Heritage

Why language speaks volumes about culture

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In life there are those who have the “gift of the gab” and are able to communicate easily. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Language is a tool for the exchange of information and has the power to create and shape symbolic realities, such as values, perceptions and identities through discourse. On the other hand, culture comprises the shared beliefs, values and behaviour of a social group, where the social group can be a family at a micro level and a nation at a macro level.

Different ideas stem from differing language use within one’s culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships start at one’s birth. When an infant is born, it is not unlike any other, in fact it is quite similar in many respects. It is not until the child is exposed to their surroundings that they become an individual in and of their cultural group. This idea of people being similar at birth has been in existence for thousands of years and even Confucius is on record discussing it with his followers.

Language changes lives by changing minds, shaping thought and making worlds of difference merely by what is said and not said. It embodies the rules of a culture and those who live in it. The language we speak, hear and read, and with which we ponder our place in the world, shapes our reality.

I have often argued that education was used by our colonisers to acculturate us. Education and progress were seen to be inseparable twins. Although instruction at the lower primary level was delivered in the applicable local “mother tongue”, the pinnacle was to be instructed in the language of the master, English. Those who could speak English were favoured for the better opportunities and remuneration.

Kiswahili was depicted as the language for the “kitchen totos” while native languages were seen as being for the retrogressive, the enemies of progress and those who remained “washenzi” (primitive). Today English is the principal language of instruction and indeed our national language.

In his book “Castilian Grammar” Bishop Antonio de Nebrija wrote, “Language has always been the perfect instrument of empire.” It entrenches the hard power of economics and military might and every empire builder desires to have their language on the tongues of everyone.

During the era of Pax Britannica, Britain controlled over 25 percent of world trade and spread English throughout the empire inculcating their values and culture to the extent of altering the national consciousness of their colonies. The English language was used as a tool for the social engineering of the colonised.

In the process of this social engineering we slowly became strangers to our own languages and culture. Our hearts and minds were won to the language and culture of our colonisers.

Looking at language in a broader context, it is important both because of what it communicates and in how many ways it does, conveying the rules about how we, and the others in our environment (seen or unseen), expect us to go about our lives.

The power and impact of language influences our behaviour. It can inform in a desired way, both by what it says and does not say or exert power and control over someone else’s actions and emotions even when they are not present (such as when reading a book). It also allows us to contact one another even when we are not physically together at the same time, for example by phone or internet to create closeness, cooperation or affiliation.

But it can also create distance, opposition or isolation among people when they are physically together, bring great emotional pain or shatter a person’s self-esteem. It can do all these things, and more, both when we intend to and at times when we don’t have the intention to, because language can operate outside of our consciousness and our intent.

Words we use do really matter. We can talk to, at, through, with, about, around and despite other people and events. The words we use, and how they convey our thoughts open our inner worlds to our audience and so create our world and that of those around us. Through this dynamic process of reciprocal influence what we say affects others and vice- versa. Effective communication is key to ensuring that we are transmitting the intended message and that it is understood by the recipients regardless of the language we are using.

In life there are those who have the “gift of the gab” and are able to communicate easily and confidently in a way that attracts people to listen to them, not always in a positive way I hasten to add. Others have the gift of writing in a style that is riveting to readers.

Whereas those who have an excellent command of the English language are to be commended for their ability to communicate effectively it does not mean they are in any way superior to those who may not so gifted. Conversely it does not mean that those same people are necessarily “colonized in the mind” as has been suggested recently. They are just good at what they do.