Africa: The Rivalry Between Kiswahili and Hausa

Attahiru Muazu Gusau

9 November 2010


It would perhaps have been more appropriate to write on the race between the Hausa language and either of the two other major national languages of Nigeria i.e. Yoruba or Igbo. But I have not perceived any rivalry amongst the national languages as there is between Hausa and Kiswahili.

There is a strong perception among the Kiswahili speaking world that Hausa is their principal contender when it comes to international relevance in settling the age old question of which African language is to be used as working language in continental organs like the AU. One of the proponents of Kiswahili language, Sammy writes:

"Kiswahili's great indigenous rival in Africa [for the status of AU working language] is Hausa. As a matter of fact, Hausa is spoken by more people in Africa than Kiswahili. But when it comes to other attributes that make a language a serious candidate for continental adoption, Kiswahili far outpaces Hausa".

The writer went further to give his reasons why Kiswahili would be better than Hausa for international adoption, as follows:

"Hausa is one of the dominant languages spoken in Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso. But this hardly makes the language Pan-National in the sense that Kiswahili is. For starters, the language is too closely identified with the populous Hausa-Fulani ethnic group. Considering the POISONOUS ETHNIC POLITICS OF NIGERIA WHERE THE HAUSA FULANI ARE THE DOMINANT COMMUNITY, IT IS A STRETCH TO EXPECT THIS LINGUA FRANCA WINNING UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE EVEN FROM WITHIN NIGERIA. THE YORUBA, THE IGBO AND EVERYBODY ELSE WOULD RATHER STICK TO ENGLISH, THANK YOU". (All emphases mine.)

That was the view from the Kiswahili side and, 'how true' you may say!

The above perception, which I am not out to repudiate, somehow informs my other reasons for not writing about internal rivalry between Hausa and Yoruba or Igbo. It is noteworthy that the great literary colossus and Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka - a Yoruba himself - was backing the adoption of Kiswahili as AU working language against the Hausa. Though he didn't and may have no reason whatsoever to back Hausa, it was obvious he wasn't being sentimental since he didn't back Yoruba either! Again you may disagree. But this issue is one of the very few that Soyinka agreed to with his arch rival Professor Ali Mazrui.

But Mazrui is Swahili and never spared the opportunity to campaign for it. In one of his writings he says:

"Pan-Africanism of lingo-cultural integration will probably be led by East Africa, with its good fortune of a region wide indigenous language-the role of Kiswahili in binding Tanzania, Kenya, to some extent Uganda, Somalia and potentially Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Zaire,  Northern Mozambique and Malawi."

Mazrui went on to say that Kiswahili is expanding more rapidly than any other lingua franca in the continent. "IT IS ALSO BECOMING THE ONLY LANGUAGE TO BEAR THE BURDEN OF SCIENTIFIC VOCABULARY".

The question is, if the Hausas failed to produce intellectual giants and colossuses of international recognition like Soyinka, Mazrui, Ngugi Wa Thing'O, Achebe and the like, who would, even being sentimental, argue their case?  Who would they blame?

But actually my principal objective in this write-up is not even to counter Kiswahili or to uplift Hausa and challenge the status of Yoruba and Igbo but to advocate for all the languages of Nigeria and to shout loud and clear that the worst failure of the nation in the 50 years of its lame history is its failure to uplift the national languages to a level of functional relevance and significance in our national life! This is all the more worrisome because all indicators point to the fact that the borrowed official language of the nation, English, has woefully failed our developmental needs. But our slavish mentality has tied us eternally to the shackles of foreign languages.


But how and how on earth would Mazrui not beat his chest in pride and Soyinka, our great hero's humble answer, will only be- 'yes its true'? Mazrui was not only chiding Hausa, for if Hausa was great and an international competitor, so also would be Yoruba and Igbo. The bitter invective was that he said Kiswahili was the 'only African language to bear the burden of scientific vocabulary'!

Is it no longer a fact that Education is the bedrock for development in every society? Have we reversed the grim and constantly flowing figures and statistics that proved clearly to us that English language cannot and will never ever be sufficient for our educational and developmental need? For how long are we going to continue lying to ourselves and to others? Are we still in doubt that it's only through indigenous languages that knowledge can be acculturated in our cultural matrix?

Muazu Gusau


http://allafrica.com/stories/201011100280.html

Interesting read.

But actually my principal objective in this write-up is not even to counter Kiswahili or to uplift Hausa and challenge the status of Yoruba and Igbo but to advocate for all the languages of Nigeria and to shout loud and clear that the worst failure of the nation in its 50 years of its lame history is its failure to uplift the national languages to a level of functional relevance and significance in our national life! This is all the more worrisome because all indicators point to the fact that the borrowed official language of the nation, English, has woefully failed our developmental needs. But our slavish mentality has tied us eternally to the shackles of foreign languages

Then, let pidgin English be our lingua franca! We can change its name to something more fitting if need be.
Pidgin English is the closest thing to our traditional language structure, it is spoken all over the country and is ethnically neutral.

I belong to the school of thought that Kiswahili should be our Lingua Franca.It is so easy to learn for Africans and has similarity with most African languages.

If any language is to be our lingua franca, nobody will agree on one of Nigeria's major languages [Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa].

Considering the POISONOUS ETHNIC POLITICS OF NIGERIA WHERE THE HAUSA FULANI ARE THE DOMINANT COMMUNITY, IT IS A STRETCH TO EXPECT THIS LINGUA FRANCA WINNING UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE EVEN FROM WITHIN NIGERIA. THE YORUBA, THE IGBO AND EVERYBODY ELSE WOULD RATHER STICK TO ENGLISH, THANK YOU". (All emphases mine.)

Gbam

Ileke-IdI:

If any language is to be our lingua franca, nobody will agree on one of Nigeria's major languages [Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa].

i think yoruba or hausa since it is very easy to learn. i am still trying to learn igbo but it is a bit difficult. i have only learnt about 10 words. but i could understand basic hausa and i really understand yoruba

jason12345:

i think yoruba or hausa since it is very easy to learn. i am still trying to learn igbo but it is a bit difficult. i have only learnt about 10 words. but i could understand basic hausa and i really understand yoruba

Yea, it's easy.
But it's not about how easy or hard it is.
Would an Igbo group want Hausa as the LF?
Would a Yoruba group want Igbo as the LF?
Would an Hausa " " either " " "?

Ileke-IdI:

Yea, it's easy.
But it's not about how easy or hard it is.
Would an Igbo group want Hausa as the LF?
Would a Yoruba group want Igbo as the LF?
Would an Hausa " " either " " "?

true!

But on an Africa-wide scale, do enough of us as Africans actually realise that at some point in the future we will ALL have to speak an indigenous African language as our Lingua Franca?

Do we understand that this English/Portuguese/French stuff we speak in our countries HAS to be a temporary phenomenon, following our recent colonial history, and NOT a permanent feature of our societies?

We need to adopt the mindset that we are just ''renting'' these European languages till we get our act together in the new world they thrust us in, after which we KISS THEIR LANGUAGES GOODBYE, AND ADOPT a continental tongue, and become whole again.

ROSSIKE:

But on an Africa-wide scale, do enough of us as Africans actually realise that at some point in the future we will ALL have to speak an indigenous African language as our Lingua Franca?

Do we understand that this English/Portuguese/French stuff we speak in our countries HAS to be a temporary phenomenon, following our recent colonial history, and NOT a permanent feature of our societies?

We need to adopt the mindset that we are just ''renting'' these European languages till we get our act together in the new world they thrust us in, after which we KISS THEIR LANGUAGES GOODBYE, AND ADOPT a continental tongue, and become whole again.

GBAM!!!!

ROSSIKE:

But on an Africa-wide scale, do enough of us as Africans actually realise that at some point in the future we will ALL have to speak an indigenous African language as our Lingua Franca?

Do we understand that this English/Portuguese/French stuff we speak in our countries HAS to be a temporary phenomenon, following our recent colonial history, and NOT a permanent feature of our societies?

We need to adopt the mindset that we are just ''renting'' these European languages till we get our act together in the new world they thrust us in, after which we KISS THEIR LANGUAGES GOODBYE, AND ADOPT a continental tongue, and become whole again.

And when would that be?

I seriously doubt a period in time when African languages would disappear. Maybe a few hundreds/thousands of years from now.

Even if we're just "renting" these European languages, they're not going anywhere. The world is becoming global and until Africa is seen as a developed/important point on the globe, no developed country is going to be borrowing/learning any of it's languages.  Just like English was adopted and still being adopted by non-english speakers just for them to communicate with the developed countries in the world.

What is the point of a Pan African language? To communicate/Unite amongst ourselves? Are African countries [i.e Ghana/Nigeria] trying to unite right now?

Ileke Idi said:

Even if we're just "renting" these European languages, they're not going anywhere. The world is becoming global and until Africa is seen as a developed/important point on the globe, no developed country is going to be borrowing/learning any of it's languages.

Actually you're putting the cart before the horse. This is not about foreigners borrowing African languages. This is about Africans becoming Africans once more, and interracting among themselves in indigenous language both at official and unofficial levels, irrespective of what the rest of the world thinks or doesn't think.

The contention is that no nation or continent known to man has ever become developed or advanced speaking a foreign language or foreign languages as their lingua franca. The reason is simple - development is as much a state of material advancement as it is a state of mind. For development to be organic and thus truly authentic and sustainable, it must occur within its own 'cultural matrix', otherwise it retains a certain ''otherness'' and rootlessness which militates against its full blossoming.

This is why it is important for us to advance our indigenous languages like Igbo, Yoruba, Bini etc - a time MUST come when we should be able to define and explain all modern scientific principles and terminologies in our major indigenous languages.

It is a natural progression from colonialism to true independence and indigenous, grassroots based development.

An African SHOULD NOT have to learn a Euopean language in order to study science, economics, philosophy, architecture, or medicine.

THAT is an aberration.

It is not normal.

Those disciplines do not belong to Europe. Europe did not invent them. If you go back far enough, Africans in fact did.

A time MUST COME AGAIN when these disciplines would be easily available to learn and disseminate in African languages, failing which we can never consider ourselves to be truly developed.

ROSSIKE:

Ileke Idi said:

Actually you're putting the cart before the horse. This is not about foreigners borrowing African languages. This is about Africans becoming Africans once again, and communicating among themselves in indigenous language both at official and unofficial levels, irrespective of what the rest of the world thinks or doesn't think.

Ok, so that said. . . . Africans becoming Africans. . . .so how does acquiring Kiswahili as AFL making us more African? For the countries that HAVE TO adopt Kiswahili, how is that making them more African since Kiswahili would then become their BORROWED language? Were they less African with their native language?

The contention is that no nation or continent known to man has ever become developed or advanced speaking a foreign language or foreign languages as their lingua franca. The reason is simple - development is as much a state of material advancement as it is a state of mind. For development to be organic and thus truly authentic and sustainable, it must occur within its own 'cultural matrix'.

So how will adopting Kiswahili [for African countries foreign to the lingua franca] help them develop? For countries where Kiswahili reigns , how have they tried to develop or unite based on language alone?

This is why it is important for us to advance our indigenous languages like Igbo, Yoruba, Bini etc - a time MUST come when we should be able to define all modern scientific principles and terminologies in our major indigenous languages.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I've been thinking about this for the longest time!

An African SHOULD NOT have to learn a Euopean language in order to study science, economics, philosophy, architecture, or medicine.

No we shouldn't. But when the language is not modernized [as you previously stated], then it WILL continue to be taught/studied in English.
How do you properly explain the technological parts/ function of an MRI/X-Ray to an elder in Yoruba ? Or the behaviors of chemical particles in a lab to in Yoruba?

A time MUST COME when these disciplines would be easily available to learn and disseminate in African tongues, failing which we can NEVER consider ourselves to be truly developed.

And we will, but we do not have to adopt an ALF to achieve that goal.

ROSSIKE:


An African SHOULD NOT have to learn a Euopean language in order to study science, economics, philosophy, architecture, or medicine.

THAT is an aberration.

It is not normal.

Those disciplines do not belong to Europe. Europe did not invent them. If you go back far enough, Africans in fact did.

It matters not who it belongs to but more on who has developed it. Where are the researches being done? Where the the technologies being developed?
Who names the discovery? The origin of the names of the element discovered?

Absolutely nothing wrong with learning in our own language, but we need to advance the languages as the educational world advances. 

Do we need an ALF for that? Nope!

English is fine as the African lingua franca, no reason for either Hausa or Swahili, imo

Ileke Idi said:

Ok, so that said. . . . Africans becoming Africans. . . .so how does acquiring Kiswahili as AFL making us more African? For the countries that HAVE TO adopt Kiswahili, how is that making them more African since Kiswahili would then become their BORROWED language? Were they less African with their native language?

Adopting a language like Kiswahili as the African Lingua Franca does not mean the dropping of indigenous languages, any more than our present adoption of English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, etc have obliterated our local tongues.

It's no secret that relative linguistic homogeneity is almost synonymous with long-term national/continental development. And where such homogeneity is sought, (as it is with regard to Africa), it would be most irresponsible - criminal in fact - NOT to adopt a popular indigenous AFRICAN language as the lingua franca of choice, hence the settlement on Kiswahili by most African intellectuals.

Ileke Idi said:

It matters not who it belongs to but more on who has developed it. Where are the researches being done? Where the the technologies being developed?
Who names the discovery? The origin of the names of the element discovered?

Absolutely nothing wrong with learning in our own language, but we need to advance the languages as the educational world advances.

I don't see the Chinese rushing to adopt European languages even though most modern technology, plus the research behind it, emanates from there and the USA.

I certainly support a system of indigenous language integration into modern learning. Nothing stops us creating and codifying new words for anything in our local languages like the Chinese did.

The Chinese went and read the Pythagoras Thorem, Einstein's Theory of Relativity and so on, but they didn't say 'Ah, we have no translation for this in Chinese, so let's all adopt Greek language''.

No. Instead, they translated every last word of those theories into Chinese, even inventing words from thin air in the process I'm sure.


This is how Africans should be thinking if we want to ''be like China''.

This is Ileke-Idi, spambot just banned me.

ROSSIKE:

Ileke Idi said:

Adopting a language like Kiswahili as the African Lingua Franca does not mean the dropping of indigenous languages, any more than our present adoption of English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, etc have obliterated our local tongues.

Ok, understandable. No dropping.
But since African countries are already adopting English, why now Adopt Kiswahili as ALF? Since adopting English, how has that changed the present stage of Africa? I don't believe unified language is our problem, education is.

For instance, you see those ish we call juju? "oh my neighbor gave me food, now my face is swollen. it's juju". . . .reh reh. . . . maybe if knows something about allergy or food poisoning, she wouldn't be #$@#$. Or in Liberia, those children soldiers whom naively believes that juju saves them from bullets. . . .

It's no secret that relative linguistic homogenuity is almost synonymous with long-term national/continental development. And where such homogenuity is sought, (as it is with regard to Africa), it would be most irresponsible - criminal in fact - NOT to adopt a popular indigenous AFRICAN language as the lingua franca of choice, hence the settlement on Kiswahili by most African intellectuals.

Story story.  How would Africa reach continental development by ALF?
You think diplomacy is based only on one homogeneous language?
I asked you again, for those African countries that speak unified language [such as English], what steps have they taken towards interrelation development?

ROSSIKE:

Ileke Idi said:

I don't see the Chinese rushing to adopt European languages even though most modern technology, plus the research behind it, emanates from there and the USA.

Remember I previously said something about being seen as important or as a developed country?

Infact, More people are learning chinese because that's where "it" is now. More Americans are moving to China for work, technological development, business etc.

The point of learning a language is to communicate with people of that native. no?

I certainly support a system of indigenous language integration into modern learning. Nothing stops us creating and codifying new words for anything in our local languages like the Chinese did.

Cant argue with that.

Dude, do me a favor and quit modifying your posts after posting.
Think about what you have to post before posting. It's annoying looking back and seeing that you added more that could have changed my arguments towards yours.

The Chinese went and read the Pythagoras Thorem, Einstein's Theory of Relativity and so on, but they didn't say 'Ah, we have no translation for this in Chinese, so let's all adopt Greek language''.

Since Africans are not advancing their languages . . . . English will continue to rule!

And is the kiswahili you're advocating for also advanced?

FLgator said:

Story story.  How would Africa reach continental development by ALF?

There isn't just one thing that ''leads to continental development'' but a combination of factors.

Also, this is about a lot more than ''continental development''.

What about our mental and socio-cultural development?

We cannot continue to speak indefinitely the languages of Europe as our official tongues.

Where do we stop? First we abandon our religions, and then our languages, what next?

At some point there might be suggestions that we all bleach ourselves white (though that's even happening among many already). Fact is, we're on a slippery slope to becoming rootless DRONES. Pathetic clones of distant lands. It is culturally debilitating and ultimately self-destructive to continually deny one's cultural wellspring on the altar of expediency. We need to study China. We cannot ''be like China'' if we do not do what China does, ie make their cultural ascendancy the very fulcrum of their development drive.

FL gators:

Dude, do me a favor and quit modifying your posts after posting.
Think about what you have to post before posting. It's annoying looking back and seeing that you added more that could have changed my arguments towards yours.

Sorry, but I'm not obliged to you in that way at all.

Since Africans are not advancing their languages . . . . English will continue to rule!

We don't actually need you to remind us of this, since the very topic shines light on the situation. (See article)

And is the kiswahili you're advocating for also advanced?

See article.

ROSSIKE:

FLgator said:

There isn't just one thing that ''leads to continental development'' but a combination of factors.

Also, this is about a lot more than ''continental development''.

What about our mental and socio-cultural development?

My point.

Now you're getting to my point. So how is ALF expected to help in continental development?
Why arent countries speaking English [which lots of African countries do] more developed than those that don't?

We cannot continue to speak indefinitely the languages of Europe as our official tongues.

Funny, because you're asking other African countries to adopt a language foreign to them [as their official language]. . . .but yet you're complaining about African countries "renting" European lang?


How do you think those countries would feel?

Where do we stop? First we abandon our religions, and then our languages, what next?

clap clap and bow!

You're getting there! Think about it.

At some point there might be suggestions that we all bleach ourselves white (though that's even happening among many already). Fact is, we're on a slippery slope to becoming rootless DRONES. Pathetic clones of distant lands. It is culturally debilitating and ultimately self-destructive to continually deny one's cultural wellspring on the altar of expediency. We need to study China. We cannot ''be like China'' if we do not do what China does, ie make their cultural ascendancy the very fulcrum of their development drive.

Not relevant.

ROSSIKE:

FL gators:

Sorry, but I'm not obliged to you in that way at all.
We don't actually need you to remind us of this, since the very topic shines light on the situation. (See article)
See article.

LOL!

The thought of a whole continent, and of almost all of a race, speaking one language is rather awful. Complete and utter limitation of expression, of style, and of perspective. Dante did, using Italian, what the Germans certainly could not have done at that time. Shakespeare did, using English, what the Russians certainly could not have done until the time of Alexandr Pushkin. I bring up these names because the original article mentioned Ngugi Wa Thiong'O, Soyinka, and Achebe. How do we know that we are not adopting the "Russian" of the African languages in adopting Kiswahili, i.e. a language less fit for literary and scientific achievement without major improvement and upgrading in style and quality of expression and range of vocabulary (as Pushkin did for Russian) when other languages whose influence and importance we might want Kiswahili to supersede by adopting it as the African Latin might currently be the "Italian," "French," and "English" of the African languages., i.e., already full of enormous range of expression or possessing admirable qualities of style or grace of expression and just waiting for a master to make something of them. We might have a situation where the  "French" of African languages, could be relegated to the status of a local language and made to stop growing, while something rather plain by comparison ("Russian" is taking its place in importance. Does anyone actually think that there are not attributes of French, German, Italian, etc. that are uniquely beautiful and which the continued speaking of Latin by those regions might have failed to bring out? The very fact that these languages steal (borrow) words from one another, especially stealing from the French language, should reveal that there are words and phrases and ideas which certain languages could be better suited at capturing and expressing than others or be better in developing than others.

It seems the real problem here is that we speak different "Latins"- English, French, Portuguese, and Arabic, and that they are all non-African, not that it actually makes sense to develop an African lingua franca, when Europeans moved away from that unideal stage and developed their unique languages for their own benefit and for the benefit of the wider European world.

Anyway what the people spouting this Kiswahili lingua franca stuff don't realize is that languages diverge for a reason. We're not all exactly the same. That's the plain truth. Within 100 years of adopting Kiswahili for communication between different Africans,  different African regions will begin bastardizing it based on their natural linguistic inclinations and blending their indigenous language's traits and words into their version of swahili, ultimately defeating the purpose, as the different Kiswahili's will gradually be unintelligible to one another, taking us right back to square one.

PhysicsQED:

The thought of a whole continent, and of almost all of a race, speaking one language is rather awful. Complete and utter limitation of expression, of style, and of perspective. Dante did, using Italian, what the Germans certainly could not have done at that time. Shakespeare did, using English, what the Russians certainly could not have done until the time of Alexandr Pushkin. I bring up these names because the original article mentioned Ngugi Wa Thing'O, Soyinka, and Achebe. How do we know that we are not adopting the "Russian" of the African languages in adopting Kiswahili, i.e. a language less fit for literary and scientific achievement without major improvement and upgrading in style and quality of expression and range of vocabulary (as Pushkin did for Russian) when other languages whose influence and importance we might want Kiswahili to supersede by adopting it as the African Latin might currently be the "Italian," "French," and "English" of the African languages., i.e., already full of enormous range of expression or possessing admirable qualities of style or grace of expression and just waiting for a master to make something of them. We might have a situation where the  "French" of African languages, could be relegated to the status of a local language and made to stop growing, while something rather plain by comparison ("Russian" is taking its place in importance. Does anyone actually think that there are not attributes of French, German, Italian, etc. that are uniquely beautiful and which the continued speaking of Latin by those regions might have failed to bring out? The very fact that these languages steal (borrow) words from one another, especially stealing from the French language, should reveal that there are words and phrases and ideas which certain languages could be better suited at capturing and expressing than others or be faster in developing than others.

It seems the real problem here is that we speak different "Latins"- English, French, Portuguese, and Arabic, and that they are all non-African, not that it actually makes sense to develop an African lingua franca, when Europeans moved away from that unideal stage and developed their unique languages for their own benefit and for the benefit of the wider European world.

Anyway what the people spouting this Kiswahili lingua franca stuff don't realize is that languages diverge for a reason. We're not all exactly the same. That's the plain truth. Within 100 years of adopting Kiswahili for communication between different Africans,  different African regions will begin bastardizing it based on their natural linguistic inclinations and blending their indigenous language's traits and words into their version of swahili, ultimately defeating the purpose, as the different Kiswahili's will gradually be unintelligible to one another, taking us right back to square one.

I owe you lunch!!!!

Ileke-Idi said:

We cannot continue to speak indefinitely the languages of Europe as our official tongues.

Funny, because you're asking other African countries to adopt a language foreign to them [as their official language]. . . .but yet you're complaining about African countries "renting" European lang?

There's foreign and there's foreign. Africans are not foreign to one another except the ''foreignness'' wrought by largely external impulses and dynamics. That would be an important side lesson that would issue from the adoption of the African lingua franca.

The Chinese did something similar many years ago. The country was filled with multitudes of different tongues and ethnicities, all competing and fighting, but the Chinese potentates, seeking to unify the nation for progress, just brought them all under the Standard Mandarin Chinese language and in consequence, they were able to achieve an amazing homogeneity that has seen them become an IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS of indigenous development that has the west quaking in their boots. Today, European leaders including Obama, run there to beg them for favours and even  money.

I doubt the same would have occurred if each region in China had adopted a European language as its official form of communication, do you?

How do you think those countries would feel?

No one is forcing nations to adopt an African lingua franca. This discussion is before the AU I believe, whose members are democratically elected by their respective nations to represent their interests. When and if the member states adopt the idea, it's done.

At some point there might be suggestions that we all bleach ourselves white (though that's even happening among many already). Fact is, we're on a slippery slope to becoming rootless DRONES. Pathetic clones of distant lands. It is culturally debilitating and ultimately self-destructive to continually deny one's cultural wellspring on the altar of expediency. We need to study China. We cannot ''be like China'' if we do not do what China does, ie make their cultural ascendancy the very fulcrum of their development drive.

Not relevant.

It is HIGHLY relevant. You cannot be like China if you do not THINK like China.

ROSSIKE:

Ileke-Idi said:

There's foreign and there's foreign. Africans are not foreign to one another except the ''foreignness'' wrought by largely external impulses and dynamics. That would be an important side lesson that would issue from the adoption of the African lingua franca.

The Chinese did something similar many years ago. The country was filled with multitudes of different tongues and ethnicities, all competing and fighting, but the Chinese potentates, seeking to unify the nation for progress, just brought them all under the Mandarin Chinese language and in consequence, they were able to achieve an amazing homogeneity that has seen them become an IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS of indigenous development that has the west quaking in their boots. Today, European leaders including Obama, run there to beg them for favours and even  money.

I doubt the same would have occurred if each region in China had a European language as its official form of communication, do you?


No one is forcing nations to adopt an African lingua franca. This discussion is before the AU I believe, whose members are democratically elected by their respectivbe nations to rtepresent their interests. When and if the member states adopt the idea, it's done.



It is HIGHLY relevant. You cannot be like China if you do not THINK like China.

Sometimes you've just got to give up an arguement that keeps running in the same shyyty circle.

Plz refer to physicQED's post to learn more.

I've read what he says. He seems to think that because ''Europe haven't done it'', we shouldn't.

But who doesn't know that ENGLISH is the ''unofficial'' lingua franca of Europe? There's hardly anywhere you'll go in Europe and not find English readily spoken, in all the places that matter - airports, shops, hotels, companies, restaurants, banks. It's certainly the language of trade across the continent.

The English achieved this largely through war and conquest - allied victory in WW2 paved the way for their cutural 'hegemony'.

But we don't need to fight a war in Africa to get what we want.

We sit around the table and say, 'Gentlemen, here's how we do this.'

Finish.

He then makes other unwarranted assumptions such as that indigenous languages will be subsumed unfairly, and not allowed to showcase their peculiar strengths etc -  a charge for which there's no evidence. If anything, the development will herald a BOON in the elevation of major languages like Yoruba, Ashanti, Hausa etc.

And he says in a hundred years' time every group would develop their own version of the African lingua franca, re-igniting old divisions.

Again there's little evidence to support this. English is still spoken officially in its original form by most Africans, over a century after the British brought it, with no sign of people ''imposing their dialect on it to turn it into a different language altogether''.

There is no reasons why Africans should not learn to speak 4 out 5 major languages those languages should

1. Swahili

2. Hausa

3. Yoruba

4. The fourth largest language, I know Yoruba is either d second or 3rd after Swahili. Whilst Swahili can be said to be spoken in about 10 countries, Yoruba & the influence of Lagos has made it a language if not spoken but understood by 80 to 100 million rivaling Hausa, I would not be suprise Yoruba is actually giving Hausa a run for it's money.

Many other tribes in Nigeria can speak Yoruba fluently, Igbo's , Beni's & Hausa's are versetile inthis language I contribute to the influence of Lagos.

Hausa on d other hand is 2nd language of the yorubas hence the reason why they share many words like "alaafia", wahala which might be borrowed from Arabic.

Africans always think that by bolting themselves at the hip they will solve all their problems, it's not. Nigeria adopting Swahili is really like Germany adopting Russian like somebody has already said. I used to say they should adopt the language, but that was when I thought of Nigeria joining together, not any more.

KnowAll:

Many other tribes in Nigeria can speak Yoruba fluently, Igbo's ,  Beni's & Hausa's are versetile inthis language I contribute to the influence of Lagos.

What are you talking about?