Reconstructing culture and building societal values in the global era: The imperative of mother-tongue in elementary school curriculum in Africa

Every tribe has a unique culture of which language is a distinctive feature. Culture and language are inherently intertwined in the sense that understanding one’s native language is easy access to understanding one’s culture, which is the way of life of a people. Language, thus, serves as the connecting force to all, irrespective of status, geographical location, or ethnic background, amongst others. The indigenous language of a people, regarded as the mother tongue plays important roles in identifying one’s culture. Using language to foster social engagement, uphold societal principles, strengthen national unity, and safeguard cultural heritage holds considerable importance, serving as the foundation for all forms of communication. Africans are known for their diverse ethnicities and native languages (mother tongue) but they are majorly influenced by foreign languages like English language and French language. Due to colonial effects, the Anglophone (English-speaking) African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, and South Africa, amongst others) have English language as their official language while the French language has been adopted as an official language by Francophone African countries such as Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, amongst others. The official adoption of English and French languages has caused “disinterest” in native languages by African youths, who are supposed to be future leaders and promoters of African values and heritage. They prefer speaking foreign languages to their native languages, and this has escalated to African youths feeling more comfortable with the Western lifestyle than with the African way of life. The issue is even worse in African schools as the means of communication between teachers and learners is either English or French. As such, adopting a qualitative method of investigation, this work argues for the imperative of mother tongue in elementary school curricula in Africa as a solution to the problems of “disinterest” and “code-switching/code-mixing” in Africa.