Mr Joof,
Below is the topic concerned.Mr.Joof your contribution in a topic like this one will be timely and useful,because that is your field as a teacher.This article i posted is a contribution towards the role of illiterates in African/Gambian politics.
Please send in your analysis brother.On a seperate note please keep away from eating too much during this winter.I hope you do not eat like Elhadj Mustafa Fye in Sweden.Oh these serers!
Essa.
ESSA BOKARR SEY <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
In The Gambia and in other places in modern day Africa there is a major challenge when it comes to politics and our streets,schools and other related institutions and so on.For many so-called 'paper-politicians' being illiterate means one isn't able to convince or be convinced politically.This is indeed part of the challenges for all those who claim to play a part in politics back home.Another problem is the feeling driven by "stereotyping" or "tagging",many analysts or critics are suffering from the above abstract drugs.
The art of communication or any other skill that leads one to becoming a shrewd politician cannot be done in stagnant positions or being obsessed on prejudice or personal interpretations that we receieve from private calls,mails,gossippings or the god father syndrome ie when Mr X says so about him or her then it is obvioulsy true.In politics that is false.Politics should be production-oriented and not portfolio-oriented.Having been passing class room exams is not the least the smae as having succeeded in applying a method and achieved results.Classes recall pass methods and or sometime associate present happenings with hypothesis thus come up with recommendations.These recommendations do either fail or succeed.
WHO IS AN ILLITERATE AND WHO IS NOT? COMBINING THE ROLES OF THE 'LETTEREDS' AND THE 'UNLETTEREDS' THE BEST BET OR NOT?
The above questions are a challenge to many particularly those of us from communities that have what researchers call high illietracy rate.The current statistics in The Gambia say that we have 70% or even more! Ok if that is the case let's ask ourselves these questions:Who is illletrate and who is not? Should illiterates not talk and be talked to when national development poses a challenge? The art of communication from time immermorial to date has never discriminated people because they are not lettered.
When we revisit the archives it is obvious that it was not long ago that degrees,certificates and other measurements-paper-wise started affecting our lives per se.Who can tell me what Galeleo's degree was? Did Einstein achieve a doctorate degree? I am a friend to one of his grand daughters and she said that grand father was a school drop out some time in history! True or false he is a genius that the world can neverr forget.
Bill Gates was obvioulsy a school drop out!Are we not using the internet now?!
What was Sundiata Keita's degree? What was Latdior's degree? Didn't Sekou Toure give sanctuary to Dr Nkruma when he was ejected from power?
Alphabets are not western and only western not at all.History has reserved the teachings we inherited from strong civilisations.The following do come to our minds in that regard ie;
Egypt-Hyroglyphics,the inheritence of pythagoras theorem(see Cheikh Anta's Egyptology and other findings from renowned scholars)
Arabic-(see the Egyptian museum and the one in Bagdad)
Israel-Hebrew
China-Chinese alphabet(based on sounds and not signs)
All these civilisations have literaru scholars who wrote volumes and volumes of texts and are well known within the arena of both social and phycal sciences.
Let say the ancient Egyptian's hyroglyphics were being used and history has thought us mathematics existed there well before the 26 letters(the English Alphabet came to existence).Where those Egyptians illietrates? Not at all! Well...i wonder if they were not going to be branded or tagged so,if they were to meet some of us in Lancarster Street or somewhere in Mombasa?!
If one visits the Madrid museum in Spain the first thing that greets any tourist are the paintings of Goya(a well known spanish painter).Goya and others might not have been that lettered but they expressed their feeling and understanding of societal matters through those images.Well back in form one we remember when Adu Boahen and other Ghanain historians thought us that images were used for communication and not alphabets.Infact it was the ancient society that studied,expanded it's mind and then produced what we use today to describe everything.Evolution brought us all these alphabets.Modern day intellectuals did not also hesitate to swim through 'arrogance' thus called those who left these alphabets for us here:Prehistoric men and women who did not know how to live.There are two different notions for some of us.Certain serious historians use words like prehistoric to study time and development.There are others who use that to show how modern we are and how retarded our fore
fathers were! Development through time is not the same as being stagnant and premitive.
Has anyone witnessed where modern intellectuals were able to come up with a new alphabet? I have not seen that yet! We are using the left overs and at the same time attempting to ridicule that.
The role of illiterates in our society is far more important than we think.
Let's take Gambia as an example,many of our scholars who studied arabic are considered illiterates?! That is absolute nonsense.We are missing a lot when it comes to what these people can do to help us develop society.Not all those used the arabic to study were products of islamic madrassas.There are some that i know who used arabic to study agriculture,botany and so forth.People like Momodou Lamin Yaffa are bright examples.Yaffa has proven to be one of the most successful shcolars after having completed his educationla career and he speaks fluent arabic.Yaffa later on studied french and served as interpreter at the then ministry of external affairs.Some people call arabic scholars back home "ustazz"that is also false.In arabic there is a big differenc between the word "ustazz" and "mu'alimm".Ustazz is higher in context because it means professor.But back home "ustazz" is termed as someone who is just half-baked form the "da'rah".These scholars can help us carve an pproach that can
merge statute lwas with customary ones and work with the statusquo through a lot of other cultural and traditional values.The role of the curriculum development in this confusion that has been caused by wrong analysis? To be treated next....
When will we think of creating our own symbols and alphabets instead of ridicluing people because they were not able to repeat ABCDE....
To be continued...
Indian-Hindu,urdu etc etc
Think before you sink!
"Pessimists see difficulty in every opportunity and optimists see an opportunity in every challenge"
"Suits cannot be made without scissors and niddles,so decent minds disagree to agree"
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Think before you sink!
"Pessimists see difficulty in every opportunity and optimists see an opportunity in every challenge"
"Suits cannot be made without scissors and niddles,so decent minds disagree to agree"
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
