BY MULUGETA GUDETA
There are an estimated between 1000 and 2000 languages in Africa and this is approximately one third of all world languages. Many of African countries have languages that range from one hundred to several hundreds. In Nigeria alone there are more than 500 spoken languages and hundreds of ethnic groups.
The official language is English but it is not widely spoken in the rural areas. According to available information, there are between 45 and 86 spoken languages in Ethiopia and as many as there are ethnic groups. Most of the African languages are spoken and a few of them are written. In Ethiopia for instance the written languages are far fewer than the spoken ones.
There is a consensus as to the main function of languages whether in Africa or in any other part of the world. The main function of a language, in the sense of transmission of information is “to facilitate communication from one person to the other”. At the national level language serves to facilitate communication among various groups of people who speak different languages.
In many African communities, the fact that there are common languages used by various ethnic groups language serves as a tool of mutual communication, understanding and cultural exchanges. And this in turn serves as a factor of communal peace stability and economic development.
The fact that there are many languages as ethnic groups in Africa has been exploited by colonialists to set one group of Africans against others in their bid to divide and rule Africans. In the same manner ethnic diversity has been used by Belgians in Rwanda and Burundi to divide the people along these lines and set them one against the other.
Failure on the part of African elites to build community and unity among the various ethnic groups has often led to conflicts. The classic case is again Rwanda where Tutsi were set against Hutus in order to create a climate favorable to genocide and fratricidal bloodshed back in 1994.
Speaking a common language by various ethnic groups or national entities in West and East Africa has not helped build lasting unity among the people’ West Africans speak French as former colonies of France and Eastern African countries speak English as a result of British colonialism but there is no organic unity among all the people of these countries.
Swahili is widely spoken in East Africa but it has not so far facilitated the building of a strong and lasting economic or political unity among the people of these countries. People from diverse ethnic groups can speak different languages and yet live in peace by respecting each other’s cultures and languages.
According to available information, although Africa is endowed with hundreds of spoken languages, the main spoken languages across the continent do not exceed five or six. Most spoken languages in Africa are Swahili widely spoken in East Africa, French spoken in Francophone Africa, Hausa spoken in Nigeria and Arabic spoken in most North African countries. The fact that a language is widely spoken or that there is only one language spoken in a country does not create political unity or cohesion.
In Somalia for instance, Somali language is the only spoken language by all the Somali people but this has not lead to political cohesion and lasting peace. Arab countries in North Africa have never managed to form a united or single republic even though the people speak the same language. Therefore the function of language as a factor of cohesion can be said to be limited or irrelevant in some cases.
Language is not only a means of communication. It is also a means of facilitating cultural exchanges. Language is sometimes considered to be part of culture. “Anthropologists speak of the relations between language and culture it is indeed more in accordance with reality to consider language as part of culture. Culture is here used in the anthropological sense to refer to all aspects of human life in so far as they are determined or conditioned membership in a society.”
The definition and use of language may have different dimensions. Some people may define language as one of the parameters of identity of communities. There are also other parameters that define a human community. For many politicians language can be a contested issue in political discourse.
The definition of a state or an ethnic group complex and unsettled as it might be, also serve as a factor of cohesion between people of different cultures and ethnicities. We realize that this utilitarian definition of language is the most widespread and pragmatic approach to language in the linguistic sense of the word is the scientific study of human knowledge.
Most of the conflicts in Africa are not about language but about resources sharing or allocation. People in Africa tend to give most priority to their natural resources, such as land and minerals than their common languages. The people of Congo speak either French or one of the ethnic languages but the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has continued for decades after independence because of what is called the “resource curse” or the fact that rich mineral resources are the factors that are feeding the fires of civil war in the country.
The same can be said about oil in some Arab countries where the appropriation oil wells had repeatedly served to trigger local or international conflicts like the Iran Iraq war or the American invasion of Iraq back in 1991.
The genesis of languages shows that all languages were not written ones since their inception. According to Wikipedia there are many writing system in Africa. It says that, “The writing system of Africa refers to the current and historical practice of writing systems on the African continent both indigenous and those introduced.
Today the Latin script is commonly encountered across Africa especially in the Western, Central and Southern Africa. Arabic script is mainly used in Northern Africa and Ge’ez script is widely in the Horn of Africa. Regionally and in some localities other scripts may be of significant importance.”
The advantage of having written languages is obvious because it can be used as a tool for storing and transmitting indigenous knowledge and enriching the historical, cultural and anthropological heritages of Africa. Linguistic integration in Africa can be used to facilitate the process of economic and political integration and the exchange of knowledge from one country to the other. The Latin script has played this role in the process of the spread of the English or French language in Europe and America.
The ideas of freedom and democracy were developed in ancient Greece but the translation of these ideas into European languages has finally arrived to the shores of the United States and provided them powerful ideas to develop their own version of freedom and democracy. This is also true for African countries where the so called Western civilization was transmitted in writing through missionary works in many parts of the continent that were controlled by colonialism.
African countries that speak similar language could also use their common language to share knowledge and expedite their socio-economic development process. If Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania could use Swahili for knowledge sharing that could have expedited the economic integration process in integration in the long run. East Africa eventually began serving as the basis for political integration or union. This process could be duplicated to integrate the various parts of Africa into an extended web of common languages.
A study entitled, “Why and how Africa should invest in African languages and multilingual education –An evidence and practice-based policy advocacy brief” by Adama Ouane and Christine Glantz says that, “In the 21st century, learning is at the heart of the modern world’s endeavors to become a knowledge economy. It is the key to empowering individuals to be today’s world producers and consumers of knowledge.
It is essential in enabling people to become critical citizens and to attain self-fulfillment. It is a driver of economic competitiveness as well as community development. Good quality learning is not only about becoming more competent polyvalent and productive but also about nurturing diversity and being well-rooted in one’s culture…”
Speaking of language in African education, the above study says that, “The theme of language in education has been a contentious issue ever since former colonies in Africa, Asia and South America gained their political independence…Language and communication are without doubt two of the most important factors in the learning process…worldwide the choice of the language instruction and language policy in schools is critical for effective learning …”
However recent experience in African countries such as Ethiopia recently proved, language in education is not the only a contentious issues. There are also other critical factors such the quality of education and the readiness of all actors involved in the educational process to show unwavering commitment to guarantee students’ educational success; something that proved disastrous in the case of Ethiopia.
An overhauling of the entire educational establishment, language of instruction and curriculum must therefore be one of the most urgent tasks in African education in general and in Ethiopia in particular. The disclosure of the results of the national school leaving examinations, which is devastating by all accounts, should serve as eye opener and a clarion call for the educational reforms to go deeper than cosmetic changes.
The Ethiopian Herald February 12/2013
