Challenging the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa : an evolutionist approach

Abstract

This study discusses the evolutionist approach to African history as an action plan for challenging the hegemony of English in university education and in the teaching and writing of literature in post-independence Africa. The researcher selected Zimbabwe’s university education and literary practice as the microcosm case studies whilst Africa’s university education and literary practice in general, were used as macrocosmic case studies for the study. Some two universities: the Midlands State University and the Great Zimbabwe State University and some six academic departments from the two universities were on target. The researcher used questionnaires to access data from university students and lecturers and he used interviews to gather data from university departmental Chairpersons, scholars, fiction writers and stakeholders in organizations that deal with language growth and development in Zimbabwe. Data from questionnaires was analysed on the basis of numerical scores and percentage of responses. By virtue of its not being easily quantified, data from interviews was presented through capturing what each of the thirteen key informants said and was then analysed on the basis of the hegemonic theory that is proposed in this study. The research findings were discussed using: the evolutionist approach to the history of Africa; data from document analysis; information gathered through the use of the participant and observer technique and using examples from what happened and/or is still happening in the different African countries. The study established that the approaches which have so far been used to challenge the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa are not effective. The approaches are six in total. They are the essentialist, the assimilationist, the developmentalist, the code-switch, the multilingualist and the syncretic. They are ineffective since they are used in a wrong era: That era, is the era of Neocolonialism (Americanization of the world). Therefore, the researcher has recommended the use of the evolutionist approach to African history as a strategy for challenging the hegemony in question. The approach lobbies that, for Africa to successfully challenge that hegemony, she should first of all move her history from the era of Neocolonialism as she enters the era of Nationalism.