The Power of Babel

1
The Power of Babel

• Introduction Africas Linguistic Legacy Between
  
• Expansionism Nationalism

2
Africas vulnerabilities

• They did not have a culture of territorial
  expansionism
• They were not linguistically nationalist
• They had cultures of oral tradition, not cultures
  of numeracy, precise measures, and technology

3
The borders that came with colonialism

• Were artificial
• Could not follow any cultural borders, since
  there were no such borders there in the first
  place
• Did not result in border clashes most conflict
  is internal, civil wars

4
Linguistic frontiers and national boundaries

• Weak nationalism made Africa vulnerable to
  Euro-linguistic penetration
• The national boundaries of most African states
  lack the underpinning of any national linguistic
  identity
• Most sub-Saharan countries are multilingual
• Africans are often nationalistic about race,
  land, or tribe, but not about language

5
Linguistic frontiers and national boundaries,
contd.

• Sub-Saharan cultures are traditionally oral, with
  no sacred scripture
• Nationalism is motivated more as a quest for
  racial dignity than to protect languages
• African countries are often thought of as
  Francophone or English-speaking, but very few
  people speak the imperial languages
• Educational systems promote European languages
  and often ignore the indigenous languages

6
Language in the public arena

• Business legislation are entirely in the
  imperial languages and in most countries speeches
  to the nation are given in a European language
• African politicians make know many languages, but
  MUST know the relevant European language in order
  to serve in government
• Sub-Saharan constitutions are written in European
  languages and unintelligible to most of their
  populations