SUSTAINING AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

摘要

Language plays an indispensable role in the lives of people in a society. It embodies the cultures, traditions, and world views of a people. A major underpinning of their identity without which they risk going extinct. However, the meteoric advancements in science and technology have sent the world spinning on the carousel ponies of globalization. Gradually, globalization circumscribes the divergent poles of a diverse world within a space known as the global village. This has birthed a quest for a common language that will be the base of encounters among these diverse nations in the global village. This will disenfranchise many indigenous languages, which will atrophy due to lack of use or get submerged in the doldrums of anonymity; dragged along by the forces of globalization. Even with the multifariousness of African languages, it is still worrisome, if they cannot withstand the whirlwind of globalization sweeping through the globe; having already had her languages brutally bruised by colonialism, which contaminated and threatened to shove them into extinction. Yet, it will be preposterous, given the great benefits of globalization, which have opened the frontiers of progress for the nations of the world, for Africa to excommunicate herself in the global village. How then can Africa sustain and preserve her unique identity - language - in the global village, while still actively involved in the affairs of the village? The method used in this research is qualitative research design and leveraged descriptive analysis. It is the writers submission that in order to preserve african indigenous languages, africans need to employ education in indigenous langyages, develop african languages further, document African indigenous languages for future generations and reference as well as embrace good governance that can propel these.