English, community and opportunity in northern Malawi

Abstract

The use of English in a northern Malawian village often represents a challenge to local norms and morality. This article examines the cultural meaning of the Northern Malawian chiTumbuka language; initially examining how suppression of this language has served as an institutional technique for marginalising Northern Malawians. It then explores how Chewas (the dominant linguistic group) understand English as a language of opportunity, demanding English-based education for their children and code-switching into English as a sign of prestige. The article provides ethnographic evidence of the relationship between language selection and morality among the Tumbuka, the largest northern Malawian cultural group. It demonstrates that the reduced economic opportunities that English mastery provides a Tumbuka means that they cannot use speaking English to claim prestige. Instead Tumbuka associate their peers' English use with a collection of transgressions against a morality that is linked to rigid social hierarchies and a static culture. When speaking English, a Tumbuka was often seen, at the very least, to be clumsily social climbing. They were also frequently understood to be overtly challenging their elders' ability to guide development and to be questioning the need for the continuation of a Tumbuka language and culture. By exploring how language selection is interpreted as communicating these moral contraventions, this chapter builds upon the volume's analysis of how language constructs morality. It demonstrates that language selection interacts with factors like history and economic opportunity to communicate various moral positions.