Indigenous African Sign Languages

Anytime I speak about my research to non-linguists, I have had to explain that Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) and Adamorobe Sign Language are different sign languages used in Ghana. Sign languages have been shown to exhibit typological differences at distinct levels of linguistic analysis. Linguistic typological study is aimed at classifying different languages according to their properties and structure. One typological classification being urban sign languages and rural sign languages (significant part of this post is culled from Edward (Forthcoming)).

Typologically, sign languages are classified as urban and rural sign languages. Urban sign languages are the language of the Deaf community in urban Africa (and also the language for Deaf education). Rural (village) sign language used only in local communities. Urban sign languages are used by deaf dominant community in Africa (and few hearing signers such as interpreters, teachers of the Deaf, Child of Deaf Adult (CODA) and Sibling/Spouse of Deaf Adult (SODA). Rural sign languages are mostly used by both deaf and hearing signers. Urban sign languages have wider domains of use (education, media, formal and informal deaf-deaf communications); rural sign languages have more limited usage and signers sometimes borrow from the urban sign languages to fill lexical gaps. Most urban sign languages in Africa started as a language of education within the Deaf community, bringing deaf individuals together into schools for the Deaf, pioneered by Andrew Foster. On the other hand, the rural sign languages emerged as the result of a high incidence of deafness and thus the presence of a consolidated population of Deaf people in local communities.  

                              Native signers of Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL)

WOMAN (AdaSL)

                                                                         WOMAN (GSL)

We shall consider indigenous African sign languages. First, sign languages are the indigenous languages of the Deaf communities across the world. However, in Africa, we can make distinction between indigenous African sign languages and foreign-based African sign languages. I refer to indigenous African sign languages as the local sign languages used in the communities across Africa. On the other hand, foreign-based African sign languages have close connections with other (foreign) sign languages through education or colonialization (e.g. Ghanaian Sign Language and American Sign Language). Most indigenous sign languages in Africa are linked to the presence of genetic deafness in the communities and these languages are (mostly) used by both deaf and hearing members of the communities in which these languages are used. One of such is the Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL).

AdaSL is an indigenous village sign language used in Adamorobe community in the Eastern Region of Ghana. AdaSL is believed to have existed as far back as 1733 as a language used by both hearing and deaf people in Adamorobe (Okyere & Addo , 1994). The community is noted for its unusually high incidence of hereditary deafness: an estimated 1.3% of the total population. The reduction is attributed to the law instituted by their former chief that prevented marriage between two deaf people (Nyst, 2007; Kusters, 2012a) and the migration of different people into the community (Edward, 2018). Nyst stated that “former chief Nana Kwaakwa Asiampong II prohibited marriage between two deaf persons” (Nyst, 2007, p. 28). AdaSL is currently used by 40 deaf people (adults and youngsters) in a community of about 3000 people representing 1.3% of the total population. In a report by Miles (2004; 2005), deaf Adamorobeans were the first substantial historical group of African people known to have used a formal sign language and the record dated as far back as the 18th century. The history of AdaSL is scattered in stories that are either mythical or without historical records (Nyst, 2007; Kusters, 2012a; Kusters, 2012b; Okyere & Addo , 1994). The formal discovery of the coexistence of deaf and hearing people in Adamorobe is very recent (in the 1970s). This may account for the reason the national archives may not have prior information about AdaSL before the 1970s. Earlier research done in Adamorobe discovered that almost everybody in the village could communicate in the sign language (Frishberg, 1987). However, my current visits to the community indicates a decline in the numbers of hearing signers. There are currently more hearing people who do not communicate in AdaSL in Adamorobe due to migration and other socioeconomic factors (Edward, 2018). 

A language’s ability to thrive is largely dependent on the users of the language and its domains of use. The constant use of a language will ensure the language’s survival, whereas the gradual decline in the use of a language will also mark the language as a possible candidate for endangerment. In every society, speakers/signers who are proud to use their languages try their best to preserve it and avoid possible encroachment that will lead to the loss of interest in using the language. Aside from linguists, social anthropologists have also discovered several indigenous African sign languages that were previously unheard of and remained local legacies. For example, the recent discovery of Magajingari Sign Language (MgSL) in  Magajingari community in Kaduna North in Nigeria (Asonye & Edward, Forthcoming). Just like spoken language research, there is the tendency for some sign languages to receive more attention than others. Sign languages used in homes and villages stand the risk of endangerment because of the following reasons: lack of users, gradual decline in their domains of use, lack of documentation, etc. For most moribund sign languages in the world there is a dearth of linguistic research and language revitalisation programmes (Asonye, et al., 2020). The lack of academic research on several indigenous African sign languages has made it difficult to compare these sign languages.

If you want to know more about African sign languages, please I suggest the conference below to you. It is free to participants and it will be on zoom (see flyer below).

https://old.linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-2688.html



References

Asonye, E., Edward, M. & Asonye, E. E., 2020. Linguistic genocide against development of signed languages in Africa. In: African Languages in Time and Space: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Akinbiyi Akinlabi @ 60! (. s.l.:s.n., pp. 337-359.

Asonye, E. & Edward, M., Forthcoming. 10. Deaf Education and signed language situation in Ghana and Nigeria: Six Decades after Andrew Foster. In: Y. N. O. &. E. M. Marooney, ed. Signed languages, interpreting, and the Deaf Community in Ghana. s.l.:s.n.

Edward, M., 2015. We speak with our hands and voices: Iconicity in Adamorobe Sign Language and Akuapem Twi (ideophones). Bergen: Upublished MPhil thesis, University of Bergen, Norway.

Edward, M., 2018. Behind the veil: The impact of deafness on rural livelihoods in Ghana (Case study of a Deaf couple in Adamorobe). Lancaster University Ghana Journal of Disability (LUGJD), Volume 1.

Edward, M. & Akanlig-Pare, G., forthcoming. Societal Perception of Hearing Impairment in Ghana: A Report on Adamorobe. Lancaster University Ghana Journal of Disability (LUGJD), Volume 2.

Edward, M., Forthcoming. Iconicity as a pervasive force in language: Evidence from Ghanaian Sign Language and Adamorobe Sign Language. PhD Dissertation. Brighton: University of Brighton, Doctoral College.

Edward, M., forthcoming. Signing out: Linguistic contact and possible endangerment of the Adamorobe Sign Language. In: R. Graham, ed. Developing Languages in Africa. s.l.:Cambridge Scholars Publishers.

Frishberg, N., 1987. Ghanaian sign language. Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness, Volume 3, pp. 778-79.

Kusters, A., 2011. Ghanaian signs are soft and Adamorobe signs are hard: Language use and language attitudes in Adamorobe. Applied Sign Linguistics Symposium.

Kusters, A., 2012a. “The Gong Gong Was Beaten”—Adamorobe: A “Deaf Village” in Ghana and Its Marriage Prohibition for Deaf Partners. Sustainability, 4(10), pp. 2765-2784.

Kusters, A., 2012b. Adamorobe: A demographic, sociolinguistic and sociocultural profile. Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights, pp. 347-352.

Kusters, A., 2014b. Language ideologies in the shared signing community of Adamorobe. Language in Society,, 43(2), pp. 139-158.

Kusters, A., 2019. One Village, Two Sign Languages: Qualia, Intergenerational Relationships and the Language Ideological Assemblage in Adamorobe, Ghana. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 0(0), pp. 1-20.

Miles, M., 2004. Locating deaf people, gesture and sign in African histories, 1450s–1950s. Disability & Society , 19(5), pp. 531-545.

Miles, M., 2005. Deaf People Living and Communicating in African Histories, c. 960s - 1960s. Independent Living Institute.

Nyst, V. A. S., 2007. A Descriptive analysis of the Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana). Amsterdam: Doctoral Dissertation, University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities..

Okyere , A. D. & Addo , M., 1994. Deaf Culture in Ghana. In: E. e. al, ed. The Deaf Way; Perspectives from the International Conference on the Deaf Culture. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.

 

 

 

 

 

Location: Brighton, UK

Comments

  1. MarthaOctober 3, 2020 at 8:42 AM

    An excellent way of creating awareness for the upcoming conference. 👍🏾

    ReplyDelete

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