HISTORY

History and Basic Ethnographic Information

Culturally the Ngaalamer are quite similar to their Nilo-Saharan neighbors and represents
more of an egalitarian society with little and loose social structure. There is one
hereditary chief and there are no clear age set groups or explicitly defined social
structures in the society. The elders of the community including the Chief could
remember six generations of their genealogical ancestors. They seem to have lost their
genealogical accounts. The elders could not tell their story of origin and myth of origin
which seems to have been lost.
Their way of life and their economic base have also been in the process of change. The
elders claim that the Ngaalamer were once pastoralists with abundant cattle at their
disposal but they gave up cattle keeping due to an endless raid of cattle by their stronger
neighbors which resulted in a permanent loss of property and life. The continuous attack
on their properties and human capital, especially women, contributed to the dwindling
number of speakers of Ngaalam and probably this has been one of the external causes for
the endangerment of their language and culture.
In accord with the claim made by elders, Murdock (1959: 172, 329) mentions the
Ngaalamer as cattle keepers. Hence, originally it looks that they were semi-pastoralists in
which their economic base was cattle keeping supplemented by river basin cultivation,
hunting and gathering. After giving up cattle keeping they must have resorted to river
basin cultivation as their means of subsistence supplemented by hunting and gathering
and the principal crops were millet, beans and maize. In line with the oral traditions,
therefore, the shift from semi-pastoralist way of life to hunter-gatherers must have taken
place under external pressure from neighboring tribes. An additional factor for the shift
could possibly be that the area was infested by the tsetse fly.
The Ngaalamer have not yet given up the life style of hunter-gatherers entirely. But due
to the influence of the northern settlers (largely Amharas and Oromos) and other external
factors such as accessibility to their land (once an extremely remote land), establishment
of large scale commercial farms in the area, the concomitant policy of resettlement
programs by the government, and the massive flow of peoples of various cultures from
the highlands (especially farmers), the Ngaalamer are again in the process of shifting
their economic base to the agricultural way of life. Some even started cultivating cash
crops such as sesame by emulating the northern settlers who are acclaimed to be
productive in harvesting sesame and rice. It seems that the Ngaalamer had moved from
semi-pastoralist way of life to hunter-gatherers and are now in the process of moving to
an agricultural way of life.
Perhaps due to the intense contact with the settlers, an interesting instance of abandoning
of an age-old cultural practice has been reported by the elders that they gave up the
removal of lower incisors which they used to practice in the past. This has been an aerial
feature still being practiced by many of their neighbors such as the Anuak and the
Majang.
The Ngaalamer has an important festival known as Tikacha, an annual gathering where
all members of the community get together and celebrate the occasion for six consecutive
days. The festival takes place at the end of the harvest season in January every year as a
sign of ensuring their togetherness and renewal of the society’s cohesion. The ritual
leader prepares the festival and invites members of the community and people of all ages
congregate around the compound of the chief and commemorates the event by dancing,
singing, eating and drinking. Apparently it is a way of strengthening the unity of the
group and expressing loyalty in a common cultural heritage against the danger of
foreseeable total assimilation. The celebration is also an occasion for exchanging
information on the fate and survival of their very existence. The chief plays the role of a
unifying figure. In addition, the chief has the role of mediating conflicts between
members of the community and between the people and their gods. He also represents the
community during conflict with other ethnic groups.
Traditional (folk) beliefs among the Ngaalamer are also undergoing significant changes
as a result of contact with other communities especially with the northern settlers.
Although many Ngaalamer are still followers of traditional beliefs, during the last ten
years (2005-2015) quite a significant number of them have been converted to Islam,
Orthodox Christianity and the Protestant religion. While the northern settlers brought
with them Islam and Orthodox Christianity and introduced the two major religions to the
Ngaalamer, according to our information, the protestant religion was introduced to the
Ngaalam community through the Majang missioaries who also speak the Ngaalam language.
Since the Ngaalamer have started to embrace both Islam and Christianity, it goes without
saying that, shortly this will diminish the role of the chief as a unifying spiritual leader
which will in turn facilitate and accelerate the process of assimilation into the dominant
culture of the northerners. In this process, spiritual and secular values of the group will no
longer be functional which will conceivably affect the ethno-linguistic identity of the
people.

Patterns of Multilingualism

The pattern of multilingualism among the Ngaalamer shows that Baale (a neighboring
Surmic language) is the second widely spoken language by the speakers of the Ngaalam.
One-third of the children are growing up speaking Baale as their first language which is
clearly indicative of the direction of the language shift situation.
Generally, there is an ongoing shift in the language use situation but Baale has proved to
be an important language for primary socialization. As compared to the older generation,
the younger generation is, therefore, in the process of shifting language solidarity.
Generally speaking, Ngaalam is still visible in the public domain but the direction of
change is also becoming more obvious that means Baale is going to take over, though
gradually, in the public domain as well.

The Overall Language Policy Context

Clearly there are favorable policies that recognize the linguistic rights of every ethnic
group and in theory all languages have equal recognition by the state (see The Ethiopian
Language Policy). But there is no mechanism laid down by the Federal government
through which it guarantees the rights of minorities and checks on the implementation of
those policies as stipulated in the Constitution of 1995. Hence, Ngaalam has not been
recognized and never been mentioned in any official document both at regional and
federal levels. Practically its existence is unknown to the government and the institutions
concerned with the rights of ethnic minorities.

Language Vitality

For the purpose of establishing the direction of change and shifting language solidarity
among the speakers of Ngaalam, UNESCO’s parameters on language vitality have been
employed to evaluate the language vitality and level of endangerment of Ngaalam. The
following six major factors were employed for assessing a language’s vitality and the
state of endangerment. These are: intergenerational language transmission, absolute
number of speakers, domains of language use, response to new domains and media,
materials for language education and literacy as well as governmental and institutional
language attitudes. Refer to UNESCO (2003) for a detailed discussion of the vitality
index.

Intergenerational Language Transmission

According to the preliminary sociolinguistic survey discussed in Moges (2018) Ngaalam:
an endangered Nilo-Saharan language of the south west Ethiopia, Ngaalam can be
characterized as “stable yet threatened” which means that it is “spoken in most contexts
by all generations with unbroken intergenerational transmission” but the dominant
language, Baale, has penetrated into the home environment and in some cases the
dominant language is taking up certain important communication contexts in the public
domain as well.

Absolute number of speakers

As mentioned earlier, the exact number of Ngaalam speakers is difficult to determine at
this stage since they are living scattered over a vast area and interspersed with other
communities such as the Baale and the Majang though they can be estimated to be around
1500. Besides being a small group, the style of their settlement coupled with the pattern
of multilingualism among the speakers may possibly expose them to a high degree of risk
that could lead to total assimilation. Thus, based on absolute number of speakers
Ngaalam can be labeled as critically endangered or moribund language.

Domains of Language Use

The language use situation of among the Ngaalam speakers can be characterized as
“multilingual parity”, that is, due to the pattern of multilingualism in the native language
and in the dominant language Baale, the latter has already began penetrating the home
domains. The coexistence of the dominant and non-dominant languages in certain
important communicative domains such as the home domains is therefore a defining
characteristic of the sociolinguistic situation.

Response to new domains of language use

For the Ngaalam language, there is no sign of expanding to new domains of language use
such as media as a result of change in their life style or living conditions. The speakers
seem to continue the use of the dominant language in the new domains as well as in the
media. In the locality under discussion, the medium of instruction in primary schools, the
language of administration and the language of media is dominantly that of Amharic, the
official working language of the Federal government. As Suhua (2010:5) rightly pointed
out, “Since education is an important domain in language use, besides reflecting the
status, functions, and vitality of a language, it may also directly affect the language‟s
transmission, its social functions, vitality and value”. Nonetheless, since the Ngaalam
speakers have been living in the bushes isolating themselves from the modern way of life
and have not been recognized by the political system as a minority group and rather
considered as part of the other communities such as the Baale and the Majang, the chance
of expanding their language to new domains is pretty remote.

Availability of materials for language education and literacy

General education or even basic literacy plays a vital role in language development and
maintenance in general. It also plays a catalyst role in insuring the intergenerational
language transmission and in increasing the vitality of the language in particular. For
education to be an important factor in language vitality, the availability of materials and a
practical orthography would be an essential prerequisite. Thus UNESCO’s (2003)
document uses the availability and quality of materials for language education and
literacy as one parameter to evaluate the level of endangerment and vitality of a language.
Ngaalam is a language with no written materials. In fact, it has never been recorded in
any form as it is a language spoken by a community living isolated in the south west
forest for generations. They have been just rediscovered as a community speaking a
distinct language of their own.

Governmental and institutional language attitudes, policies, and official status

Governments and institutions may have explicit and/or implicit language policies or
attitudes towards dominant and non-dominant languages either to encourage or
discourage their uses in certain important communicative contexts. As stated in the
UNESCO’s (2003:12) document,
The maintenance, promotion, or abandonment of non-dominant languages may be
dictated by the dominant linguistic culture, be it regional or national. The
linguistic ideology of a state may inspire linguistic minorities to mobilize their
populations toward the maintenance of their languages, or may force them to
abandon them. These linguistic attitudes can be a powerful force both for
promotion and loss of their languages.
Ethiopia’s constitution as well as other relevant documents issued by the Federal
government has an explicit language policy (see the Ethiopian Language Policy 2021))
and according to these documents all Ethiopian languages have equal official status. But
the official recognition of all ethnic groups and all languages have not been materialized
at all levels in that the Federal government has no clear guidelines in protecting the rights
of minority groups. As rightly stated, in UNESCO’s document, having “equal legal status,
however, does not guarantee language maintenance and long-term vitality of a language”
(UNESCO, 2003:13). Hence, although there is an official recognition in protecting
minority languages, there is no mechanism in place in ensuring these rights are protected
at all levels and the situation of Ngaalam in light of UNESCO’s scale falls under
“differentiated support”.

Community members’ attitudes towards their own language

One can say that the speakers of Ngaalam have maintained a positive attitude towards
their own language. From our observation in the field, it seems that the Ngaalamer use
their language without promoting it. But this does not mean that they are neutral about
the use of their language. They have made clear choices and preferences for certain
functions in the use of the dominant and native languages.
Nevertheless, due to the pattern of multilingualism that prevails in the community, as
speakers of the dominant and non-dominant languages, there is some level of competition
between Baale and the native language so that some speakers have also developed a
positive attitude towards the dominant language, thus creating a bilingual situation
whereby the dominant and the native languages coexist and are in use in important
domains.
Generally speaking, most speakers (up to 85%) have shown a positive attitude towards
Amharic. Amharic is the language most speakers would like their children to learn and
this is perhaps in recognition of its role as a vehicle of upward social and economic
mobility and its apparent dominance at the national level. But it is difficult to imagine
that they have developed a negative attitude towards their language and view their
language as an obstacle to economic mobility and integration to mainstream society.
Conceivably, what they intend to communicate by their responses to the various
attitudinal variables is that they would like to maintain a diglossic situation where the
native language is used in home contexts and the dominant language (in this case
Amharic) serves in public domains such as in education and media. From the perspective
of UNESCO’s scaling, therefore, Ngaalam may fall into Grade 4, where most members
tacitly support language maintenance. All the same, we may also add that, the speakers of
Ngaalam feel like maintaining the pattern of multilingualism that prevails in the home
environment.

Type and quality of documentation

As per UNESCO’s document (2003:16), in order to assess the urgency for documenting a
language the type and quality of existing documented materials must be known. The
document states, “the type and quality of existing language materials must be identified.
Of central importance are written texts, including transcribed, translated, and annotated
audiovisual recordings of natural speech”. Accordingly, the following scale for grading
the amount of information has been identified.
Since nothing has been documented on the language and the culture and no record is
available, except for the 300 basic lexicon recorded by the author for the purpose of a
historical-comparative analysis, certainly Ngaalam can be labeled as “undocumented”
language, where no materials of any kind exist.
The assessment of the strength of language vitality against the six major evaluative
factors identified by UNESCO (2003) has indicated that Ngaalam is a threatened and
unsafe language which is in the direction of language shift to the dominant language,
Baale. Due to the pattern of multilingualism, the dominant language is increasingly
penetrating into the very vital communicative domains including the home domains.
Hence, the trend in the existing language use domains shows that there is a multilingual
parity in which the dominant and non-dominant languages are in mutual co-existence for
the time being. What is more, the language is not responsive to new domains as in basic
literacy and the media, and materials for language education and literacy are totally nonexistent.
Definitely the language is not in a position to expand the existing domains due
to the dominance of Amharic in those spheres.
The assessment of the organizational and institutional attitudes against UNESCO’s factor
demonstrated that although explicit favorable policies exist that recognizes and protects
minority languages, these policies are not able to guarantee language vitality and
maintenance due to the gap in implementation of those policies. The attitude of members
of the community towards their language, on the other hand, seems to be positive and
there is no sign that points to the fact that they have a negative attitude towards their own
language. Surely, they have a positive attitude towards the dominant languages.
In light of the above facts, and due to the total absence of documented and recorded
materials, it is reasonable to suggest that there is urgency for documentation of the
linguistic and cultural heritages of the people.