₦airaland Forum

Fulaman198: :-D Sybellah my dear you are back lol. I'm sorry your country was put out in the open like that. I get this impression because I feel that Cote D'Ivoire places a huge emphasis on French over their local/regional languages.

How do you measure some “ countries’ africaness” only based on their official language? I am sincerely puzzled. Have you consider determinant factors that may lead a country to select such and such as their language: demography, cultural homogeneity and history for example. In Senegal for example Wolof people represents more than 40% of the population, they used to have an empire that reigned and dominated (for centuries) some surrounding ethnicities, with these ethnic groups having Wolof as their second language even before colonization. Using Wolof as the official language in Senegal was an easier transition I would say. Same could be said on Ghana (Ashanti empire) , Mali, Burkina (Mossi empire), Benin (Dahomey/Fon empire). Cote d’Ivoire was different as many ethnic groups started only interacted with each other during and after colonization. Before that, no groups’ influence was big enough to cover I ll say a ¼ of the territory. So why would a language that is not even understood by more than ¾ of the people be chosen as official? During colonization, french was used by Africans of different backgrounds to communicate with each others, so it made more sense to choose it as the official language.

If you want to compare, pick up on countries that are more culturally diverse (Nigeria, Cameroun, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon…) although their official language na be western, this does in no way make them “western wannabees”. Majority of people from these countries use western language for administrative purposes but speak their own languages with their relatives and others.

Last but not least, Abidjan does not represent the whole “Cote d’Ivoire”. Many people from Abidjan speak French (90% + possibly, this doesn’t mean that they don’t understand their own) but that does not apply to the remaining cities. Dioula( Taboussikan) and Baoule remain the most widely spoken languages in the whole country.

MamiWata: You probably feel that way because you are Nigerian and your love of Nigeria saddens you into feeling that they have lost the most. However the race to the bottom of this barrel is something all African countries engage in. For example Cote D'Ivoire and Senegal provide Nigeria with very stiff competition.

Fulaman198: I agree with you about Cote D'Ivoire but not necessarily Senegal. Senegal still has their Laamb wrestling which has taken off. They play much more traditional music than Nigeria does. They speak their languages like Wolof, Fulfulde(Pular Fulani language), and Serer better than French. Nigerians take pride in speaking European languages more so than their own languages. Senegalese don't have such inferiority complex.

Now what the hell? where do u get this assumption from?