Language Barriers in Africa Contribute to Poverty

[Bintu]

No condition is permanent but I think that the condition in Africa seems almost impossible. There is nothing like a common culture. There is nothing like a common language and there is nothing like a common destiny and therefore unity which is the basis for development seems almost impossible to achieve in Africa. Consider countries like Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Congo, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroun, to mention but a few. All these countries are in Africa and are almost the same by nature in terms of natural resources, race and ethnicity yet there is nothing like Unity even within the various tribes in the various countries. Consider what is going on in Sudan, Darfur. Yet Darfur is within Sudan. Consider the tribal conflicts going on in Nigeria. Nigeria as a country has over 250 different ethnic groups with different languages and different cultures altogether even though they are within the same country. Every state wants to be in power and hence there is nothing like a peaceful election in Nigeria. Ghana is an anglophone country with English as the official Language. Ghana share borders with Burkina-Faso, Togo and Ivory-Coast. However, these neigboring countries do not speak English and hence hindering easy communication and transfers. Togo for example is very close to Ghana. Infact, most of the EWE people living in Togo are Ghanaians but the problem here is that, the people living in Togolese speak french while Ghanaians speak English making them two separate people on the same land even though they are the same by nature. All the Ewe people lived in Gold Coast and were Ghanaians until the colonial partition of the continent that further divided the people into different countries with different colonial masters speaking different languages from different cultures. The United States of America for example is made up of over 50 different states yet America remains United why because there is one major language which is the English Language and about 80% of the people living in America speak English Language as their native or as a second language which facilitates easy communication and easy transfer of information. Americans understand one another because they speak the same language making it easy to understand one another. However, this is not the case in Africa making it difficult to communicate with one another even within the various countries.