Sub-Saharan African symposium aims to 'decolonize the mind'

Sub-Saharan African symposium aims to 'decolonize the mind'

The Sub-Saharan Africa Symposium 2000 entitled "Vicces of Africa: The Politics of Plurilingualism" focused ins the possibility of opening an African Studies Curriculum at Middlebury that would also feature a language learning component. The aim of the speakers at the symposium was to highlight the ways that many African languages have been marginalized and oppressed in favor of European languages, specifically English. The very act of learning/teaching different African languages is a form of decolonization.

Volume 98, Number 27

Claire Bourne
Devin Zatorski

The Campus

11/01/2000

Claire Bourne
Devin Zatorski

"The knowledge gained through education always comes back in English or French... why can't we stop hiding knowledge in European languages and put it in African languages?"