How Relevant are African Languages to the World? -By Nneka Okumazie

The worth of any language is also the amount of original knowledge in that language that is of importance and great interest to others, requiring them to seek translations from that language. Communication is an important use of language, but basic in terms of what a language is worth.

English was not worth as much as it is now, centuries ago, when knowledge was spread across many other languages, mostly European. Those who spoke English sought translations to English, others had to learn those languages to access the knowledge in them.

There are many countries in the world where all the education their citizens get is available in their own language. This can be categorized as inputs. Many of those countries many not be producing enough knowledge locally that would require a lot of interest in seeking out what is in their language.

A language with a rising profile in recent years seems to be Mandarin, where their people just don’t learn in it, but are able to produce enough knowledge in it, which outsiders seek for various reasons. Trade can also make a language to be worth much, as well as dynamic population and territories.

Some countries in Africa have been able to achieve education in their own languages, but produce little if anything in it that is relevant enough for the outside world to seek. Other countries in Africa learn in and produce stuff in their colonial languages, making their own languages relevant for nothing other than local communication, where alternatives are abundant.

Aside from widely available digital translation, reducing efforts to find what might be in a language, African languages may not have much value since there is not much within them that others want.

There are those who often insist on their language, or try to make their children learn, at home or abroad, or speak the language to themselves to prevent a non-speaker in a group from understanding, all these are limited forms of importance, in what excellence would have made for African languages.

Some countries in Africa who speak French, Portuguese or the only Spanish speaking country may have tethered to a sunken ship, at least in terms of languages. Those languages are no longer center for the pace of knowledge. Producing less than relevant knowledge in less than relevant languages, as Africans, may already be a 2-way fuel leakage even before taking off.

Africa should have a lot of hope in many things, but the people of Africa seem to be concerned about things that change nothing. African culture, languages, traditions, communities and things that are African should be immensely valuable, but the sorry-rate work, low attitude, and very useless achievement like building a house or buying a car, makes many things in Africa appear totally insignificant, to others, including themselves, as a collective.