BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Africa is a continent diversified with culture and history. It is blessed with a number of languages. According to recent data, the number of languages spoken within the African continent ranges between 1000 and 2000. “Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world’s languages. The diversity of African languages is evidenced by their populations.”
The same data indicates that the major African languages are, in order of importance, Swahili which has between 100 and 150 million speakers. Second place is occupied by Hausa alongside Yoruba are two Nigerian languages that are spoken in more countries, especially Yoruba spread out during the European conquests, and all to Brazil.
Amharic comes third among the most widely spoken languages in Africa. It is spoken in Ethiopia by more than 20 million people and is considered the second most spoken Semitic language. Zulu which is spoken in South Africa is said to be used by over 10 million people. As part of the Bantu language, Zulu is the language of the Zulu people made up of some 10 million speakers while the vast majority more than 95% speakers live in South Africa.
Amharic serves as the official working language of the Ethiopian federal government Amharic is also among few African language that has its own alphabet and script that is derived from the ancient language known as Ge’ez. Arabic and French are not African languages or native languages as such but came to the continent following the spread of Islam in the first case and that of colonialism in the case of French.
The French conquered almost half of Africa and their language is still spoken by many countries in West Africa in particular. Data shows that “30 million people in Africa speak Yoruba. It is spoken in everyday life, especially in Nigeria Togo and Benin but also in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Little attention was given to the study of African languages until the emergence of Institutes of Oriental and African studies in many European universities. There are many European scholars who studied African languages and became experts in their own rights but also spoke them with great command and erudition. One example is the late Canadian-born philosopher and Ethiopian scholar Professor Claude Sumner who studied not only Amharic but also Afan Oromo to the extent of studying the written literatures of these languages with impressive command.
Professor Sumner studied also Ge’ez, the ancient Ethiopian church language and translated many old manuscripts into English in his long research that led him to establish Ethiopian philosophy as a distinct and independent philosophy that was given shape by the Axumite monk Zara Yacob.
European and American interest in the study of African languages goes back not only to colonialism but also to the post-colonial period when many linguists and scholars studied these languages in their quest to better understand the African people, their cultures, world views, religions and other parameters of African existence. The pre-colonial Europeans studied African languages to understand the continent and its people and in a way that facilitated colonial penetration and cultural subversion that often led to culture clashes and violent reactions on the part of native African people. This problem is well-captured by Chinua Achebe in his classic novel “Things Fall Apart.”
Europeans and foreigners in general are still displaying a keen interest to study African languages although the objective or purpose of such study has drastically changed. Modern Europeans and also Americans want to study or know one or two African languages, for their personal consumption. According to one view, “Learning an African language will allow you to engage more deeply with African movies, TV shows and music. Learning an African language will allow you to engage more deeply with the music by dissecting the lyrics-opening a whole world of cultural, socio-political critique and storytelling.”
The approaches to the study of African languages are thus different then and now. What is more impressive nowadays is the fact that an increasing number of European as well as Asian countries, i.e. the Chinese and the Japanese in particular, are keen to understand or speak at least one African language both at the personal level and as inter-cultural exchange and understanding at the official level.
For our purpose here, we turn to two major countries that are particularly interested in African languages such as Amharic, Swahili and Yoruba to name but only three of them. Economics, geopolitics and culture may be involved in this new quest at varying degrees but it nevertheless remains true that these countries are showing a new interest in African languages although Africans may not reciprocate this by learning the European or Asian languages.
According to the latest information on this particular issue, Russian schools are bracing to start teaching African languages in the nearest future. In the past, under the Soviet government, relations between African countries and Moscow were mediated through ideology. Now that revolution is not on the agenda in Africa as well as in Russia, the emphasis is on African culture and African language. “The government of Russia will start teaching three major African languages in select schools in Moscow beginning this year as the country seeks to deepen ties with the continent,,,”
The languages to be taught in these schools include Swahili, Amharic and Yoruba. The four selected schools that will teach these African languages are not yet disclosed but it was disclosed that they will start teaching these languages in September of this year. The African languages will be taught as part of a special program and is meant to help forge closer ties with the continent, according to recent report by Sputnik news agency in Moscow.
“The announcement made during a Sputnik international roundtable on Russia-Africa relations focused on prospects of economic cooperation.” The roundtable was attended by academics and from universities in Russia and Africa. The Chinese are relatively later comers in teaching African languages to their young citizens. While Russian-African cultural ties are some of the oldest by international standards, Chinese interest in African cultures and languages is more of recent phenomenon.
It rather came with what we may call the Chinese economic miracle of this century. China as well as Africa is learning from its recent experiences regarding the positive contributions of culture and language in accelerating economic development. At the peak of its economic boom starting from the 1070s, the Chinese authorities have been keen to allow young students and academics to learn English at a massive scale so that they could travel to the West in order to learn from their technological and economic developments.
In the early phase of their development drive, the Chinese were keen to translate Western technology and science into their own language thereby facilitating the transfer of skills and techniques which proved vital for economic growth. The knowledge and experience thus acquired by young Chinese has helped fuel the technological and economic booms that China is now legitimately proud of.
China is now in a position to help other countries that are relatively less developed play catch up more successfully in the global economy that is becoming more complex and also more ruthless. Africa needs China as China needs Africa although the needs and interests cannot be the same but complementary. Geopolitics, national interest and economic development are converging terms that cannot be detached from one another.
As long as cultural ties are used as catalysts of economic cooperation and balanced growth it does not matter by whatever name the process is defined. China has achieved economic miracle in less than half a century. There is no reason why Africa cannot repeat the miracle so long as it proves wise enough in promoting its national interests in the face of fierce global competition. Whether from Russia or China, what Africa should seek is mutually beneficial cooperation with these countries; cooperation based in the framework of growing multi-polarity in world affairs and complementariness of interests.
While welcoming the growing interest by foreign countries to teach or learn African languages, Africans should also promote horizontal, inter-cultural or inter-linguistic exchanges within the continent as a means of consolidating African solidarity in the face of cultural globalization that presents them both with opportunities and challenges.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 8 JUNE 2023
