What Is the Future of African Languages?

When one month ago Prof. Ngugi made his acceptance speech in Gikuyu after being the 31st recipient of the Catalonia International Prize for his distinguished and courageous literary work and his defense of African Languages based on the notion of language as culture and collective memory”, people talked. People talked as they were wont to do. People talked because the good professor was not addressing a council of elders somewhere in Limuru but was addressing the government of Catalonia in Gikuyu. While a few people hailed him, many more others scoffed at him. And in the latter’s disapproval was an almost amusingly repressed disdain that had me thinking that there had never been a more illuminating moment about how little we regard our African Languages today. And it occurred to me that the Catalonian government knows something that we do not. That to allow people to express themselves in their own language is to give them dignity. Because really there is not a language that is the more important than another. Does context matter? Yes, indeed. Context matters. And so does intent. Perhaps that was Professor’s way of reiterating that there is no hierarchy as languages go as we have been made to believe. No language is classier than another. Every language matters. Every language is rich and beautiful. If you have been a Stan of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and a consumer of his work, you would agree with me that he has been consistent about the equality of languages. Besides, what really mattered in that context is that the addressed understood the message.

With the kind of attitude that Kenyans have towards African Languages, one cannot help feeling hopeless about the future of these languages. I hate to say that our languages are seemingly vulnerable to extinction. Notably, whereas colonialism brought us Education, it made us look down on everything that is African including but not limited to names, hair and language. Today, we’d rather express ourselves in English even in informal settings because we think that that would make us come across as more informed; more intelligent; more polished. We have relegated our languages so that English is our main medium of communication even in our households. We only speak in our languages when talking to our upcountry folks. Parents speak English and only English to their children right from when they begin to acquire language citing that they would be confused if exposed to different languages especially those that are raised in inter-ethnic settings. I would love to authoritatively state that the excuse is unfounded because research has shown that a child can learn up to five languages when growing up. That means that children growing up in inter-ethnic settings are in fact at the advantage of learning more languages. Our children learn Kiswahili in school as a school subject. Weep now, child! 

We do not honor and consume art created in our languages as much as we do the ones created in English. We make fun of people who cannot express themselves well in English, or yet, those that speak English with a heavy African accent. Arent our most popular jokes and comedians those that mock the mentioned categories of people? We gleefully take pride in our childrens inability to express themselves in our languages. Because that means that they are polished.

Make no mistake. English is undoubtedly a beautiful language. Among other things, it helps us to connect to the world. But it definitely should not be learnt solely and especially not at the expense of our equally beautiful African Languages. It is shameful that for a continent that boasts of approximately 2000 indigenous languages, we have chosen to limit ourselves to only one foreign language; English (speaking for Anglophone countries).

The essence of language isn’t merely communication. Language is a strong currency of identity. That which we cannot afford to trade for anything. It is through language that we connect to our roots. That we derive a sense of belonging. And in belonging there is dignity. There is confidence. There is pride. And dignity, confidence and pride matter. We need to consciously unlearn our biases. We need to decolonise our minds.

I wish our athletes would borrow a leaf from Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo. I would love to specially appeal to the G.O.A.T Eliud Kipchoge, a global icon, whom I deeply revere and admire to use his platform to popularize Kalenjin language. Igbo language, for example, is on my wish list and a few more others I hope, thanks to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies constant references to Igbo sayings in her speeches. If speaking in one’s language is still a preserve of the visible, the globally revered, then Kipchoge has attained that status. He’s among the few who can speak gibberish, pun intended, as in “What covfefe!” and the next thing we’ll hear is that the words have been accepted into scrabble. Or the dictionary. On a more serious note, I wish he would use that privilege to sell our languages to the world.  He should not worry about the audience. He will be translated.  We need to be proud of our languages. We need to own them. 

I hope we make better and wise choices for our children and the posterity while they still cannot stand up for themselves. I hope that like Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong’o we will dare say “…I have come back. I embrace my mother tongue. The prodigal son is back”