Language is a means of communication all over the world. No continent, nation or city doesn’t use a language. Its importance in any society cannot be overlooked. It has been the means of communication among human civilisations for millennia. According to the Linguistic Society of America, 7,000 languages are spoken throughout the world and Africa alone, with a population of 1.2 billion, speaks about 2,000 of them, which is almost one-third. As a melting pot of diverse cultures and ethnicities, finding about 2,000 languages on the African continent is not strange. But how has it impacted Africa’s development? Is it a hurdle to development or an asset that wields a lot of opportunities?
There are schools of thought that argue that Africa is underdeveloped because the continent hosts so many cultures and languages. But is that the case? Nigeria, for example, speaks about 500 languages out of the 2,000 that can be found on the linguistically diverse African continent. On the contrary, a country like the People’s Republic of China, with a population of 1.4 billion, speaks just 302 variants of virtually the same language – Chinese – with about 1.1 billion of them speaking only one variant – Mandarin. China has leapfrogged economically and technologically, perhaps, because it can disseminate information in one language to every citizen at every time, irrespective of their status, education and economic circumstances, to rally the whole country behind the policies and programmes of the communist government. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, China was one of the countries that were able to quickly bring the situation under control, largely because information could easily be spread to the entire country through one language without the burden of multiple translations in different languages. According to the World Atlas, some least linguistically diverse cities in the world such as Vatican City, Saint Helena, Montenegro and Bermuda, are also among those with high GDPs. On the other hand, it is thought that societies with diverse languages struggle with forging unity and togetherness to realise a common vision, objective and goal. Language differences, alone, have been the cause of wars in some African countries. In 1994, for example, such difference between the Tutsis and Hutus mixed with political tensions, led to the Rwandan Genocide in which almost one million Tutsis, moderate Hutus and Twa, were annihilated by armed Hutu rebels in an ethnic cleansing that shocked the whole world. The savagery and slaughter witnessed within just about 100 days (From 7 April to 15 July) was harrowing. It was all because they spoke different languages. Apart from the cost of human lives, so much damage was done to Rwanda’s national infrastructure in that civil war. These, of course, stagnated the country and set it back, in terms of development, several decades behind. Instead of Rwandans seeing themselves as one people at that time, their tribal and ethnic affiliations wouldn’t let them. They were either Tutsi or Hutu before Rwandan. This strong attachment and affiliation to people who speak one’s language plays out in most African countries. One may regard himself first as Igbo or Yoruba before Nigerian; Luo or Kikuyu before Kenyan; Asante or Ewe before Ghanaian, etc. And these language divisions play out on the national political stage where people of a particular language group either always support or vote against a certain political party or the other. It also plays a major role in political appointments, thus, fuelling nepotism, mediocrity, underdevelopment, needless hatred, tension, strife and, as epitomised by the Rwandan Genocide, sometimes war. Is it a coincidence that the less linguistically diverse a society (country, nation or city) is, the more developed it is and vice-versa? The US, UK, Russia, Japan, Iceland, South Korea, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Thailand, Hungary, Turkey, Germany, etc., are all predominantly monolingual with some of them having some minority ethnic groups who still hold on to and prefer their lingual heritage to the hegemonic one. They are not poor countries. On the converse, most poor countries are naturally linguistically diverse. Correlation may not necessarily be causation but the respective proportional and inverse relationships between homo-linguistic and hetero-linguistic societies in terms of development, cannot be overlooked either. Although a lot of varying factors may be at play, the striking relationships are very curious.
Perhaps, the biblical story of Babel in Genesis 11: 1-9, can drive home the point better about the importance of homogeneity – linguistically speaking. In that story, God broke the front of a united and determined people by confusing them with different languages. Suddenly they spoke different in different tongues and could not understand each other. Through that, their sense of unity, oneness, togetherness, sense of purpose and focus was shattered. Confusion became the order and everything they had built together during their days of linguistic homogeneity became waste. Verses 6 to 8 state: “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So, the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth ….” The confusion of languages at Babel hindered mankind’s ability to combine their intellectual and physical powers. Yet, their new languages, like the first language, were complex. Within a few centuries, men built bustling cities, assembled powerful armies, and engaged in international trade. Could they have made such progress without the use of an extensive vocabulary and grammar? This ancient biblical story, therefore, suggests how a nation could grow faster with one language since it would have one mind to agree and develop.
Having so many languages within one society, city or country is a beautiful thing. It has its positives. For instance, it teaches people how to be tolerant of each other. It gives people a challenge to learn a new language and culture. It is also a way of preserving the cultures of different groups of people. Furthermore, it makes it easier for any group that loses their endangered language to easily adapt and integrate into a society with many language options. But it has its socio-economic downsides. It drains the national kitty since a lot of money, time and effort have to be sunk into the translation, interpretation and production of so many documents into several languages which could have been done in just one. But while it may be convenient to have one language spoken in a particular society for progress and national development, there is the danger of that language becoming endangered and eventually dying off without a trace. And since language is the major vehicle of a people’s culture, a people deprived of their language is also deprived of its culture. In Ghana, for instance, so many languages have been endangered because attention and resources have not been invested in them languages.
Linguistic diversity in any society can be a blessing because it brings together the strengths of many cultures, which can lead to great creativity and prosperity, but it still depends on what the nation chooses to do with this gift. It is said that language is culture and culture is civilisation. This, therefore, means that Africa, with its language diversity, is enriched with different cultures and ideas and this natural gift cannot be overlooked when ranked with other continents of low language diversity. Additionally, linguistic diversity has an advantage for a country’s national security setting in this current age of technology hacking. It is becoming more necessary for security or defence personnel to be able to effectively interact with diverse people in the world. Linguistic diversity, thus, adds a layer of security to Africa’s security infrastructure.
It is, therefore, clear from the arguments made on either side that every society (country) can reach its maximum potential whether linguistically developed or not, if only the right policies, resources, facilities, proper implementation strategies, monitoring schemes and the right mind-sets are provided to make their homo-lingual or hetero-lingual circumstance work in their favour while minimising the downsides.
Very Intresting and beautiful piece. The languages are a blessing, it’s part of our rich culture and heritage. It makes us who we are.