HED4806 ASSIGNMENT 3 2025 (Answer Guide)

HED4806 ASSIGNMENT 3 2025 (Answer Guide) SECTION A Question 3.1: Explain the effects of the above practice in the broader context of decolonisation. (5 marks) The practice described in the extract where children were physically punished, humiliated, and fined for speaking their indigenous language (Gĩkũyũ) in school has significant psychological, cultural, and political effects in the broader context of decolonisation. At its core, this practice represents a systematic erasure of indigenous identity through linguistic suppression, which Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1986) identifies as a crucial tool of colonisation. Psychological oppression was a direct consequence of such punishment. Associating one’s mother tongue with shame, stupidity, and backwardness instilled a sense of inferiority in learners. As a result, indigenous children internalised colonial values that deemed their culture and identity as inferior, undermining their self-worth and pride in their heritage (Wa Thiong’o, 1986). Cultural alienation occurred as learners were forced to abandon their linguistic and cultural norms. Language is a vehicle of culture; its loss meant the erosion of traditional knowledge systems, oral histories, and ways of life (UNESCO, 2003). This disconnection from indigenous roots impedes efforts toward cultural reclamation and identity formation in postcolonial societies. Political and educational disempowerment was also perpetuated. By privileging English as the language of instruction and success, colonial systems limited access to education for those not proficient in the foreign language, thus reinforcing social hierarchies and restricting upward mobility (Wade, 2018). In the broader decolonial framework, such practices are viewed as instruments of control, used to assert dominance and maintain colonial ideologies. Decolonisation therefore entails not only the political departure of