By Why Fluency Isn’t a Measure of Intellect
The Language Trap: Why Fluency Isn’t a Measure of Intellect
​For decades, we have been conditioned to believe that English is the ultimate benchmark of sophistication. We were told that mastering its grammar and adopting its cadence made us “civilized,” “credible,” and “modern.” However, if we look beneath the surface of this educational standard, we find a reality that has more to do with power than with actual intelligence.
​Literacy vs. Loyalty
​Colonial institutions didn’t introduce English to the African continent as a gift of enlightenment. It was implemented as a tool of management. The objective was never simply to teach us how to read and write; it was to rewire how we think. By replacing indigenous mother tongues with a foreign language, the goal was to foster a specific kind of loyalty to the colonial center.
​When you replace a language, you replace the worldview it carries. African proverbs, oral histories, and traditional philosophies were systematically sidelined to make room for a curriculum that prioritized European thought. This wasn’t education, it was an attempt at erasure.
​The High Cost of “Progress”
​Today, we see the results of this transition in every corner of the continent. We witness a generation of brilliant young minds who can recite the works of Shakespeare with precision but cannot narrate their own family’s history in their native tongue. In cities from Lagos to Nairobi, speaking English flawlessly is celebrated as a sign of success, while stumbling in Yoruba, Gikuyu, or Igbo is often viewed with indifference or even a hint of shame.
​We call this “progress,” but we rarely stop to calculate the loss. Language is the vessel of culture. When a mother tongue is abandoned, we lose more than just words; we lose the unique nuances, memories, and ancestral continuity that those words preserve. We essentially become guests in our own cultural inheritance, navigating our own history through a borrowed lens.
​Redefining True Intelligence
​It is time to dismantle the myth that intellect is tied to any single language. Some of the most profound wisdom on Earth exists in languages and dialects that many have never heard of. Intelligence is found in the complex oral traditions of the Sahel, the mathematical patterns in indigenous weaving, and the intricate social structures of pre-colonial societies.
​Intellect is a universal human trait; it isn’t “performed” in English. It thrives in every tongue and every dialect that colonialism tried to silence. When we measure a person’s capability based solely on their command of a colonizer’s language, we aren’t measuring their brainpower, we are measuring their level of assimilation.
​Reclaiming the Mother Tongue
​True modernization doesn’t require us to discard who we are. It requires us to embrace our linguistic diversity as a source of strength rather than a barrier to “success.” The real revolution begins when we stop using a foreign tongue as a yardstick for brilliance and start valuing the wisdom that has lived in our own communities for thousands of years.
