The power of information
From Standpoint of a Written Language
By Dr. Abdurahman Garad
We live in “InformationAge” when advancement in technology revolutionized the method message is displayed, processed, retrieved and delivered through various platforms of media with ground breaking effect on our daily life. The following few headlines are designed to illustrate the need for the application of literacy and its impact on social progress using Harari as a showcase.
Point of Reference
The Written Language
When we say media in the context of our present discussion the focus is on the script or text that we use as the medium of communicating information in a written language in contrast to the one defined by means of audio and video devices.
In its printed and digitized format, text communication extends its outreach in leaps and bounds breaking all regional and generational boundaries as a mass-media with far reaching implication on the enhancement of conversation among its native speakers leading to unpresidented pace their progress.
Making Harari a Writing Language
Asserting our identity
To begin with, information has direct and lasting effect on the development of our cognitive ability as well as the language used in the process of conveying it. That alone constitutes a compelling reason to work on making Harari a literary language to help it survive the onslaught of alternative languages that are vying to replace it at its demise.
As such, we need to take bold measures in terms of planning and concerted action towards its revival to reverse the current downward spiral of the language.
What makes such measure all the more urgent is the fact that language is like a DNA of who we are as a society, because of its nature as the depository of our cultural information and manifestation of our historical heritage. Added to that is the undeniable correlation between language and identity, which is the indispensable ingredient that we need as a requirement for the assertion of our right, be it territorial, social, economic, political…or otherwise.
On one hand, if we continue ignoring the language revival issue, we may be in for an identity crisis that may represent a much more serious communal security risk than the one we blame the outside forces to have inflicted upon us. On the other hand, if we work towards revival of Harari wisely, the present security deficit may prove to be a blessing in disguise or sharrìw yimasli khairi, because it would empower us to assert our identity to harness the strength within our own culture.
Communication through Social Network
Ensuring our Unity
In the course of our history after the downfall of Harari Emirate, our medium of communication in writing added Geez and Latin script on top of the historically prevalent Arabic. The pattern of our proficiency took the form of our demographic variation depending on location, gender, age group, education, etc.
Singling out location as an example for the purpose of elaboration, one can assert that as substantial number of us moved away from the centre to become more and more geographically dispersed, our linguistic proficiency was shaped by our newly adapted location. The change proved to be especially consequential for the new generation of young Hararis, who lack strong communal bond to learn and retain Harari, if only as a second language. Our attempt to remedy the situation by establishing residential neighbourhoods and its social component of Afocha together with community centres was indeed helpful, but fall way short of the requirement and left much to wish for.
When it comes to our situation in Western communities, where social mobility takes an extreme form, that component of neighbourhood becomes a serious missing link that factored in the increasing degree of alienation which is the leading cause for the widening social gaps we come to recognize, not only between the old and the new generations, but also among each one of them. The solution for this existential problem is to make structural change in our social organization, whereby our Mugad (youth league) institution is revived to work in equal footing with Afocha, thereby forming a Representative Assembly that creates a platform for power sharing mechanism that favours team-work collaboration.
The relevance of such structural change lies on its significance as an infrastructural framework that promotes social interaction between the two generations by engaging them working for a common goal through communication, which process is considered by linguists as the “direct method of learning or teaching” any language.
Using Latin for communication in Harari
Writing Convention
That brings us back to the discussion of making Harari a literary language by choosing the most suitable alphabet. Arabic is out of question as its use was restricted to mainly religious matter and hence, has seldom been used as a medium of communication in Harari. The restriction of Geez is that the expatriate Hararis will be left out of the game. That leaves us with Latin alphabet being the practical choice as it covers the bulk of our population who use digital hardware including cellphones for communication and especially as that includes our expatriate population of young Hararis.
With the proliferation of social media, which created the perfect tool for Hararis to express themselves on a number of burning issues they care about, it is high time we set up a language academy or at least a committee of experts to lay down the rules as to how Latin should be standardized for use to write Harari in a manner which is uniform. In the process of such endeavour, it is important that the phonetic characteristics of the Harari language are taken into account for reasons of ease in adaptability as well as to shorten the learning curve.
Harari phonetic sound has simple pattern compared to its Amharic counterpart as it is composed of Arabic component of ba bi bu coupled with its longer versions of bá bú bí plus the Amharic component consisting of be and bo, which comes only with longer version save very few exception.
Written Material as a Source of Information
Cultural Heritage
The importance of written material as the source of information can hardly be emphasised. Suffice to mention its effect in the retention and enrichment of language; because only when we write we feel obliged to choose our vocabulary and grammar with at most care as we lack the advantage of facial expression, sound intonation and hand gestures to convey our message, thereby raising the sophistication level of our language leading to the promotion of our culture through spread of knowledge.
Considering all that, it is remarkable that the very first verse of the first surah of Quran deals with an imperative call for reading, namely: READ “اقرا” in (al-alaq 96:01) Read in and with the Name of your Lord, Who has created. The word is yet again repeated for further emphasis in the context of the “the pen” in the process of acquiring knowledge by stating الَّذِى عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ(al-alaq 96:04) He who has taught by the pen. To top it all, the Quran itself means only that: READING or reciting even though it is described in many other ways including a “Written Record ora (fully) Inscribed Register by well-known scholars based on the interpretation of Quranic Verses of “كتاب مرقوم“ (83:09).
It is very import to reflect upon these facts at this juncture in our history, especially because it represents part of spiritual culture and hence, we can get the much-needed inspiration for the revival of our culture in all its dimensions: social, economic and political. It is not only cliché or an empty rhetoric when one says information is power as it is the stuff the all-important word, language and the knowledge are made of, with out which any one of our endeavours to effect meaningful change to alleviate social problems through self-reliance and to lift our living standard through harnessing our resources is next to impossible.
Concluding Remark
Written material that we read is but a graphic representation of our sound or spoken language. As a form of information that transcends space and time, it is the first form of mass media even at its early stage when its production was restricted to handwriting. With the modern advancement that brought print and digital media into the picture, we are talking about exponential growth of production potential at our finger tips.
In spite of its significance as a primary source, it will be gross oversimplification to restrict the question of information to print or digital media. First there are sound, picture, video and art forms that are accompanied with them like poem, song, music that we can employ to convey information. Added to that are audio-visual components ported by the Internet, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype and the like which cover wide ranging aspect of presentation. All those capabilities result in opportunities and challenges that leave us faced with hard choices of either joining the digital age or lag behind the competition.
The good news is that with the establishment of International Harari Media Service, among others, we have a marvelous beginning that wisely utilizes all those media devices for the betterment of Harari people through the power embedded in the dissemination of information. We should apply relentless effort to keep it going in a sustainable manner.