Common language for Africa advocated

[gottaB]

Accra, May 25, GNA - Mr Atukwei Okai, Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), on Tuesday advocated African Common Language Policy to enhance communication among Africans as a vital ingredient in ensuring the success of African unity.

He said some proponents had indicated Swahili as a possible adoptive language, but cautioned that the choice of a language should not be done at the expense and marginalisation of another.

Mr Okai was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the relevance of the African Union, after a flag-raising ceremony in Accra to observe the 41st Africa Day on Tuesday.

He said African Union was not just a slogan, and added that a Language Policy, backed by political will and commitment would ensure a long-term foundation of the real unification of the peoples of the Continent.

Common language for Africa advocated....

[Dogmudgeon]

1. I would advocate Esperanto, but ...

... a lot of Africans think it sounds too European.

Anyway, Swahili is Esperanto-like. It's a constructed language, cobbled together out of three or four West African languages, and with a simplified grammar. If it can be made universal, and not specific to just a few nations and ethnic groups, it would be a great AuxLang (Auxiliary Language).

Fun Fact: Wills -- Prince William, future King of England -- is now reportedly fluent in Swahili.

--bkl

[gottaB]

5. Swahili is a living language spoken by tens of millions of people

Swahili

I used to be prejudiced against Swahili because it has fewer noun classes than its Bantu cousins, because it is not tonal, and because it contains many loan words, for instance from Arabic. Those features indeed makes it easier for outsiders to learn, but they don't diminish its realness as a language for its millions of native speakers.



Some more on panafricanism and Swahili:

http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/aakkl/documents/kiswahili.pdf

http://www.codesria.org/Links/conferences/dakar/chacha.pdf

http://www.codesria.org/Links/Home/Abstracts%20Ga%206-11/Regionalism_Mohochi.htm

[Sirveri]

2. why not just...

Make everyone learn the local language and English? English is already becomming the dominant language of the world in business communities and the internet. Lets just skip to the chase.

[progdonkey]

3. excellent idea

That's exactly what Africa needs. It would be like Europe and Latin up until the 19th century: the French, Germans, English, Italians, etc. all spoke their local languages, but anyone who was educated spoke Latin as well and scholarly works were all written in Latin. It's also basically the position English is in at this time.

If they're going to go to the trouble of teaching one language to everyone in Africa, it would actually probably be more beneficial for them to just all learn English (so it's one less thing keeping them from performing equally on the world stage), but I fully understand that Africans would want to maintain a separate identity for the continent.

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. Well, maybe they should learn Chinese then

So that they can take part in the commerce of the future when this huge number of people gain ever greater access into the world markets.

Click here for stunning, insulting, shocking, funny buttons, magnets and stickers

[Oggy]

6. I disagree

I spent 6 months in Tanzania and my wife 3 years, we both learned some Swahili, my wife being very good at it! ( my background being the source of my views ).

Swahili or more correctly Ki-Swahili is constructed out of North (Arabic ) and East African languages, and so grammatically has more in common with Tribal languages spoken across sub-Saharan Africa. Like English it became common as a Trading language mainly in East and central Africa, and in part the popularity stems from the ease in which it can be learned. So from this you can see it already has a strong case for being used as a Pan-African language.

English on the other hand can be a difficult language to learn ( I have many friends working as TEFL teachers ) depending on the speakers native language. It also is a stark reminder to Africans of their colonial past, which is another reason to use their own home grown "Esperanto".

Latin was the language of empire, much as English is today. During the Roman empire Greek was actually the language of scholars and traders as this was the previous language of empire (hence the Rosetta stone). Much Latin was absorbed during the years of the Roman empire into the local language, hence why so many words in modern European languages have the same root. So Latin has more in common with Ki-Swahili in your example than English. I know at this point you will think yes but Swahili isn't a language of empire so the argument breaks down. Well the empire was the vibrant trading empire of the Arabian Muslims.

Having said all this English will no doubt remain the language of world wide business, but for Trans African business IMHO Swahili fits best.

[DarkSim]

7. Cultural Imperialism springs to mind...

Teaching english would probably just make the africans riot and pull out the imperialism card. Rather teach Chinese (Hanyu, not Cantoniese)to the africans.