Decolonizing Knowledge

It’s interesting to learn that the most sought after professions nowadays revolves around coding. Coding broken down means simply learning the language of the computer in order to connect with it. However, there is a general consensus that the computer is very dumb (compared to human mind processing atleast) and therefore to connect with it your code has to be very premise. Despite this, computer programmers who learn code are dominating the world today. They’re earning in billions, simply by mastering a language. This juxtaposes with how the human race actually perceived language. In decolonisation of knowledge we learn that usually language of the oppressors was institutionalised and even after years it manages to dominate all spheres of our life. Usually the race that was considered superior, was followed. In this sense, it is very peculiar that humans being much more intellectually, physically and mentally superior than a computer still challenge themselves to learn code.

The explanation to learning code despite all these drawbacks is simple, it suits the agenda of those in power. Language that has thrived in the past has always suited the ways of those in power. Due to which the language of oppressed races remains dulled, understated and irrelevant. Gloria-Anzaldua challenges this view, the language of a kind of race or people is special and shouldn’t be weighed by its ability to foster power and control. Language and the way it is spoken by each individual tells their own unique story. A bilingual who’s accent and focus on one language, making the other weak represents the subset of mixed races which includes all of us (We neither belong here nor there).

It is ironic that in programming if someone knows more languages, they’re more highly esteemed. Then why is it that humans who know more than one language are looked down upon? Knowing more languages has been proven to be more professionally beneficial. Therefore, there’s only one explanation why bilingual,trilingual,  people who know multiple languages or people who value their mother tongue but didn’t know colonial language have been persecuted, since it suited the colonialist agenda. This continues to this day because it has been psychologically imbedded in us. It’s time we gave humans more rights and valued them more than computers- a man made machine. Code is usually inferred to be boring and dull due to its precise nature. It’s time for us to decolonize knowledge and find the richness inferred by the depth within our own human languages.