If we considering the relevance of the Thiong’o proposal of language as “means of communication and carrier of culture” (Thiong’o, 439), the international educational context to turns out to be paradoxical. The language as a reflection of how we experienced the world, situate our self from a unique perspective and therefore built a gap that seems difficult the shorten, between individuals that come from of different context. The use of the language, in this case, turns to operate only in the level of communication as Thiong’o points out, because for who are not native English speaker wouldn’t be possible trough that language to account for the “mediating between me and my own self: between my own self and other selves; between me and nature” (Thiong’o, 441). In this perspective, despite the unifying role that the English as a dominant language plays, the narrative dimension took a predominant space leaving aside the potential transforming power of the words that Paulo Freire claims should operate a pedagogical area.
Following the idea of “education as the practice of freedom” (Freire, 81), these readings make me wonder then what means that the language of my education it was no longer the language of my culture? (Thiong’o, 438) How is it possible to engage a transforming educational, political and collective process when we have subjugated to the colonizer’s language? How is possible stop thinking about the domain of the language as “the measure of intelligence and ability” (Thiong’o, 438) and re-significance it as sharing process which goes beyond the act of communicating?
Freire l give us a light to resolve this contradiction and apparent impossibility. Through the dialogue as “the encountering which the united reflection and action of the dialoguers are addressed to the world is to be transformed and humanized” (Freire,88). This dialogue requires an intense faith and humility in humankind which built the basis to a horizontal relationship in the educational process. If this condition is met, the learning experience can create news condition of how we experience the reality and get the possibility to transform it. The Boal Workshop give us as a key: the practice of silent and embodiment as an equal condition of being. It could be a starting point.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagoy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum International Publisher, 2013. Thiong'o, Ngugi wa. "The Language of African Culture" Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader. eds. Patrick Williams, and Laura Chrisman. 435-455. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.