Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!' A Case Study of Somali Literacy Teaching in Liverpool

This article was downloaded by: [University of Chicago Library]On: 15 November 2014, At: 10:57Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,London W1T 3JH, UK

International Journal ofBilingual Education andBilingualismPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rbeb20

'Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!' A CaseStudy of Somali LiteracyTeaching in LiverpoolJo ArthurPublished online: 26 Mar 2010.

To cite this article: Jo Arthur (2003) 'Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!' A Case Study of SomaliLiteracy Teaching in Liverpool, International Journal of Bilingual Education andBilingualism, 6:3-4, 253-266, DOI: 10.1080/13670050308667784

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050308667784

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of allthe information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on ourplatform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensorsmake no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy,completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views ofthe authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis.The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should beindependently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor andFrancis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings,demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private studypurposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution,

http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rbeb20

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/13670050308667784

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050308667784

reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any formto anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and usecan be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ A Case Study ofSomali Literacy Teaching in Liverpool

Jo ArthurEdge Hill University College, Ormskirk, UK

This paper is based on an ethnographic researchproject in an urban neighbourhood ofLiverpool. The aim of the study is to build an understanding of the communicative andsymbolic roles of languages and literacies in the Liverpool Somali community, whichforms part of a Somali diaspora within Britain and beyond. The role of literacy in theSomali community is of particular interest in the context of a vigorous oral traditionand of the relatively recent introduction of a writing system for Somali in 1972. Somaliliteracy lessons for young girls were observed as part of the research.Focusing particu-larly on bilingual classroom talk during one of these lessons, the paper discusses theshaping of participants’ language practices, in relation on the one hand to their experi-ence of the communicative use of Somali in different social domains, and on the otherhand, to different values associatedwith languages in their repertoire.Data concerninglanguage values have been gathered in the community using interviews and a ques-tionnaire. The paper considers the potential role of Somali literacy – and literacy teach-ing – in developing the sense of their cultural and linguistic identity which youngpeople have in this community.

IntroductionCommunity schools are important contexts for linguistic and cultural repro-

duction in minority communities in the UK. Already in its pioneering surveypublished in 1985, the Linguistic Minorities Project (LMP) observed that ‘mothertongue classes provide an institutional focus not just for the maintenance oflanguage skills but also for their transmissionfrom one generation to the next’ (p.264). This role for community schooling remains relevant, and can indeed beseen as increasingly urgent, in the contemporary context of an education systemwhich is ever more ‘strongly oriented towards English monolingualism’ (Li Wei,1994: 58). Communicative use of languages other than English in mainstreamschool classrooms occurs mainly informally among bilingual learners. Where itis officially sanctioned, and where bilingual teachers or classroom assistants areemployed, bilingual interaction between teachers and learners offers transitionalsupport, for the youngest primary school children or for children newly arrivedin the country, on their way to coping independently in the monolingual Englishmainstream. Clearly, such arrangements – the marginalisation or exclusion ofcommunity languages from mainstream schools and classrooms – are likely tohinder rather than encourage the maintenance, not only of minority languageskills but also of the cultural values associated with those languages.

Marginalisation – a majority rather than a minority perspective – is, indeed,reflected in the undifferentiated use of the term ‘mother tongue’ to refer tolanguages which serve a wide range of communicative and symbolic roles in thelives of members of minority communities. Such languages may or may not bethe first language to be acquired, or the main language of the home. They may be

1367-0050/03/03 0253-14 $20.00/0 ©2003 J. ArthurInternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Vol. 6, No. 3&4, 2003

253

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

national languages of countries of origin, languages of religious heritage or scrip-tural languages (LMP, 1985: 223–224). In view of this diversity, and of the factthat community provision for their reproduction can be traced back overdecades, for example to the 1970s in the case of Chinese ‘weekend schools’ (LiWei, 1994), it is perhaps surprising that community schooling has not been moreoften and more closely investigated by researchers. A notable exception is LiWei’s 1993 case study of Chinese community classes in Newcastle. The mainfocus in this account is on explaining, in terms of the language and socialnetworks of parents, the different levels of fluency in Cantonese among childrenattending the school. However, the study also offers qualitative insights into theattitudes of the British-born children who attend the classes and the concerns oftheir parents, who perceived with some alarm that the social behaviour of theirchildren was increasingly anglicised. The role of the community school incontributing to social and cultural reproduction – rather than merely linguisticreproduction – is signalled. The teaching of Chinese literacy is central to this role:‘In communities such as the Chinese where written language becomes a symbolof traditional culture, a reduction or loss of ability to read and write their ethniclanguage may take on a particular social significance for their members’ (Li Wei,1993: 207).

More recent research attention given to community schooling further high-lights the importance of literacy. Examples are Edwards and Nwenmely’s (2001)study of the teaching of Kwéyòl in London and Gurnah’s (2001) account of theteaching of Yemeni and other community languages in Sheffield. This researchdevelopment can be linked to the growth in the UK of the ‘new’ literacy studies,originating in Street’s (e.g. 1984) theorisation of an ideologically differentiatedview of literacies, and drawing on Hornberger’s (e.g. 1994) continua model ofbiliteracy. Underpinned by these theoretical perspectives, there is a movetowards ethnographic research approaches which, as Saxena (2001) points out,are able to take account of wider social forces, including the role of racism, inshaping language practices, both spoken and written, and the cultural valuesattached to them.

This paper is based on an ethnographic study which investigates languageand literacy among Somali speakers, a minority group in Liverpool, England.The study addresses a number of broad research questions relating tointer-generational variation in language practices and values, and to theconstruction of new British Somali identities by young people in the community.In addition, the research design responds to a need identified by Martin-Jones(1991: 53) for ‘micro-level studies of language in use’. A Somali communityschool is a key research site and it is here that micro-ethnographic observation ofliteracy lessons for young teenage girls has taken place, accompanied by audio-and video-recording. The research design is triangulated. Further data have beengathered in the form of interviews with students and their teachers concerningtheir motivation for participation in the course and their views on the progressthey have made. In addition, the students have completed weekly diaries abouttheir experience of the course and of Somali literacy practices in daily life.

This paper includes a transcribed extract from one of the literacy lessons.However, before presenting and discussing the extract, in the next section of thepaper I describe the broader research setting. The account which I offer of the

254 Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

Somali community in urban Liverpool includes historical contextualisation, interms of the origins of the community and its patterns of migration, as well asinformation about its present socio-economic circumstances. This is followed bya more detailed description of the micro-context of the community school,explaining the genesis of the literacy course, and introducing the participants.

The Liverpool Somali Community

Origins and patterns of migrationThe Republic of Somalia, on the eastern horn of Africa, was created in 1960,

when the areas under colonial administration, respectively, by Britain in thenorth and by Italy in the south became independent and were subsequentlyjoined. The nomadic lifestyle of the majority of the inhabitants of the regionperhaps goes some way to explain a tradition of seamanship among Somalimales, as a result of which they were already to be found in British ports, includ-ing Liverpool, in the second half of the 19th century. Up until the 1950sthe Somalipresence in these ports remained largely transient. However, the seamen formeda point of contact for increased settlement in the period after independence andthis extended to other British cities, chiefly Manchester, Sheffield and London,where the largest Somali community in Britain is to be found in Tower Hamlets.From the 1980s when resistance grew to the military regime of Siyad Barre, andparticularly after the outbreak of civil war in 1988, the Somali communities inBritain were the destination of refugees fleeing the violence and destructionwhich overtook the country. These refugees are part of a wider Somali diasporawhich has resulted in substantial communities in neighbouring Kenya and theArab League states of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in Germany,Norway and Sweden in Europe, and as far distant as Canada. There are no reli-able statistics on the present-day size of the Liverpool Somali community. Esti-mates range widely: from 3000 to 5000 individuals, living in some 300 to 600households. Even in the absence of exact figures it is clear that the proportion ofyoung people in the community is very high: an unpublished 1991 survey putsthis at 42% in the 0 to 19 year age group.

The Liverpool environmentDespite the presence of the longest-standing black community in the country,

their experience remains one of extreme residential segregation within theToxteth area, more commonly known locally by its postcode, Liverpool 8. Likeother black people in Liverpool, Somalis have also settled here and, even withinthis area, most families live in just two wards, Granby and Abercromby,described by one observer as ‘surely one of the most grim and depressing neigh-bourhoods in Britain’ (Stokes, 2000:4). Small (1991: 515) concludes that Liverpoolblack people are the victims of ‘extensive and entrenched segregation, includingresidential, employment, educational and social segregation’. The lack ofsupport accorded to Liverpool Somalis can also be traced to the ‘colour-blind’local governance of Liverpool (Small, 1991): ‘Whether we are looking at educa-tion, employment, health or crime there is no routine monitoring and analysis ofthe Somali community, or other communities, by the public authorities’ (Stokes,2000: 7). This failure means that there is no data base which allows for appropri-

Somali Literacy Teaching in Liverpool 255

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ate responses to the experience and needs of black people in Liverpool, includingSomalis, in any of these areas. The rate of unemployment in the Somali commu-nity is of especial concern: in the absence of more recent statistics it is worthnoting that a survey conducted in 1991 concludes that the rate of unemploymentin the community was over 70%. This rate was ten times the national average atthat time and four times the Liverpool average. The community thus lives inintense poverty and is heavily dependent on state benefits where these, depend-ing on the immigration status of individuals, are payable. In the next section Ishall have more to say about the educationalexperience of Somali children. Fromthe points I have made in this section it seems appropriate to conclude that theLiverpool Somali community is ‘in deep distress’ (Stokes, 2000: 19). Among themore positive aspects of the community’s experience are self-help initiatives,such as the ‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ Literacy Course, which is the focus of the nextsection. A description of the course, its genesis and the participants will serve asan introduction to a transcribed extract from one of the lessons which wereobserved during the research project.

The ‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ Literacy Course‘Baro afkaaga hooyo!’ means, in Somali, ‘learn (or study) your language (or

your mother tongue)’. It is the name chosen by the teachers of an introductoryliteracy course which ran for 10 weeks in early 2000. The lessons took place in adisused primary school which had been made available to the community forother after-school classes. In this ‘homework club’ lessons in maths, English andscience were offered through the medium of English. Those few classes in SomaliLanguage and Culture provided for youngsters prior to the ‘Afkaaga Hooyo!’literacy course tended to focus on learning about Islam and the Islamic way oflife. In addition, children attend Qur’anic classes in order to learn the scripturallanguage of Islam, classical Arabic.

The ‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ course was designed and taught by two membersof the community, one a male community worker who is also a writer of Somalifiction and poetry, and the other a female trained nurse and health worker, whohas also worked as an interpreter and a bilingual support teacher in Liverpoolprimary schools. The students were 10 girls aged 11 or 12. Although many moreyoung people were keen to attend the course, the size of the accommodationlimited numbers. In deciding to teach only girls, the teachers reasoned firstly thata single sex group would avoid any concerns that might be raised by parents, inthis Moslem community, over mixed provision for girls and boys. The decisionthat the group should be girls-only was then based on the teachers’ view thatgirls would be more highly motivated and better-behaved than boys. The teach-ers felt that this was important in ensuring that members of the communitywould view the course as a success. The course was intended as a pilot project,and its success might convince the community to support further courses,including courses for boys.

The lesson extract which follows occurred towards the end of Lesson Three ofthe course. It centres on a badge – a sticky label with the Somali words printed onit saying ‘Kamaan cabsan dhakhtarka maanta’. This can be translated intoEnglish as ‘I was brave (literally not afraid) for the doctor today’. The student had


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

received the badge – rather in the way children sometimes receive a congratula-tory badge when they visit the dentist – after taking a blood test. The experiencehad been unusual in that there are normally no Somali-speaking doctors avail-able to the community. The blood tests were in fact being conducted for researchpurposes by a Somali-speaking doctor visiting at the Liverpool School of Tropi-cal Medicine.

The extract begins as the student approaches the teacher with her badge. Thetalk in the classroom focuses first of all on the words on the badge, which are speltout by the students and written on the board by the teacher. It is only after thisthat it emerges that not all the students understand what the sentence means. Inthe less structured sequence which then follows the teacher offers some explana-tion of the blood testing programme, and there is some discussion among thestudents. Finally the teacher gets the students ‘on task’ again by asking them towrite up their diaries with some comments about the lesson that day.

Extract from Lesson Three1

S1: [to teacher] eeg

look

T: haa:: kamaan cabsan dhakhtarka maanta . this is very good .ok:: I was not afraid of the doctor todayma markii dhiigga lagaa qaadayay baa? . this is goodis this when you had your blood taken?

S2: [to student 1] where did you get that?

S1: ( )

T: akhriya bal hadda? [goes to board]can you all read?

S: kamaan cabsan maanta dhakhtarI was not afraid today doctor

T: kamaan cabsan . bal korka ka-dheh? [writes first letter on the board]I was not afraid can you read it?

SS: [spelling in Somali] ka

T: ka . hayek ok

The sequence continues for some time with the students giving the Somali letternames as the teacher writes them on the board, occasionally correcting thestudents where they use English letter names. The teacher also reads aloud eachwhole word which has been spelt out and written on the board. When the wholesentence has been gone through in this way, however, she is interrupted as shereads it aloud.

T: very good . kamaan {cabsan dhakhtarka maanta

S: {what does it mean?

T: what does it mean? what does it mean? [points to each word on theboard] kamaan cabsan dhakhtarka maanta .

I was not afraid of the doctor today


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

kamaan baqan dhakhtarka maanta . markii dhiigga laga qaadayay buu dhaktarkusoo siiyay .. I was not frightened of the doctor today it was given to her by the doctor at the blood testkamaan cabsan dakhtarka maantaI was not afraid of the doctor today

S: ( )

T: dhakhtarki dhiigga qaadayay . dhiig baa layska qaaday lagu ogaanayo bilaadhiigga .the doctor who was taking the blood there was a blood test to check for anaemiaberrito wuxuu ka jiraa … [to student showing her work] that’s good . haatomorrow it will be yes

S: I haven’t got it

S: why? what’s it for?

T: it’s . jooniska iyo dhiigla’aanta iyo baa layska qaadayaa . it is good .the tests are for hepatitis and anaemia .

hooyadiin u sheega oo waxa tidhaahdaa na-gee .tell your mothers to take you therekhamiista wuxuu ka-jiraa Princes Park Health Centreon Thursday they’re testing at Princes Park Health Centre

S: what time?

T: what time? {I think from 9

S: {I don’t have meningitis

T: aroorta siddeeda ilaa iyo lixda . I would like to get … I will also …tomorrow from 8 till 6anna waa layga soo qaaday . amba waa laygu soo dhejiyay kamaan baqandhakhtarka maanta . haaI had mine a few days ago I had the badge that says I was not afraid of the doctor yeshaye dhammeeya . ma dhammayseen dairiyigii? yaa dhammeeyay oo fariida?ok finish have you finished your diaries? who is clever and has finished?

DiscussionIn the following discussion I take bilingual language practices which were

observed, in this and other lessons, as a starting point, suggesting what theyreveal about the bilingualism of the girls in the group. I then raise some questionsaround the aims and possible outcomes of the course, in terms of Somali literacyon the one hand, and fluency in spoken Somali on the other hand. Next I’llbroaden the discussion in order to explore the communicative purposes and thesymbolic value which are associated with Somali in this minority languagecommunity in a British urban context. My conclusion will, I hope, offer aconstructive view of the potential of literacy teaching initiatives in thiscommunity.

Bilingual language practicesThe lesson extract illustrates an asymmetry in language choice which was

characteristic of the spoken discourse observed throughout the course: the teach-


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ers predominantly used Somali and the students English. Furthermore, thestudents were not observed to use Somali to each other, except to repeat part ofthe lesson content, for example in order to confirm for a neighbour the Somalispelling of a word. This pattern of language choice by the students might well beexpected in an educational context which, although ‘after-school’, closely repli-cates the environment of mainstream school classrooms so strongly associated,in the daily experience of the students, with exclusive use of English. However,in the wider research study a similar asymmetrical pattern of language choice byadults and children was both observed to be common in households visited andconfirmed in interviews. As the mother of one of the literacy course studentscommented of her daughter: ‘If she knows you speak English she wouldn’t speakto you in Somali’. (Here, as elsewhere in the paper, interview extracts are cited intheir original language, and a translation into English is provided for extracts inSomali.)

Instances occur throughout the data of switches by students from Somali toEnglish, of the kind which have been described by Nussbaum (1990) asself-facilitative, since they allow speakers to continue to participate in thediscourse. Hetero-facilitative switching, in Nussbaum’s terms, responds to thelanguage proficiencies or preferences of conversation partners. In addressingstudents both teachers used switching of this type, again from Somali to English,as an intercomprehension strategy, as does the teacher throughout the extractfrom Lesson 3. The handouts which accompanied the weekly lessons similarlymade concessions to the students’ limited ability to read Somali, since headingsand instructions tended to be given in English. For example, Figure 1 shows howone handout begins.

None of the students had experienced schooling or formal literacy learning atany stage of their lives in any other than an English-speaking environment. Forthem education is an English language domain. Similarly, they are used toencounters associated with health care, such as visits to doctors’ surgeries, beingconducted in English. The screening for hepatitis which was being carried out inthe community by a Somali doctor – and the badge in Somali which he gave thechildren – thus ran counter to their expectations of language use for such events.

However, the response of one student to the badge slogan – ‘What does itmean?’ – reveals that she (as well as others in the group) were not merely


SOMALI LITERACY

Lesson Three Tutor: A..... S.....

Creating Words – Four or more letters

Bas + baas = BasbaasBer + bera = BerberaBir + qaab = Birqaab etc.

Figure 1 An example of a handout

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

surprised by the use of Somali: they did not understand the slogan. The notion ofdomains of language use, and of differential proficiencies related to thosedomains, does not offer an adequate explanation of the bilingualism of theseyoung speakers. If that were so, we might expect to be able to assume the homeand family as a domain of Somali language use. The reality is much morecomplex, and includes the incursion of English into Somali homes. For example,a diary entry by one student, whose parents are fluent and literate in both Somaliand English contained a wish: ‘I’d like to learn household objects in Somali’. Forthese girls becoming literate in Somali was not, therefore, and could not be, amatter of transferring language knowledge from the spoken to the written mode.It is useful to examine the learning which the girls were accomplishing from twodifferent perspectives. I’ll consider firstly communicative use of Somali and thenthe symbolic value attached to Somali.

Somali oracy through literacy?The initial decision to offer a course in Somali literacy, as opposed to one

focusing on spoken proficiency, was made by the two volunteer teachers, whofelt that their skills and experience equipped them better for literacy teaching.However, week by week the lessons provided models and opportunities forspoken Somali: as one of the teachers put it, ‘we encourage [the students] tospeak Somali while we’re teaching’. The same teacher commented mid-waythrough the 10-week course: ‘I can see some children are progressing even whenit comes to, you know, the spoken side of the language’.

The lessons thus offered an indirect approach to improving the students’spoken fluency, with the advantage of avoiding a challenge to the perception, intheir own eyes or in those of others, that they are ‘native speakers’ of Somali. Thisseems important in view of questionnaire responses and interview data in whichthese students and other young people in the community repeatedly identifiedSomali as ‘my language’ or ‘our language’, making statements such as ‘I need tolearn it because it is my language’. As a result many felt strongly motivated toimprove their knowledge of the language, not merely for communicativepurposes – ‘so I can speak with my parents’ – but also for affective reasons, as inthe view of the young person who claimed ‘it’s shameful not to know your ownlanguage’. In terms of their limited active use of Somali, it may be appropriate tocategorise these young people as ‘marginal members’ (Dorian, 1982) of theSomali speech community. Their sense of shared identity or solidarity withintheir peer group is not primarily or habitually expressed through the communi-cative use of Somali, and it is therefore problematic to describe Somali as their‘we-code’ in Gumperz’s (1982) terms. However, as has been observed to be thecase among young members of certain other minority language communitieselsewhere in Europe (Gardner-Chloros, 1997), in claiming the language of theirparents and community as their own, they express a strong sense of theirsymbolic attachment to it.

When asked why they wanted to attend Somali lessons several students alsoexpressed concern about being able to pass the language on to their own childrenin the future. This concern can be viewed within the context of a widely sharedsense across the community that language shift is in progress. In interviews adult


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

members of the community commented on ‘weakening’ of the Somali spoken bythe younger generation, as in the following extract:

Maya afsoomaligooda waxa aad iyo aad xitaa kan soomaliya ka yimi iyokan halka ku dhashay afsoomaligoodu waa dayacan yihiin waa labeeb,labeeb na waa waxa layskuudaray isku jiir. (No their Somali is very, evenfor the one who came from Somalia and the one who was born here, weakand diluted, diluted in the sense that it has been added or mixed.)

This development, another interviewee reported, ‘really worries me becauseI’ve seen many problems in the community where … the children and theparents cannot understand each other’. It was, furthermore, clear that membersof the community saw the loss of Somali as part of a wider cultural shift:

Haa way ilaawayaan , bikows may arag dhul lagu dhigo ama kaljarkii horelagu qabanayo, laakiin waxaan jeclaan lahayn in had iyo jeer labarodhaqoonkoodii. (Yes, they will forget because they haven’t seen a place tolearn Somali language, a place to hold their culture.)

Many adults in the community use the term ‘fish and chips’ to describe young-sters they perceive to have become – or to be becoming – assimilated to thecultural norms of the dominant English-speaking society. The ‘Baro AfkaagaHooyo!’ teachers showed understanding for the situation of such young people,one of them pointing out:

You know the host culture is more dominant than the Somali language. Imean television controls everything and it’s quite difficult for them to asso-ciate themselves with Somali culture when they know very little about it.

This teacher saw the language focus of the course as an appropriate way toaddress the problem:

I think the language will give them a platform … to actually find out boththe language and the culture.

However, the explicit focus of the course was specifically on literacy.Mentioned above is the teachers’ rationale for this in terms of the skills they feltthey could bring to the design and delivery of the course. More importantly, thefocus on literacy accorded with wishes expressed by students (as well as otheryoung people who would have liked to attend the course but could not be accom-modated). In interviews adult members of the community frequently mentionedliteracy as having a useful role to play in responding to the threat they perceivedto Somali language and culture, as in the statement:

Waxa kaliya oo ay af soomaali ku hadli karaan haddii loo sameeyo iskuul,macalimiin, qoraal iyo akhrisba la baro. (They can only speak the Somalilanguage if they have a school and teachers who will teach them to read andwrite.)

It is to the role of Somali literacy, in communicative and in symbolic terms,that I now turn.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

Somali literacy: communicative purposes and symbolic valueThe spoken rather than the written word is of central importance in traditional

Somali society, both communicatively and symbolically. It is the vehicle of anoral tradition of poetry recitation and story-telling which is the main source ofentertainment and which also instructs succeeding generations in clan values,genealogy and history. In the 20th century, radio broadcastshave augmented thegeographical range of this oral medium of information and entertainment.However, the interpersonal exchange of news retains its salience as a social prac-tice in rural and urban Somali-speaking communities, both in Somalia and else-where. The conventional greeting of one Somali to another remains ‘Is kawarran?’ – ‘What news do you have?’

In contrast to the many centuries of Somali oral tradition, the now agreed writ-ing system for Somali, using a modified Roman alphabet, was introduced only in1972. Schoolbooks were then printed so that Somali could be used as the officiallanguage of primary education. There also followed a country-wide mass adultliteracy campaign, involving the suspension of the studies of secondary schoolstudents so that they could travel to even the remotest areas as instructors.Unfortunately, the campaign was cut short by the drought which occurred in1973, when campaign workers were redirected to drought relief. In the longerterm, the potential of the campaign for increasing the literacy rate among Somalispeakers has been negated by the disruptive effects of the war years which beganin 1977.

Reliable figures are not available, but in 1983 Adam estimated a 60% literacyrate in Somalia, while the Ethnologue database now gives a figure of between24% and 40%. Writing more recently, Kahin estimated in 1997 that approxi-mately 25% of adult Somalis in the UK can be considered literate. So, for example,a majority of members of the Liverpool Somali community cannot read for them-selves leaflets produced in Somali by the City Council Social Services. Few otherreading materials, such as books, are available. In interviews some of the ‘BaroAfkaaga Hooyo!’ students reported the reading of letters from Somalia in theirhomes and the writing of replies. Other Somali literacy events were, however,seldom observed. The prospects, for the students, of putting their new literacyskills into practice after the course, by communicative use of Somali reading orwriting, did not seem great. The strong motivationthey expressed for participat-ing in the course would therefore not seem to correspond to instrumental bene-fits, in Gardner and Lambert’s (1972) terms, given also that Somali languageskills have little value in the UK employment marketplace. Instead the students’motivation would seem to be integrative, reflecting a need to identify with andbe a full member of the community. I shall now discuss several ways in whichlearning on the course responded to this need, and I’ll do so by proposing threeincidents or events which might be considered significant.

(1) Magacaa? (What’s your name?)One of the first tasks the girls carried out, in the very first lesson, was writing

their names on the covers of the diaries they would make entries in every week.For some this turned out to be an opportunity to find out how their name is writ-ten in Somali; for others it was the first occasion they had used the written Somaliform of their name in an educational context. For example, Asha wrote her name


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

as Caasha, and Hamda wrote hers as Xamda. One student diary entry for thatweek read: ‘I was taught how to say my name and write it in Somali and it was agreat experience for doing that’. This ‘re-naming’ can be seen as symbolicallysignificant, given that personal names are so closely bound up with our sense ofpersonal identity (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000).

(2) The history of literacy in SomaliA second teaching and learning event, in a later lesson, focused on the intro-

duction of the Somali script in 1972 and the mass literacy campaign thatfollowed. This unplanned event arose because one of the teachers had brought ina Somali reading book (loaned to her by an older member of the community)which had been used in primary schools in Somalia in the 1970s. The discussionrevealed that the girls knew very little about the introduction of Somali literacy,which of course forms part of their cultural heritage. They also lacked a historicalexplanation for the rarity of Somali literacy practices which they were able toobserve in daily life, as evidenced in the diaries they kept during the course. Thismight well have implications for the status which they perceive Somali to have,particularly in the context of a society in which printed English is ubiquitous.

(3) Somali language within Islamic cultureA third and final event I wish to comment on here did not, in fact, take place

during a lesson but during one of the group interviews with students which wereconducted as part of the research study. Asked ‘Do you know of some books inSomali?’, one student replied ‘We can get them from the Olive Tree’. Here shewas referring to an Islamic shop in Liverpool city centre which does not,however, as her teacher was able to point out, sell any books in Somali.

The association which the student made between Somali culture and Islam isone which was made strongly in interviews with adult members of the commu-nity. In Smolicz’s (1981) terms, religion can be seen as a core value of this minor-ity community, central to the preservation of its cultural heritage. At the heart ofthe Islamic way of life is the Qur’an, and it is significant that the language of theQur’an is Classical Arabic, to which is accorded the highest status. Paramountattention is therefore given, by Somali Moslems, like Moslems of other languagegroups, to the formal learning of Qur’anic Arabic. Thus it can be observed that,before the ‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ literacy course, those few classes in SomaliLanguage and Culture which were provided for youngsters in the LiverpoolSomali community tended to focus on learning about Islam and the Islamic wayof life. Within an Islamic value system Somali – a secular language of recent writ-ten origin and with little written literary tradition – perhaps inevitably risksmarginalisation. The experience of the ‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ course as a whole,with opportunities for discussion such as the one concerning the Olive Tree shop,drew the students’ attention to the distinctiveness of Somali language andculture within the overarching heritage of Islam.

ConclusionThe experience of language learning which the ‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’

students brought with them to the course corresponds to what Ruiz (1984)described as language-as-problem. In the mainstream schools they attend chil-


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

dren from the Somali community are perceived to have a language problem inthat they lack skills in English. However, special provision – and funding – forEnglish language support in Liverpool schools is inadequate and has beenprogressively cut back over recent years. Where it is provided, it is overwhelm-ingly likely to be monolingual in both its aims and its strategies, with the learn-ers’ first language viewed, albeit implicitly, as a hindrance to effective learning ofthe socially dominant school language. The lack of bilingual classroom supportin Liverpool schools for children of Somali heritage – and indeed, othernon-English backgrounds – is clear evidence of the marginalisation of theselearners’ home and community languages (Lawlor, 1999).

Lambert (1977) describes the probable outcomes of such situations assubtractive bilingualism, since the individual incurs a loss, whether linguistic,cultural or psychological. The further link made by Cummins (1986) betweensubtractivebilingualism and poor educationalachievement is taken up by Oliverand Purdie (1998: 208) when they argue that ‘bicultural ambivalence mayaccount partially for minority students’ failure to achieve academically’. Statis-tics on the actual educational achievement of Liverpool Somali children are notavailable, due to the failure of Liverpool Education Department to implementethnic monitoring procedures properly. It is, however, undisputed that theselevels of achievement, for example at GCSE, are so unsatisfactoryas to be viewedas ‘alarming’ (Stokes, 2000: 19). An extreme lack of confidence in the publiceducation provided is reflected in the statement of one Somali parent: ‘To behonest, I don’t know why we bother to send our children to school’ (Stokes, 2000:18). The disaffection of the children themselves can be adduced from increasingnumbers of exclusions from schools (Stokes, 2000: 20).

Romaine (1995: 223) reminds us that ‘usually a community undergoing[language] shift is embattled on a number of other fronts, and language preserva-tion may receive low priority’. However, while the macro-socialdeterminants oflanguage shift may be beyond the control of the community, as Li Wei (1993)points out in his study of Chinese community schooling in Newcastle, there isincreasing research documentation of local struggles by people from minoritygroups, both individually and collectively, against social, economic and educa-tional inequality. For example, Gurnah (2001) offers an account of the work of theAssociation of Sheffield Community Language Schools, including the contribu-tion of such schooling to ‘the affirmation of distinctive cultural identities and tothe building of learners’ self-confidence’. Similarly, Edwards and Nwenmely(2001: 98) argue that Kwéyòl literacy classes for adults in London provide ‘a prac-tical course of action for those conscious of the links between the language,national identity and pride’. Set against a failure of language planning by domi-nant agencies and institutions on behalf of minority communities, such initia-tives represent, as Hornberger (2001: 364) has argued in the case of indigenousliteracies in the US, ‘language planning from the bottom up, as an avenue forcultural expression, and as a door of opportunity for the disempowered’. The‘Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!’ Somali literacy course has opened up debate within theSomali-speaking community in Liverpool over the role of such provision in theeducation of its young people and in the reproduction of the Somali language.On the level of individual students it has also contributed to their knowledgeabout their cultural inheritance as well as giving them a positive experience of


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

the communicative use of Somali in a learning context. As one student put it inher diary: ‘We read this Somali story. O boy I was excited’.

CorrespondenceAny correspondence should be directed to Jo Arthur, Department of English,

Edge Hill University College, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QP, UK([email protected]).

Note1. Transcription conventions

Participants: T = teacherS1, S2 etc. = student 1, student 2 etcS = unidentified studentSS = several students speaking at once

Conventions: Somali in plain fontEnglish in bold fontEnglish translation of Somali (on line below) in italics( ) = inaudible speech. = short pause… = an unfinished utterance? = rising/questioning intonation{ = onset of simultaneous speech by more than one speaker{:: = lengthening of syllable[ ] = contextual information

ReferencesAdam, H.M. (1983) Language, national consciousness and identity - the Somali

experience. In I.M. Lewis (ed.) Nationalism and Self Determination in the Horn of Africa(pp. 31–42). London: Ithaca Press.

Cummins, J. (1986) Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention.Harvard Educational Review 56 (1), 18–36.

Dorian, N. (1982) Defining the speech community to include its working margins. In S.Romaine (ed.) Sociolinguistic Variation in Speech Communities (pp. 25–33). London:Edward Arnold.

Edwards, V. and Nwenmely, H. (2001) Language, literacy and world view. In M.Martin-Jones and K. Jones (eds) Multilingual Literacies: Reading and Writing in DifferentWorlds (pp. 91–102). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gardner, R. and Lambert, W.E. (1972)Attitudes and Motivationin Second Language Learning.Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Gardner-Chloros, P. (1997)Vernacular Literacy in New Minority Settings in Europe. In A.Tabouret-Keller, R.B. Le Page, P. Gardner-Chloros and G. Varro

(eds) Vernacular Literacy: A Re-Evaluation (pp. 189–221). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Gumperz, J.J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Gurnah, A. (2001) Languages and literacies for autonomy. In M. Martin-Jones and K.

Jones (eds) Multilingual Literacies:Reading and Writing in Different Worlds (pp. 233–245).Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Hornberger, N.H. (1994) Continua of biliteracy. In B.M. Ferdman, R. Weber and A.G.Ramírez (eds) Literacy across Languages and Cultures (pp. 103–139). New York: SUNYPress.

Hornberger, N.H. (2001) Multilingual literacies, literacy practices, and the continua of


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

biliteracy. In M. Martin-Jones and K. Jones (eds) Multilingual Literacies: Reading andWriting in Different Worlds (pp. 353–367). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kahin, M.H. (1997) Educating Somali Children in Britain. London: Trentham Books.Lambert, W.E. (1977) The effects of bilingualism on the individual: Cognitive and

socio-cultural consequences. In P. Hornby (ed.) Bilingualism. Psychological, Social andEducational Implications. New York: Academic Press.

Lawlor, F. (1999) The social and educational problems of Somali children between 11 and16 years old in the Liverpool 8 area. MA Dissertion, University of Liverpool.

Linguistic Minorities Project (1985) The Other Languages of England. London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul.

Li Wei (1993) Mother tongue maintenance in a Chinese community school in Newcastleupon Tyne: Developing a social network perspective. Language and Education 7 (3),199–215.

Li Wei (1994) Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family. Clevedon: MultilingualMatters.

Martin-Jones, M. (1991) Sociolinguistic Surveys as a source of evidence in the study ofbilingualism: A critical assessment of survey work conducted among linguisticminorities in three British cities. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 90,37–55.

Nussbaum, L. (1990) Plurilingualism in foreign language classrooms in Catalonia. InPapers from the Workshop on the Impact and Consequences of Code-Switching. Strasbourg:ESF Network on Code-Switching and Language Contact.

Oliver, R. and Purdie, N. (1998) The attitudes of bilingual children to their languages.Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 19 (3), 199–213.

Romaine, S. (1995) Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell.Ruiz, R. (1984) Orientations in Language Planning. NABE Journal 8 (2), 15–34.Saxena, M. (2001) Taking account of history and culture in community-based research on

multilingual literacy. In M. Martin-Jones and K. Jones (eds) Multilingual Literacies:Reading and Writing in Different Worlds (pp. 275–298). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000) Linguistic Genocide in Education or Worldwide Diversity andHuman Rights? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Small, S. (1991) Racialised relations in Liverpool: A contemporary anomaly. NewCommunity 17 (4), 511–537.

Smolicz, J.J. (1981) Languages as a core value of culture. In H. Baetens-Beardsmore (ed.)Elements of Bilingual Theory. Brussels: Vrije Universiteit.

Stokes, P. (2000) The Somali Community in Liverpool. A Report for a Commission of Enquiry.Birmingham: Foundation for Civil Society.

Street, B. (1984) Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f C

hica

go L

ibra

ry]

at 1

0:57

15

Nov

embe

r 20

14

Documents

Baro Afkaaga Hooyo!' A Case Study of Somali Literacy Teaching in Liverpool