Some happier stories from Cameroon
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 27/Feb/2010 13:08, 34 days ago
Friday 18thFebruary was the International Day of Maternal Languages. Cameroon has two official languages, French and English (although no-one speaks English in the North) and about 240 tribal languages. In Maga there are about eight different ethnic groups, each with their own language. Most children will arrive at school never having spoken French in their lives: they will find themselves in a classroom of 150 children from eight ethnicities and are taught only in French. Often the teacher is from the South and doesn’t speak a single word of any local language.There is a lot of recent research (including a very interestingnew reportfrom Save the Children) that says children will perform much better if they are taught in their mother tongue, with the second language, here French, introduced gradually. The week before Maternal Languages Day I had a workshop for the teachers about how we could use maternal languages to help children learn in the very complex multilingual context. They came up with lots of great ideas, particularly about encouraging more peer-to-peer learning, so that the kids who have better French can help the others. They also pointed out that if the children learn some of each other’s tribal languages and to respect each other’s cultural backgrounds at school it can help to reduce some of the tribal divides that cause so much conflict in this part of Africa, and which I see causing day to day conflicts in the villages.On the day itself we also had a celebration assembly at the big primary school in Maga, where pupils danced, sang, and performed short plays in their tribal languages. I was roped in to sing and dance a solo rendition of the‘hokey-kokey’ in English much to the amusement of the thousand kids watching, although still no-one believes English is actually my maternal language, as they only know it as an ‘official language’ rather than a ‘tribal language’. (“What is your mother tongue, Mischa?” everyone asks.“English.” I reply. “No, no, no. That can’t be true. We mean what is yourrealmother tongue?”)My favourite sketch was performed by three little boys, one of whom was playing a white man called‘Papa Nassara’ (Father White Man) who went to the market, but because he didn’t speak any tribal languages couldn’t find out what any of the products were for or how much they should cost. He ended up becoming so angry that he dragged the market trader off by the ears. Apart from the ear-dragging I am fairly sure this was meant to be an (uncannily accurate) impersonation of me at the market, where it is not unusual for people to gather around and roar with laughter as I try to buy my vegetables!In the picture of this on the left you can also see the teacher practicing typical crowd control techniques. They never hit the children when they know I'm there, but I've seen them do it when I think I'm not looking.   We’ve also had some big successes with our mothers groups over the past couple of weeks. Well over a hundred women have signed up for the basic literacy classes we’ve set up in the little villages, and they’re enjoying them so much that the men have got jealous and are demanding literacy classesfor men as well. We’ve told them if they ask their wives very nicely perhaps they will teach them.Some of our mothers also went into the classroom last week to have a discussion with the children about their problems at school, and the kids, once they’d stopped laughing at the sight of their mothers at school, responded really well. They raised all kinds of issues, such as the fact the girls have to do housework all day, so don’t have time to study at school, or that they’re scared of being taken out of school and forced into early marriages. They also pointed out that their parents don’t give them money for notebooks, pens, and clothes, so if they want these things they have to skip school and go and work in the fields to earn money. Sure enough, when I cycle past the rice fields on my way to the villages, the fields are full of children picking rice.A few days afterwards the mothers who’d done the session held a big women’s meeting to discuss how they can help their children (things like making sure household tasks are split more evenly between boys and girls and saving up some money to buy school equipment). They decided it was important to get their husbands involved as well, and next week some of the bravest women are going to give a talk to the men of the village about supporting the children at school. This is a really big step for them: in their village there are still plenty of men who won’t even let their wives leave the house to attend meetings.