is not a constraint so much as an asset which strengthens our humanitude and which has never prevented Africans from communicating with each other. Of course this pluralism needs to be managed well and this is a challenge – one that the suggested approach would address successfully.

Such a language policy would be the vital bulwark for the new African policy on public libraries which would strive to leverage the production of books in national languages, to develop bilingual (African language + European language) or multilingual editions, to ensure empowerment of communities and ownership of libraries as active arenas. 

For any country where this is not yet the case, drawing up and implementing such a language policy would be an act of linguistic sovereignty and as such indispensable to shore up the hard-won political independence.

In our Universities and research institutes linguists and language specialists have been studying for many decades our African languages. Many of them are fully operational and ready to be used as working languages. Since the emergence of the information society many teams of computer experts and linguists have been working on the localization of African languages and the ways and means to ensure their presence in cyberspace. In other words, if only the political decision is taken to use them, resources do exist on the continent for each country that wishes to do so to develop a strategy to promote the use of cross-border vehicular languages (widely used languages spoken in two countries or more, beyond existing borders) and also less widely-used languages, this with the backing of ACALAN. 

Second Pillar: the Overhaul of Educational systems

Education is much more than just one sector of development. It is the key tool for development per se. Hence, I often say that there can be no “development,” let alone “sustainable human development” without the development of human resources and there can be no quality development of human resources without quality education and training. This can only be attained by using learners' mother tongue, as this is the medium of choice to ensure the acquisition and construction of knowledge and skills in an appropriate framework.

Education is by definition the prime tool for the training and education of human resources. It is therefore of strategic importance for countries to have a sound educational system. An educational system must be seen as a continuum, stretching from the home to school and encompassing the broader community which is the third arena for children's socialization.

There can be no Education for All, let alone quality education, or attainment of the Millenium Development Goals if the reality of the learners' cultural and socio-economic environment is not taken into account. To achieve this, a number of key factors must be met. They include the grounding of the learner in his or her own culture and language, ties between school and the life of the community and of the nation, accounting for socio-cultural specificities and the active involvement of all those I call the major vectors of education (family, school, trade unions, educational cultural voluntary movements, political parties, the media...) 

However, as in so many sectors of our government, African educational systems currently perpetuate the reproduction of imported paradigms that are ill-suited to our realities, thus reinforcing the dichotomy between formal and informal systems. This is a major brake for African schooling. One of the key reasons for this dichotomy resides in the use as a medium of teaching of languages that are foreign to the child and his family.

Parents who are not literate in the language of the school have no grip on their children's schooling; they are locked into a ‘non-formal’ environment whose ranks are constantly swollen by the ‘pre-programmed failures’ of an unsuitable, unfair system! How are parents who are excluded from the arena of public education supposed to help encourage their children to enjoy reading in a language which is alien to them all? What is the price to be paid for trying to nurture reasoning and scientific analysis and potential in children if they are forced to begin and continue their learning in a language in which they do not think or express themselves in their daily lives, at home or in the community?

How can parents be involved in school life and teaching goals if they do not understand the language used there? How can such parents take an interest in the school or local library (when they exist) or the national library when the languages they actually speak have no place there?  All  of  which  provides  ample  justification  for  an  urgent  overhaul  of  African  education systems,  so  that  they  reflect  the  historical,  cultural,  social,  economic  and  political specificities of our countries. Such an overhaul rests on three fundamental principles.

Principle One: the reconstruction of the learner's cultural identity, based on the use of the mother tongue as the underpinning for any knowledge acquisition. The idea is to promote a mother tongue centred multilingual teaching. It  is  only  through  the  language  they  master  that  learners  can  understand  who  they  are, have  a  sense  of  their  identity,  develop self-confidence  and  actively  participate  in  their own development and ultimately in that of their country.

In cultural terms it is a well-known fact that a language always and by definition reflects a world view and a form of social life which eventually impose a given mental structure on those who speak it. In other words, our life-style, that is our day-to-day behaviour can be seen in and through our language.  Hence,  teaching  mother  tongues  and  teaching  in mother  tongues  is  the  best  guarantee  that  students  will  acquire  a  sense  of  identity  and that the community will have a sense of ownership of the schools.

In terms of schooling, the high failure and drop-out rates noted since the colonial era are to  a  large  extent  due  to  the  difficult  acquisition  and  even the  coercive  teaching  of  a language which is totally alien to the learner. Africa  is  surely  the  only  continent  in  the  world  where  in  most  countries  children  are forced  when  they  start  school  to  acquire  knowledge,  even  knowledge  about  their  own culture, in a language they do not speak at home and they are encountering for the first time.  This  is  not  to  deny  the  importance  in  learning  of  languages  inherited  from colonization. They are an integral part of Africa's historical heritage. Rather it is a matter of finding  an  effective  strategy  to  move  from  an  educational  system  that  a  legacy  of colonialism to a system that integrates African values and languages.

This strategy for a more effective education must in all member countries be based on a more appropriate language of teaching, which should be the student's mother tongue, as well as the use of more  suitable  teaching  methods  and  techniques  which  take  into  account  the  languages used within the system. More consideration must be given to the local socio-cultural and socio-economic values and the necessary financial and material resources must be made available.

The introduction into the education system of our languages is the guarantee that they will flourish.  Excluding them from the system is tantamount to writing their death sentence! However, it must be remembered that the use of African languages in education needs to be backed up by conferring on them an official status to ensure they are used in all areas of public life thanks to a suitable language policy. 

Principle Two: the links between school and the community, both in terms of educational content and teaching methods.  Thus, curricula must be reformed to ensure the development of the right know-how and skills and the current intimidating top-down style of teaching must be replaced by an active teaching approach, encouraging participation and stimulating teamwork and group activities.  Curricula  should  take  into  account  local,  national,  African  and  world  history,  as reinterpreted from within and not told by those who have cultivated a Eurocentric world view.

The  school  system  inherited  from  colonial  times  is  one  that  is  estranged  from  its environment and which is imposed upon it, as it forces the local community to adapt to it. In overhauling education systems, it would be the other way round – the school would adapt to the community.  It  would  become  a  means  of  choice  for  the  community  to achieve  its  vision  of  society.  For schools should not stand for a different concept than that the community aspires to. They should not be foreign bodies. They should be rooted in  the  local  community  of  which  they  are  part,  and  not  seen  and  experienced  as  ‘the white man’s school’! The  New  African  School  should  meet  the  needs  of  social  life. It should be more practical than theoretical, able to train human resources that are rooted in  their  societal  values  and able  to rise  to  the  great  challenges  of  major  socio-economic changes and the Renaissance of the continent.

The  New  School  should  put  an  end  to  the  formal –  informal  education  dichotomy bequeathed  by  colonialism. For it will devise a unified fundamental education system that will eradicate illiteracy. If  such  a  thorough-going  reform  is  implemented  education  systems  will  be  able  to effectively  achieve  their  three  functions  in  society  which  are  to  be  a  key  tool  in  (a) developing  the  nation,  (b)  socialising  its  citizens and  c)  unleashing  new  energies  by training men and women who are capable of thinking for themselves.

Principle  Three : the  creation  of  dynamic  local  partnership  around  and  for  school  which leads  to  more  democratic  parent-teacher-student-administration  relations  and  involves the  whole  educational  community  in  the  day-to-day  life  of  the  school,  including  and in particular parents. This  does  not  imply  symbiosis  so  much  as  a  dynamic  synergy  for  the  benefit  of  the schools, both at institutional and individual level. All those concerned must be involved in this process.

But how can parents be involved in their children's school and schooling if the language used for teaching is foreign to them? Here it can be seen just how vital it is to implement the  first  principle  and  also  to  develop  around  each  of  the  new  schools  a  systematic campaign aiming at making parents literate in the language in which their children are to be taught. The overhaul of African educational systems which would be the main pillar of a future public library policy is technically possible already.  It is politically and culturally inescapable and a historical imperative.
 
Third Pillar: More democratic Public Libraries

The  two  pillars  I  have  just  described – the  formalisation  of  a  national  language  policy based  on  respectful  and  functional  multilingualism  and  the  overhaul  of  our  school systems actually create the legal and operational framework for the implementation of this third pillar of the reform of public library policies.

In  preparing  my  presentation, I  came  across  the  excellent  text  by  Ms Barbara  Mullane  from  the  Section  of  Information  service  Libraries  of  the  Nigerian government  of  the  day,  entitled  ‘The  rôle  of  public  libraries  in  popular  education programmes in Africa’  which she presented at an international study course at UNESCO on the development of Public Libraries in Africa that took place from July 27 to August 1 1953 in Ibadan in Nigeria.

It bears me out in my vision of the place and rôle of public libraries in Africa, as I find it is almost identical to that of  Ms  Mullane,  70  years  on !  Her findings back then are just as topical today.  I quote :  ‘One  of  the  roles  that  public  libraries  should  play  in  Africa  is  to  supplement grassroots education programmes, by making books of all kinds readily available so that the knowledge acquired during adult education courses not be quickly forgotten  simply due to the lack of reading material... ‘In fact, public libraries should supplement not just grassroots training programmes but education  programmes  generally.

Indeed,  later  in her presentation Ms Mullane says this, ‘Today education has ‘caught on’ in Africa but many  Africans  do  not  see  any  connection  between  education  and  the  habit  of  reading. This  is  because  in  schools  and  adult  education  courses  reading  is  not  sufficiently encouraged.  Africans  are  taught  to  read,  but  they  are  not  shown  how  enjoyable  and fruitful reading can be, and of course there is the simple fact that all too often there are no books... This finding does not come as a surprise given the current system. Clearly it is  easier  for  children  to  develop  the  habit  of  reading  and  to  enjoy  this  if  it  is  in  their mother tongue. This is why it is so important to stress the use of the mother tongue as the language of learning.

I am convinced that once the status of African languages has been rehabilitated libraries will no longer be seen as a foreign body by most Africans, but will become central to the construction and sharing of knowledge in African societies which are still at the moment characterized by oral transmission. To achieve this, the oral tradition needs to be re-lived and,  using  multimedia  techniques,  the  atmosphere  of  fireside  story-telling  with traditional tales and songs can be recreated.

It is worth recalling Amadou Hampât Bâ's words on the oral tradition : ‘Some  researchers  worry  that  the  same  degree  of  confidence  cannot  be  granted  oral transmission as the written word when it comes to the telling of past events. Our opinion is that this is not the issue. Any telling of the past, whether written or oral, is ultimately only a human testimony and is as reliable as is the teller.

After  all,  oral  transmission  is  surely  the  mother  of  all  written  text.  This  is  true  over  the centuries  and  also  for  each  individual.  The first archives, the first libraries were the human brain.  Moreover, before  couching his  ideas  on  the  written  page,  the  writer  or scholar  engages  in  a  secret  dialogue  with  himself.  Before drafting a tale, the teller goes back in his mind over the facts as they were recounted to him or, if he experienced them directly, as he has recounted them to himself.

There is nothing to prove a priori that the written work gives a more faithful rendition of a given reality than an oral account handed down over the generations... What is more, written  documents  have  not  been  immune  from  falsifications  and  alterations,  be  they deliberate or accidental, due to their being copied many times. Indeed, these successive copies have given rise to all the controversy over the  Holy Scriptures.

For  this  traditionalist  the  spoken  word  is  the  best  entry  into  the  cultural,  mental  and metaphysical  universe  of  the  African  peoples.  Speaking  of  the  African  oral  tradition,  he says: it  is  at  once  religion,  knowledge,  natural  science,  apprenticeship,  history, entertainment and enjoyment, in which any detail back lead back to the primordial Unity. Founded on initiation and experience, it implicates man in his entirety and, as such, it can be said to contribute to creating a particular type of person, to sculpting the African soul.

It  implies  a  particular  world  view,  or  rather  a  particular  presence  in  the  world,  which  is seen as a Whole where everything is linked and interacts. The  idea  is  to  use  the  ‘magic  worked’  by  tales  and  stories  to  stimulate  and  develop  a thirst for learning, a wish to understand and eventually to transmit. This is to be done by creating ideal conditions for listeners to progress from their love of the spoken tale to an enjoyment of a read story which may in turn give rise to new writing vocations. This could be  done  by  setting  up  of  ‘interactive  digital  libraries’  based  on  an  astute  use  of  the living  tradition.  They  would  be  a  kind  of  oral  library,  a  new  form  of  public  library, combining  ICTs  and  the  means  of  conserving  and  transmitting  knowledge  in  traditional African societies.

This  would  be  the  start  of  a  whole  process of domestication  and  of  democratization of public libraries that could then cover the whole country. Public libraries should be set up  in  each  village,  in  each  town,  in each  decentralized administrative  area,  so  that  they can  play  their  rightful  role  in  building  an  inclusive  knowledge  society  in  Africa.  National Libraries should be strengthened so they can effectively fulfill their various functions, in particular sponsoring this network and dovetailing with the regional level.

Besides, when considering public libraries, it is important not to lose sight of the quality of human resources.  It is surely vital that skills be acquired to ensure the proper running of  a  library  whose  role  after  all  is  not  confined  to  lending  out  books.  Libraries must become lively, dynamic places in which written texts are presented to users in keeping with their cultural needs, their concerns and their interests. The numerous readers who come to our documentation centres would no longer read just because their schoolwork or  their  job  requires  them  to,  but  because  they  genuinely  enjoy  reading  and  get something out of it, if only they were properly guided and assisted by well-trained staff.

Basically,  our  librarians  and  documentalists  have  a  major  role  to  play  in  promoting  the development of Africa. They are up against an imposing challenge – fostering reading in a society in which they is not a well-established reading culture. This is why they will have to  be  realistic  and  pragmatic,  but  perhaps  above  all  innovative  and  ingenious in accomplishing their task.

Of course, each African country has its own dynamic and the situation is not the same in South  Africa,  in  Ethiopia,  Senegal,  Mali,  Algeria,  Morocco,  Cameroon  or  Mozambique. The  process  of  social  ownership  of  ICTs  is  proceeding at  a  very  different  pace  as  is  the building of a shared knowledge-based society.

The  proposals  I  have  outlined  concern  primarily  those  countries with  high  illiteracy rates, with an education system that does not use national languages for teaching and by an administrative body that does not use these languages as working languages.

Librarians  too  have  always  tried  to  adapt  to  technological  revolutions.  Prefiguring  the Internet – which  brings  together  remote  transmission  and  local  processing – the  copy writers of the Alexandria library used to copy out systematically all the manuscripts that passed through the port. Today the printed, audiovisual and digital forms are available on a single medium, accessible at anytime, anywhere in the world. The old dream of a single gateway to universal knowledge is coming true.  On-line  catalogues,  digital  reviews, electronic  books  and  search  engines  have  transfigured  traditional  ways  of  accessing information.  The  danger  is  no  longer  the  scarcity  of  information  but  rather  a  glut.  The problem is no longer so much finding information, but selecting relevant data of quality.

The  Internet  has  thoroughly  modified many  professions,  but  especially  those  which  are  linked  to  the  production,  transmission  and  communication  of  knowledge  in general,  including  traditional  knowledge,  scientific  scholarship,  cultural  and  artistic assets. I am deeply convinced that the role of libraries and information services will not only remain indispensable in the process of creating and broadcasting knowledge and in formal and informal education, but will take on growing significance.

By Adama Samassékou (Excerpts).

President of the MAAYA Network, Former Executive Secretary of ACALAN, Former Minister of Education of Mali)  asamass@gmail.com