Consider the following- Africa is very large and insanely diverse continent. There was hundreds if not thousands of languages spoken in Africa. In some nations like South Sudan there are around 60 official languages in the country and many more unofficial ones not recognized by the government. Linguistic specialist have estimated that there is only a ten percent chance that Africans from even the same country will speak the same first language as each other. This has hindered trade among African nations and has slowed efforts by Pan-African activist and the African Union to join the continent into one political entity. Some have argued that the linguistic legacy of colonialism has helped Africans to communicate better. Much of Africans professional class speaks a European languages like Africans, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Arabic. This gives them a common link of language and culture that transcends African ethnic identities. Many conflicts in Africa come from ethnic diversions many of them were in fact caused by colonialism and its divide and conqueror tactics used by the colonialist. So it is a double edge sword. Colonialism also destroyed the cultural identity of many Africans in the name of progress. But in the end many of these European languages are simply used as lingua francas for business and education but original tribal languages are spoken at home. And the African Union has already brought stability to many trouble spots in Africa and has brought more security and unity to the continent then any other organization else. Language and cultural identity is a problem most nations have face since the beginning of time. But in this increasing globalized word languages are beginning to fall out of use so in the future cultural identities will become alot more fluid and seemingly uniform.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 00:25:45 +0000
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