Relationship between culture and development

Below is an excerpt from the paper Is There Really a Relationship Between Culture and Development? by Ifeyinwa Annastasia Mbakogu

"...There is also the language problem. To understand a people adequately, one should understand their language. With this in mind, the colonialists started a process of destabilising our African heritage by imposing not only their languages but also their culture on the colonised.

The crux of the matter is simple -- the earlier Africans began emphasising the use of their national languages as official languages rather than the English, French or Portuguese languages of their colonial masters, the soul of many Africans will never be truly African.

In my view, it really is a sad situation where many African children can neither speak nor understand a word of their native languages. Some may consider it an aspiration to glamour or modernization but I consider it an outright betrayal and disregard for that which our ancestors handed down to us.

The language issue may pose adjustment problems with the elimination of already familiar and functional colonial languages. However, a gradual process is required and strategies should be formulated by which prominent African languages are made appealing via press, radio, literary publications, films and other publicity gimmicks. The key intent is a projection of our cultural values, ideals and unique identity."

[And here we are with a brilliant National Language development act trying to force diverse and unique languages together, incorporate Castillian and English words in it, adopt Tagalog-based grammar, and tag it Filipino -- in pursuit of an inefficient and ugly-looking establishment of a united Philippines. I really don't get it.]

You may read the full paper by clicking "Paper on Culture and Development" in my links.