TROLL said:
ok.. you make a point on some of the advantages.. like hood shit, a couple of comments and questions however...
1.. how would it neccisarily unify and organize blak folk? i see crow mentioned the seclusion issue but imma take it a step further.. do u think that would seclude the black folk who dont speak swahili from those who do? and vice versa?
2.. english being the primary language, it would be very hard to get folks to take the time to learn it.. EDJ is right about it only being succesful if it was introduced as a fad..why? because if u try to explain the benefits as u did in this thread, the majority would fall asleep midway through.. but if it was introduced in a song by an artist with a decent fanbase, then i can see it more likely that a couple would learn it.. use it every so often on the block.. then people will follow suit and spread it like wildfire...
This all is pleasing to me.
1) Black people would necessarily be segregated. But not along money lines, or culture lines, or education lines, or hip-hop lines, or age lines, or East/West/South lines. Along Psychological lines. The test becomes whether or not you are willing to become a part of this greater movement, the basis of which is Foreign Language learning, Foreign Language being a subject that necessitates educational infrastructure. You can pick up a book and learn all about history. You cant do that and learn a language.
2) Fad...Movement...they are all basically the same thing. `Fad' is a word that detractors use to downplay the importance of a movement. Che Guevara could be considered by some to be a fad. But for those in the know, Che and his supporters do not represent a fad. For another example, Hip-Hop was labeled a `fad' back in the day. People rushed to label it as such, so that others might go along with this "fad" label and simply ignore the genre altogether. This much did not work. Hip-Hop was too revolutionary, and I don't just mean the topics and issues. With the way Hip-Hop combines music and talking--and we Americans being a more-talking and less-emotional people--it was destined to dominate the music scene. And lo and behold, that is what it is doing right now.
Swahili is going to be a bitch to implement. I know this already. Long essays and pamphlets will not do the trick (then again, long essays and pamphlets don't do the trick for most things.) The key is to utilize the new media--Comcast On Demand, DVD
+R's, SideKicks, etc.--and use it in whatever ways possible. Perhaps, a Word-of-the-Day via Text Message could be a possibility, and seeing as though we are getting closer and closer to universal unlimited text messaging, it becomes a very real possibility. DVD
+R-wise...exactly as you are saying. A little here, a little there. Maybe combine DVDs, Titties and Swahili--get the answer right, and the girl strips.....if not--no soup for you!
The possibilities are endless, and the concerns are even more endless. All I know is, the one thing that needs to go is being monolingual. If push comes to shove, I will definitely settle for Spanish. But I want to give this Swahili thing a try first, seeing as though it is the perfect African language to learn for the reasons I outlined in my first post.
