‘No vernacular’: tensions in language choice in a sexual health lesson in The Gambia

The focus of this paper is the small postcolonial country of the Gambia. As in other parts of postcolonial Africa, English plays a major role in the education system. The paper reports on the conflicts and tensions which are evident when ‘vernacular’ languages are used in the classroom. Although the study is based on substantial periods of fieldwork in primary school classrooms in the Gambia, the paper focuses on one particular lesson, in an urban primary school, in which the topic was sexual health. Within this lesson the teacher occasionally breaks the ‘no vernacular’ rule with switches into Mandinka and Wolof. Through an analysis of instances of codeswitching in the lesson, several underlying tensions and conflicts are noted.