Africa should develop authentic continental African languages

AFRICA is the only continent on the earth where its problems are defined and discussed in foreign languages and perhaps this explains why the slogan "African solutions to African Problems" has remained out of reach. How can you solve an African problem in an unAfrican language? 

One of the reasons given by imperialists for their colonization of Africa was based on Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. That human beings evolved from apes and since Africans were still evolving, Europeans came to quicken the process of evolution and in this madly murderous political enterprise, the colonial masters deemed it fit to dismantle African cultural identity.

The entry point was to introduce a new language to the black man of Africa. Each colonial power forcefully pushed its mighty language down the throats of powerless Africans. So the British enforced their English, the French, and the Portuguese equally implanted theirs. The naive African man embraced it "wholesale," swallowed it and denounced his own language as "backward" and/or "primitive;" a language of "those who did not go to school" or "those who have not read."

Ridiculously, today some Africans compete among themselves regarding who speaks a European language better than the other! The saddest part of this madness is the fact that the African child is introduced to formal education in a totally strange language. There are even African parents who introduce European languages to their children as their mother tongue; children grow up not knowing their native languages!

Independent African leaders should have made radical steps to develop continental languages to drive the African agenda. In west Africa, for instance, Mandika or Fula or Yoruba or Hausa should have been a regional language for ECOWAS countries. In central, east and southern Africa, Swahili should have been promoted as a regional language for EAC, SADC and COMESA with the  North Africa embracing their Arabic. In this sense, the continent of Africa should have had about three authentic African languages at its disposal for use in the transaction of continental business. But if a blind man attended African Union's summit today, he would be forgiven to think that the meeting is being conducted by Europeans for Europeans. 

To this day, African countries remain divided into Euro-centric clubs with Euro-centric names reflecting their eternal attachment to their colonial masters. For example we have Francophone Africa for those colonized by France, Anglophone Africa for those colonized by Britain and Lusophone Africa for those colonized by the Portuguese!

Having continental African language(s) is important because it makes it easy for us to define our problems in our own languages and thus our capacity to solve these problems is enhanced. European languages, for a very long time, have alienated us from or own culture on our own continent.

It is not too late for Africa to redefine itself and chart a new pathway to greatness. Our institutions of higher learning working closely together with public policy makers should be at the forefront in this undertaking. The recent adoption of Swahili by SADC countries is a step in the right direction.