1. Power of Babel Ch 5 Language in a Multicultural Context: The African Experience

2. Widespread languages in Africa Arabic (helped by Islam) Hausa & Kiswahili (most widespread indigenous languages, hindered by Islam) English, French & Portuguese have largest influence More languages per capita than any other continent; Africa has 1/10 of world population, but 1/4 of its languages

3. Africa’s triple linguistic heritage: Indigenous African languages Islamic tradition Western contribution

4. Typology of languages in Africa: Afro-ethnic: indigenous languages, between 800 and 2000 of them Afro-Islamic: Arabic (over 60% of Arabic speakers are African); E Africa: Swahili, Somali, Nubi; W Africa: Hausa, Fulfulde, Mandinka Afro-Western: Kriyol, Pidgin, Krio (Sierra Leone), Fanagalo, Afrikaans Western: English, French, Portuguese -- sometimes these can be nativized

5. Writing Colonial efforts to provide Roman script have helped preserve Afro-ethnic languages Amharic has an ancient written tradition Some indigenous scripts were invented -- Bamoun (logographic > syllabographic > alphabetic) in Cameroon & Vai (logographic > syllabographic) in Sierra Leone

6. Writing, cont’d. Afro-Islamic: Arabic has ancient written tradition - these languages were written using Arabic script, but now most Afro- Islamic languages use Roman script Afro-Western: Afrikaans uses Roman script, but most other Afro-Western languages lack a standard orthography

7. Poetry Amharic, a descendant of Ge’ez, has ancient tradition dating from BCE Afro-ethnic languages tend to have oral tradition instead Afro-Islamic languages have major religious poetry tradition that is both oral and written Afro-Western languages have very little in the way of literary tradition

8. Geographical distribution Western languages have widest geographical spread in Africa Arabic has more speakers than any other language in Africa English is expanding the most Over 20 African countries use French as their main language

10. Geographical distribution, cont’d. Afro-Western languages tend to be national and trans-national Afro-Ethnic languages are usually subnational Afro-Islamic languages are virtually all national or transnational

11. Transnational languages Kiswahili -- transnational lingua franca of E and Central Africa and national language of Tanzania and Kenya; for most of its speakers, it is a 2nd or 3rd language 5 top lingua francas in terms of number of speakers: Arabic, Kiswahili, Hausa, Fulfulde, Mandinka

12. Demographic distribution English & French are limited to urban educated population Afro-ethnic languages tend to be rural & associated with lower classes Afro-Islamic languages tend to be urban, with rural varieties, and based on urban masses (not elite), and they facilitate migration from rural to urban areas Afro-Western languages also associated with the urban masses, except Afrikaans, which is elitist

13. English as an African language English is spoken by more Africans than French Liberia is home of the first Afro-Saxonism, since 1820s the home of African-American returnees British colonized Nigeria, largest African country, with 25% of black population of all of Africa

14. Categorization of countries in relation to English A: English is the language of society & state: Liberia (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana) B: English is the language of state, but not of society: Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and some 15 other African countries

15. Categorization of countries in relation to English, cont’d. C: English is the language of neither state nor society, but people need English: Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Angola, Egypt, Cameroon, Congo (Japan, Mexico) D: Societies that rely mainly on a world language other than English for their specialized activities: Francophone African countries

16. Three uses of languages: Vernacular: intra-ethnic communication and solidarity: Afro-ethnic languages Vehicular: inter-ethnic communication and integration: Afro-Islamic & Afro-Western languages Official: administration and national communication: Western languages

17. More about Western languages Western languages are beginning to trickle down from upper classes Tanzania is replacing English with Kiswahili, and the two languages compete in Kenya Arabic is being challenged by French Afro-ethnic languages have demonstrated resilience and held their ground. Africans tend to be multilingual

18. Foreign Relations vs. Religions Language has been a greater determinant of foreign policy than religion because: –Policy is made by elite, with Western languages –Western languages are more useful for learning foreign affairs than religions –Education of elite in West does not depend on religion –African nations are grouped by Western language heritage, not by religion