Evaluating the Concept and Value of Language Policies in Some African Countries

Abstract

Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world. Although Africa is highly rich with many languages, only a handful of these languages are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. These languages are also used within the African region and spoken by tens of millions of people. In recent times, the call for a much greater emphasis on the cultural and linguistic dimension in all aspects of development, especially the use of our native languages, has become increasingly vocal. This has made African countries aware of the value of their linguistic inheritance. This paper, descriptive in nature, evaluates the concept and value of language policies in some African countries. The paper also makes some suggestions for consideration regarding the positions of local languages as official and/or national languages of the language policies, the language of instruction in schools, media and popular culture.