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Alphabet Without Borders Page 1 of 4 Crossroads Project Policy Brief 1 Alphabet without borders Page 1 of 4 LILIEMA Language-independent literacies for inclusive education in multilingual areas Executive summary. West and Central Africa (WCA) this region since 1982 (WANEP 2015). In particular is the region of the world with the largest the Lower Casamance area that forms the province percentage of young people (32% of the of Ziguinchor is characterised by the following population; UNFPA 2016). In Senegal, 81% of factors: children are enrolled in primary school, but only 51% complete the primary cycle (UNESCO 2016). • Its status as a cross-border region shaped Primary education does not lead to literacy and by three different colonial powers and a numeracy skills relevant for daily life, nor does it legacy of three different official languages result in proficiency levels in French, the official (French in Senegal, English in The Gambia, language and medium of instruction, needed for and Portuguese in Guinea Bissau). formal employment. Mother tongue education • Its high concentration of Frontier faces great political and operational obstacles and communities, that is, of small-scale, clan- is not a realistic option in highly multilingual areas. based settlements spanning national A high proportion of adults are functional borders and populated by inhabitants illiterates. We present LILIEMA, an innovative with high mobility and intense social ties teaching method pioneered in the Crossroads to neighbouring villages. research project that teaches letters and their • Its high incidence of internal and external sound values to write all languages in an migration, for reasons ranging from social individual’s repertoire. We are currently piloting exchanges through child fostering and LILIEMA in two villages in Casamance and report marriage exchanges to economic mobility here on the advantages of this method for and seeking refuge from conflict (the overcoming linguistic inclusion and teaching locally Casamance conflict and the Guinea Bissau grounded literacy skills relevant for daily independence war being the most recent). interaction and cultural validation in Casamance Multilingualism and its role in society. Casamance and other multilingual societies. is the home of over 30 indigenous languages. The Casamance context. Located in the South of Many of the smaller languages have only one Senegal, the natural region of Casamance village or a group of villages as their nominal home comprises the three provinces of Ziguinchor, Kolda base; these languages include Baïnounk, Joola and and Sédhiou. The area has 1,664,000 inhabitants Bayot languages. Larger languages and language who speak ca. 30 languages on a surface area of clusters such as Balant, Mankanya, Manjak, Pepel 29,000km2 (RGPHAE 2013). The Casamance is and Fula co-exist with a Portuguese-based Creole, separated from the rest of Senegal by the country Wolof and Mandinka, which are also used as of The Gambia, and shares another border with languages of wider communication. Every Guinea Bissau. It forms part of a zone that is for inhabitant of Casamance is multilingual, either climatic, historical, political and cultural reasons through internal and external migration and the very different from the North of Senegal and has languages acquired during personal trajectories, or suffered from a longstanding secessionist conflict because of deeply rooted social exchanges led by the MFDC (Mouvement des Forces resulting in small-scale multilingualism (Lüpke Démocratiques) demanding the independence of 2016a and b). Marriage links often transcend Crossroads Project Policy Brief 1 June 2017 Alphabet without borders Page 2 of 4 linguistic and national borders, child fostering is in the same way across language borders, widespread and brings children with very different following the orthographic conventions of a lead linguistic repertoires together in one household, language, which usually is the language of the first and ritual and religious mobility is pervasive. or main literacy. For Ajami writing, the lead is Formulating an efficient and inclusive language Arabic, in West African localised writing tradition; policy for multilingual areas like Casamance poses for writing in Roman characters, the official a challenge for language-based approaches. It is language is used. This writing practice, together unrealistic to develop mother tongue teaching with the division it causes in cross-border contexts, materials, train teachers, create a stable learning can be illustrated through the different spellings of environment and provide the literacy materials a name: needed to make literacy sustainable for the many small languages with speaker numbers ranging in The family name /ɟamɛ/ is attested in The Gambia, Senegal, the thousands. SIL, the only major language and Guinea Bissau, and spelled according to the rules of official languages of these countries, English, French and development actor in the region, has ended all Portuguese respectively, giving <Jammeh> for the former literacy activities and is withdrawing from the area. Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh, and <Diamé> for the Any language choice results in the exclusion of a French footballer of Senegalese origin Mohamed Diamé. In part of the local population: if the patrimonial Guinea Bissau, this name is spelled <Jame>. language of a place is selected, in addition to the Grassroots writing practices making use of the high costs for a small target group, many of its Latin alphabet in language-independent fashion inhabitants will be excluded, since they do not are widespread in text messages, social media, speak this language, do not identify with it, or are written signs and personal literacy. They can still learning it. If a larger language is chosen, the inform literacy activities built on a conception of local languages become invisible, and local culture literacy as a social practice (UNESCO UIL 2016) and is completely marginalised. Local opinions are be seized for locally grounded, bottom-up divided on which indigenous languages could be development strategies. used in mother tongue teaching: while the most liberal respondents are open to teaching in Wolof, Multilingual Facebook chat using French spelling there is also vocal opposition to this choice, since it as the lead: invokes the threats of Northern domination and Wolofisation that have played a central role in the Casamance conflict. In addition, and as observed in other WCA contexts (Brock-Utne & Skattum 2009), parents and learners often make rhetorical commitments to initiatives involving literacy in indigenous languages but do not follow suit in practice, because proficiency and literacy in the official language are seen as the main learning goals of formal education. Indigenous grassroots writing as a model for language-independent literacy. In the light of literacy activities that remain unsuccessful or are Piloting language-independent literacies: LILIEMA. not cost-effective in multilingual areas, we have LILIEMA is a method for the learning and teaching turned to existing literacy practices for inspiration. of basic literacy skills in highly multilingual areas In WCA, so-called Ajami writing (the writing of that has been developed by Friederike Lüpke and languages other than Arabic in the Arabic script) is her local transcriber team based on her a widely attested pre-colonial writing culture that longstanding research on West African exists till today. Just like present-day informal multilingualism, in particular within the on-going writing practices, this type of literacy is language- Crossroads Project funded by the Leverhulme independent: letter-sound associations are applied Crossroads Project Policy Brief 1 June 2017 Alphabet without borders Page 3 of 4 Trust. LILIEMA is based on the teaching of sound- provides strategies for conflict prevention and letter associations that can be applied to entire resilience building in Frontier societies. repertoires rather than being taught for a particular language. It allows inclusive literacy This strategy has a number of benefits that are teaching in areas where participants are highly crucial for reaching SDGs: multilingual, particularly in small languages. • LILIEMA makes all of the languages in an individual’s LILIEMA is inspired by the acknowledged need to repertoire usable for personal literacy, thus contributing to personal autonomy and development develop inclusive and multilingual literacy relevant to local economy, the scope of SDG 4. strategies (UNESCO UIL 2017) in order to reach the • LILIEMA reaches groups excluded from language- Sustainable Development Goals in the domain of focused literacy activities. All language-centred literacy education. programmes struggle to cope with mobility. Through reaching these marginalized groups, LILIEMA contributes to SDG 16. SDGs addressed by LILIEMA: • By reaching women, who often marry into different • SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality linguistic environments and are excluded from formal education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, education, it is central to the achievement of SDG 5. • LILIEMA uses local means and is training and • SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, employing local teachers, relevant to SDG 8. • SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive The LILIEMA method explained. LILIEMA is based employment and decent work for all, on sound-letter correspondences codified in the • SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies
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