15 and Learning to Speak
November 14, 2014 11:09 AM Subscribe
The majority of deaf people in sub-Saharan Africa have never been taught sign language. "Patrick Otema, 15, was born profoundly deaf. In the remote area of Uganda where he lives there are no schools for deaf children, and he has never had a conversation. Raymond Okkelo, a sign language teacher, hopes to change all this and offer Patrick a way out of the fearful silence he has known his whole life."
"Unreported World Shorts offer bite sized views of the lives of people in some of the fastest-changing areas of the world. This video supports a 30 minute documentary, 15 and Learning to Speak, in which Reporter, Kiki King, and Director, Daniel Bogado, visit Uganda where the work of inspirational sign language teachers is transforming the lives of profoundly deaf children and adults across the country who have never been able to communicate - until now."
"Unreported World Shorts offer bite sized views of the lives of people in some of the fastest-changing areas of the world. This video supports a 30 minute documentary, 15 and Learning to Speak, in which Reporter, Kiki King, and Director, Daniel Bogado, visit Uganda where the work of inspirational sign language teachers is transforming the lives of profoundly deaf children and adults across the country who have never been able to communicate - until now."
Another hero, with scant recognition--Good on you, Raymond Okkelo. Hope sign language spreads everywhere needed in that area because of you.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:41 AM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by BlueHorse at 11:41 AM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
This was so powerful. Thanks for sharing.
posted by BurntHombre at 11:55 AM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by BurntHombre at 11:55 AM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wonderful and moving. I'm looking forward to the longer version.
posted by mogget at 12:35 PM on November 14, 2014
posted by mogget at 12:35 PM on November 14, 2014
Voting on names for each other after one class! Amazing. I hope this is 100% real and I hope it gets tons of support. I can't imagine what it's like to have a mind locked away with almost no means to communicate or express anything.
posted by that's candlepin at 12:45 PM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by that's candlepin at 12:45 PM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
While teaching people sign language is a really big deal because it opens up lots of opportunities, I have, shall we say, mixed feelings about the film. I kind of feel like sign language is being portrayed as this outside thing is being given to people because they are to be pitied, rather than something that develops naturally. (Which presumably isn't the attitude of the initiative itself, only the film, given that the teacher is presented as being from the area.) The obstacle faced by Patrick and his father isn't that the idea of sign language never occurred to them.
posted by hoyland at 4:19 PM on November 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by hoyland at 4:19 PM on November 14, 2014 [3 favorites]
This video was painful to watch. The story is important--but it's treated in such a shallow, sensationalist way. "Poor African" tropes are everywhere.
What grated on me the most, apart from how it was constructed to show Patrick going from "sad, hopeless and helpless African child" to "smiling African child with piano music," is the complete lack of discussion about the complexity of the problem. In their bid to portray the problem of sign language access in Sub-Saharan Africa in the worst, most tragic way possible, I think they actually ended up insulting deaf Africans. They missed a real opportunity by not focusing more on Okkelo's story and the context of his work.
I only have experience with one Sub-Saharan African country, but, for example, the news almost always has a sign language interpreter. There are many people who know sign language. In addition, there is a system that has developed out of home sign--it may not be a "full language"; it's not studied as far as I can tell and seems fairly iconic--but it's widely known, even by people who are not deaf. This is because deafness is so common; almost everyone grew up with a kid who's deaf.
I said "with" because deaf children don't just sit isolated in a hut and wait for their parents to give them instructions. In my experience, they have friends they play with. They can get jobs (I met one teenager who is an apprentice tailor, and an older man who knew ASL and had a shop selling to mostly non-deaf clientele). In some ways, the fact that deafness is so widespread and deaf children are not sent to special schools means that there is a wider pool of people who know the deaf child's communication system, as rudimentary as it may be.
I don't want to say that lack of access to sign language isn't a problem. It's a big problem. Everyone has the right to a language. But the hopeless passivity portrayed in the video really, really irked me. Perhaps this is a fair representation of Patrick's situation; I don't know him or his life. But then, the producers of this segment really needed not to have generalized to the entire continent. It paints an incredibly simplistic picture.
In other words, let's save Africa.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 7:48 AM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
What grated on me the most, apart from how it was constructed to show Patrick going from "sad, hopeless and helpless African child" to "smiling African child with piano music," is the complete lack of discussion about the complexity of the problem. In their bid to portray the problem of sign language access in Sub-Saharan Africa in the worst, most tragic way possible, I think they actually ended up insulting deaf Africans. They missed a real opportunity by not focusing more on Okkelo's story and the context of his work.
I only have experience with one Sub-Saharan African country, but, for example, the news almost always has a sign language interpreter. There are many people who know sign language. In addition, there is a system that has developed out of home sign--it may not be a "full language"; it's not studied as far as I can tell and seems fairly iconic--but it's widely known, even by people who are not deaf. This is because deafness is so common; almost everyone grew up with a kid who's deaf.
I said "with" because deaf children don't just sit isolated in a hut and wait for their parents to give them instructions. In my experience, they have friends they play with. They can get jobs (I met one teenager who is an apprentice tailor, and an older man who knew ASL and had a shop selling to mostly non-deaf clientele). In some ways, the fact that deafness is so widespread and deaf children are not sent to special schools means that there is a wider pool of people who know the deaf child's communication system, as rudimentary as it may be.
I don't want to say that lack of access to sign language isn't a problem. It's a big problem. Everyone has the right to a language. But the hopeless passivity portrayed in the video really, really irked me. Perhaps this is a fair representation of Patrick's situation; I don't know him or his life. But then, the producers of this segment really needed not to have generalized to the entire continent. It paints an incredibly simplistic picture.
In other words, let's save Africa.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 7:48 AM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
Kutsuwamushi, which sub-Sarahan African country is that?
posted by skoosh at 9:21 AM on November 15, 2014
posted by skoosh at 9:21 AM on November 15, 2014
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They said a longer version would be available the 21st here. I'm looking forward to it.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:29 AM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]