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The English Language and Political Consciousness in British Colonial Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
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SEVERAL years ago, Wilfred Whiteley, the linguist and Africanist, argued that ‘to some extent the nature of political action… may be related to people's conception of what constitutes politics’.1 Formulated in this way, Whiteley's argument seems to assume that all people have some conception of what constitutes politics—the only difference being what kind of conception. But can this be taken for granted? In 1952— to take an example almost at random—Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Nigerian leader, referred in a speech at Port Harcourt to ‘the growth of political consciousness’ in Nigeria. What did he mean? Had the Africans of Nigeria known no political activity until then? If they had, had they not been ‘conscious’ that the activity was ‘political’? Or was it a case of having no special name for this kind of activity as something distinct? If none of these hypotheses apply, what then was meant by this kind of reference to ‘political consciousness’ as if it was something new among Africans?2
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References
Page 295 note 1 ‘Political Concepts and Connotations,’ in Kirkwood, Kenneth (ed.), St. Antony's Papers. No. 10 (London, 1961).Google Scholar
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Page 300 note 2 Swahili did have a word for ‘politics’, siasa, but no single word for ‘politician’. And even the former was derived from Arabic and was not completely assimilated into the African language. Siasa also meant ‘policy’, ‘cunning’, or ‘prudence’. One term for ‘politician’ which has now emerged is the term mtelezi, which literally means ‘one who struggles for something or on behalf of somebody else’. Another modern improvisation for ‘politician’ is mwana-siasa, or ‘child of politics’.
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