When you hear literacy rates, what comes to your mind? Something along the lines of those who can read and write right? And those who can read and write are often those of us who claim to read and write in English or French or even Arabic.
When you talk to a lot of us, we claim that majority of us Gambians cannot read or write! In my own ignorant state, I was quick to remind anyone that cared to listen that I am the first in my family to be educated through high school! Oh how wrong and ignorant of me!
You see, when our “experts” speak of literacy rates, they limit these to English or French and sometimes Arabic! Essentially, if one didn’t attend an “English” or “French” school, you’re not considered educated! In my ignorance, I never considered that the years my father spent with the Jaitehs in Kaur was a lot more than Quranic education!
I never knew that my first Oustass in Bundung, Oustass Sillah, was far more educated than many holding briefcases stealing public funds while confusing their greed for smartness! No one told me that my Oustass, Pakaw (May his soul continue to Rest In Jannah) of Gayen in Serrekunda, was a scholar!
It wasn’t until I came across professor Fallou Ngom of Boston University and his efforts of preserving Ajami writings (in Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, etc) that I would realize that indeed my father was educated and Jaiteh Kunda in Kaur was his institution of learning.
That indeed Oustass Sillah and Pakaw were literate and far more intelligent than many of the thieves that I admired growing up. They could all read and write! Just not in the languages we consider “educated”.
We have allowed ourselves to be identified by the standards of others! While Ajami script somewhat uses “Arab” letters, the language is in our own languages but somehow, when the West came, we abandoned that to adopt English alphabets!
And sadly, even some of our folks that went to school in Arabic countries do not put much premium on those that learned from our own scholars here in our region. You got folks like me somersaulting because supposedly we “write very good English”, but I can hardly speak or write any of my own languages as fluently! I want my money back!
My point is, when you hear literacy rates; ask them what they consider literacy. Don’t be ignorant like me and just think that if one is not educated in the ABCs, they are not educated!
Note: If you are interested in the work of Prof. Fallou Ngom, please send me a message and I will send you the info. Thanks
