A few days ago, Ghana’s Education Minister, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, took a bold step by instructing the Ghana Education Service (GES) to strictly enforce the use of mother-tongue instruction in all schools, especially at the basic education level. The news made waves across the continent.
Many people on social media welcomed the idea, calling it a brave attempt to mentally decolonise Africans. Both at home and abroad, Africans applauded the policy framework, expressing hope for its replication across the continent and believing that it marks the beginning of a new dawn.
Skeptics, however, raised concerns about how ready the system is for such a change, questioning its sustainability and pointing to possible logistical and technical difficulties. Others worried about Ghana’s numerous indigenous languages, fearing that the diversity might lead to confusion.
As for me, I was not surprised by the announcement itself, but rather by the number of Africans who saw this policy as something new. I could not help but feel a mix of frustration and disappointment at how little we know about our own history of colonialism and the many movements for black emancipation that took root both in Africa and across the Americas.
When I read the story on DW Africa’s Facebook page, I immediately thought of sharing it with my colleagues in the Unimak Alumni WhatsApp forum. But before I could log in, the group had already dived deep into the discussion.
Lately, that alumni group has become my first stop for thoughtful and spirited debates on current issues. I find the members to be intellectually sharp and often very critical in analysing any subject. Skeptics in the group raised several questions, but one that struck me most was this: *"How will teachers teach chemistry, biology, physics, or interpret law in a local language?"*
While that question may sound technical, it also exposes the extent of cultural subjugation and alienation we have suffered over the years. We have become so dependent on foreign frameworks that we can hardly imagine creating life-saving innovations or developing local solutions without resorting to English. In simple terms, we have lost the ability to think and build within our own linguistic environment. This mindset alone shows the urgent need to reshape our intellectual path away from the westernised educational culture toward a more culturally grounded model.
Of course, every policy framework must be guided by evidence. The most effective way to approach such reform is to study similar initiatives undertaken by other nations, looking closely at both their achievements and challenges.
Sadly, as I mentioned earlier, we often fail to draw from our own history of self-emancipation movements that shaped Africa’s journey toward modern development. Since we agree that policy, just like development itself, must follow a clear road map, I have decided to write this piece as a series to make it easier to read. It is no secret that many of us Africans are not fond of reading lengthy works, no matter how relevant they may be.
In this first part, I will focus on examples of similar language-based reforms undertaken long before now in parts of Africa and other regions of the world. Because this piece is about Africa, I will begin with African case studies.
Case 1 ~ The Ujamaa Philosophy: Beyond Cooperative Economics, a Model for Cultural Self Emancipation
How many of us truly know about President Julius Nyerere? If you are unfamiliar with this remarkable man and his compatriots who fought tirelessly to free our region from colonial domination, then you are hardly in a position to debate the importance of using the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in African schools.
If the Swahili language today can boast of more than two hundred million first and second-language speakers and stands as Africa’s most spoken and internationally recognised language, it is largely because of Nyerere’s reform policy when Tanzania, then the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, gained independence in December 1961.
Nyerere took the bold step of declaring Swahili not only as the language of instruction in primary and secondary schools but also as the official language of public administration.
Tanzania did not simply rush into replacing English with Swahili. It had a plan, and that plan began with the establishment of Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), translated as the Institute of Swahili Research, in 1964, a year before Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the modern United Republic of Tanzania. This institution was charged with developing and promoting Swahili as a tool for national unity in a country with over one hundred and twenty local languages, most of them Bantu dialects.
*Positive Outcomes of the Policy*
1. In July 2004, the African Union adopted Swahili as one of its official languages to promote continental unity.
2. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka had long advocated for Swahili to serve as a transcontinental African language.
3. Freedom fighters in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda used Swahili as a common medium of communication, fostering unity of purpose and a shared vision across ethnic and linguistic lines.
4. Tanzania now records one of the highest literacy rates in sub-Saharan Africa, surpassing eighty percent.
5. Swahili has become a true lingua franca that bridges regional, class, and ethnic boundaries in East Africa.
6. The language became an instrument of liberation and integration for the region.
7. Education became more culturally relevant and conceptually meaningful to native speakers.
*Challenges of the Swahili Model*
1. Despite Swahili’s importance, English still dominates higher education and remains the language of prestige in many East African societies. This has created a hierarchy where English sits at the top while Swahili and other indigenous languages remain below.
2. Because English continues to serve as the language of instruction in universities and higher institutions, transitioning entirely to Swahili has been difficult for many Tanzanian students and for learners from other regions seeking to study in Swahili.
What We Can Learn from the Experience of Tanzania
~ We do not have to speak a common language to be united, it only requires a common aspiration, and we can naturally accept a common language from a pool of diverse tongues;
~ Development begins with cultural and intellectual emancipation;
~ Education should emphasise concept over fluency;
~ It takes visionary leadership to unite a people against a common enemy;
~ If the idea cannot be explained in your language, then it’s ideology and not education; and most importantly,
~ From within us resides what ties us together, and by our minds the colonialists have tied a rope of subjugation through language to limit our growth.
The second part of this series will throw more light on somewhat similar case scenarios in Africa (the like of Ethiopia especially) and the world over to enhance a framework for a policy initiative embedded in both SD Goal 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all) and the AU Agenda 2063 (Africa's Blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future).
©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
26/10/25
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