Africa Needs A Common Language!

Years ago, when I read the African Continental Free Trade Agreement document, the last paragraph surprised me:

“WE, the Heads of State and Government or duly authorised representatives of the Member States of the African Union, have signed and sealed this Agreement in four original texts in Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese languages, all texts being equally authentic.”

Not one of those languages is originally African! A document meant to represent African interests is not presented in an original African language. Do you see the linguistic confusion in Africa today?

To develop as a unified body, Africa needs a common indigenous language as a unifying element among its diverse peoples and ethnic groups. Genuine cooperation, strategic alignment, mutual understanding, and policy coherence, which facilitate economic development, assume simplicity and ease of communication. Africa cannot claim this today.

If you study the development of both historical and modern world powers, one common element that facilitated their growth was linguistic homogeneity. Even when different languages and dialects existed within their borders, one primary language guided them. Africa lacks this.

Today, Africa is linguistically similar to the Tower of Babel—a mixture of hundreds of local languages and dialects beneath a handful of colonial languages. In an African country, some speak the colonial language, others a broken mix of it and a local language, and still others speak only the local language. Multiply this across all African countries! What you have, in the final analysis, is linguistic chaos ripe for divisive tribalism.

Despite this, policymakers are attempting to unite Africa through policy initiatives. But what is the chance of success? How can one African truly empathize with another when they cannot even understand each other?

Real leadership demands that hard decisions be made. The African Union should take the lead, and with the cooperation of the Ministers of Education, a chosen language should be taught in all African schools starting from primary education. I am not proposing “linguicide,” as all other languages would remain intact, learned, and culturally passed on to future generations. Nor does this chosen language imply “superiority”; it is simply a means of collective cooperation. All egos, tribalism, and emotions must be put aside, and leaders must be able to make this decision objectively, without regard to ethnic affiliation—a tall order today!

Africa is still linguistically colonized and cannot fully develop as a united body so long as a local language (or a few) is not primary, and European languages remain its main form of communication. Instead of just one, each region could adopt a common language, resulting in five main African languages!

Africa needs a common language (or basket of languages), so its people have a true medium to promote unity and collective progress.

Onward & Upward!

~Dr. Ikenna Ezealah