The importance of preserving & reviving African languages.

The subject of preserving African languages is something very close to my heart, especially as I consider myself to be a champion of African narratives, and an impassioned advocate when it comes to supporting the continent’s various heritages. And these heritages are certainly diverse – in terms of languages alone, the continent boasts over 2 000 different ones! This bears testimony to the rich cultural tapestry and history that is Africa.

However, more and more rapidly, we find that that many indigenous languages are being eroded away and being lost to the past. This is due to factors such as urbanization, lack of support of the languages (e.g. by the education system, media, national policies, the speakers of the languages themselves) and other socio-economic factors. African languages are becoming “extinct” at an alarming rate. In 2012, the United Nations Educational Cultural and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) made a disturbing prediction that the Igbo language (which, at the time, had a population of around 25 million speakers), will become extinct by 2025, unless something is done about it. And many other African languages, some with far less indigenous speakers, are suffering a similar fate at this very moment.