Should Afrika and Afrikan people have one language?

[Obadele Kwame Kambon]

Mfe¢ pii atwitwa mu afiri ber¢ a Abibifo¡ a ¢w¡ Abibirem b¡¡ w¡n tirim s¢ KiSwahili b¢tumi ay¢ kasa a Abibifo¡ nyinaa aka a ¢w¡ Abibiman mu. Afei nso, AU ak¡paa KiSwahili s¢ Abibifo¡ amanaman nyinaa kasa a ¢b¢tumi atra ahye¢ no nyinaa a aban biara de b¢y¢ w¡n nnwuma. Eyi nkamfua, ebinom nso se kasa k¢se¢ sei na ¢s¢es¢e kunkum kasa ketewa a ¢w¡ Abibiman mu. De¢ ¢y¢ awer¢ho¡ pa ara ne s¢ saa kasa a y¢reka ho ns¢m reyera da biara. Saa kasa wuwu nso a, na nyansa a ¢w¡ mu no nyinaa ase nso t¡re pr¢ko. Enti ¢y¢ mo s¢ Abibiman hia kasap¡n baako a y¢de b¢di y¢n nnwuma anaas¢ y¢hia kasa ahodo¡ bebree a ¢w¡ Abibiman seesei ara?

Many years have passed since Afrikans in Afrika decided that KiSwahili could be the language that all Afrikans speak in Afrika. Now, the AU has chosen KiSwahili as Afrikans' international language that can cross all borders that all governments will use for official business. Nevertheless, some also say that big languages like these destroy and kill smaller languages in Afrika. The most disturbing thing is that languages such as these that we are speaking of are being lost every day. When such languages die, the wisdom inside those languages also becomes extinct at the same moment. Therefore, do y'all thing that Afrika needs a big language that we can use to do our work or do we need the many languages that are in Afrika right now?

Æbádélé Kwame

[qadir a.k.a. JudahKing]

Empahtically Yes. Afrikans must have a unifying language, for history has taught us that language is one of the main cohesions of any society, next to nationality or geographical residence. Having an official Pan Afrikan Language will only aid us in strengthening a Pan Afrikan United Front. I don't think that having an official Pan Afrikan language will be the demise of less spoken Afrikan languages. Languages are lost only when the people lose them; meaning, as long as the people have the desire and ferver to keep certain aspects of culture alive, they will not deminish. It is only when the people begin to lose respect for their culture and themselves as Afrikans do we see the fading of the Afrikan identity. There are many Afrikans, Asians, and Europeans who speak several languages; not giving up their ancestral language to learn a new one, but simply adding new ones to there storehouse of knowledge. Pamoja tutashinda bila shaka. We can accomplish what we will. Kiswahili for Afrikans, at home and abroad.

[Obadele Kwame Kambon]

Excellent perspective. Have you seen UNESCO's Endangered Afrikan Language Map.

Visit http://portal.unesco.org/ci/maps/babel/output/african_endangered_la... for more info.

I think that a common language would also be helpful for Afrikan Liberation, however there are already languages that are dying out and taking with them knowledge of herbs, astronomy, governance, educational systems etc in favor of large languages that offer the opportunity to communicate on the large scale, but offer little in terms of geographically and culturally specific information found in these smaller languages. There's a book that's pretty good on the subject called vanishing voices. Stay BlackNificent and Welcome to the discussion!

Obadele

[Obadele Kwame Kambon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_African_Union

Kiswahili was actually chosen as a working language in 2001, but little has been done on practical terms to implement it...

I think that part of the movement towards one language, if that happens will be less of an imposition of one, but more of an organic process of Afrikans in the process of reAfrikanizing and using that which is useful for Afrikan liberation from various sources. But to do that, one must master the individual languages...both the big and the small.

Obadele

[Bandile Abathwa]

Yes there is a need for one Afrikan language for Afrikans to be able to communicate globally. The interconnectedness of most Afrikan languages can be used as a unifying factor without taking away from any language. An example is the word for a person (umuntu) in my native tongue. So many Afrikan languages use a similar if not same word for the same thing.

[Talib Muhammad]

Yes brother we should speak more than one language! I feel if the Black man and woman are the makers, owners and cream of the planet earth, we should be able to master more than one language! If we are to elevate our struggle on a global level, it's only fitting that we be able to properly communicate with other Black people throughout the diaspora.

A LUTA CONTINUA

[Kala Mujibha]

I agree with most of the points on this topic in that; yes, it would be good to have one Afrikan language that everyone spoke, however, yes, that is not the only language we can all learn. We need to be multi-lingual right about now, for our collective survival.

Of those who agree with having one common Afrikan language- should KiSwahili be it?

Thanks for the discussion!

[Abenaa/ Taundra]

We can not afford to loose any more wisdom than we have already lost; and at the same time ,we do need form a communication separate from white America in which to communicate that is inclusive of all Afrikaans people.
Maybe the Elders and Spiritual leaders could continue the use; as well as, pass down the languages currently in use now ,to the future spiritual leaders to keep the wisdom alive to be found in those languages. There could also be a chosen language for Afrikaans to use as a whole; thereby create unity among us.

[Haki]

Uhuru,

This is quite informative dailogue. Interestingly, I peeped out something the pigs are doing. Recently at a Community meeting with some pigs and older black women that normally make up these Community Associations and Block Offices one Police Officer spoke of how "Crips and Bloods" are using Kiswahili. I do know that part of this is true though the Holice have a way of instilling fear in many of the elder blacks, particularly black women. I questioned the police officer to elaborate i.e. where he discovered that folk were speaking Swahili. I thought to myself this was a Military Tactic. It made me realize the Power of Language. I mentioned this to Mulaunga Karenga one time he was in town, I do not know how much he is interested in Liberating black people instead of just speaking at Negro Schools every December.
Anyway, I also had a dailogue with an Economics brother that downplayed the role of langauge in favor of Cooperative Economics as if we can not do both.
Now black folk are taught that we need to learn Spanish as well. Jobs are being given preference for knowing Spanish. Along with the Amero Dollar strategy and the plan to create a North American Union. I'm going to have to push back on this learning the Spanish Langauge. We need to have some serious dailogue on this. These cultural invasions in an already destroyed black community will not subside.
I know before there was a dailogue on Swahili, though many persons that pushed this during the 70's like Haki Madhubuti never speaks about this now. At least to my listening to him about 3 months ago on Youtube. Maybe he does though It seems as though we have little options. English is a Racist Language filled with all type of Hate filled words towards Afrikan people, so we need to begin to reject this. So when you have Negro's say we should speak "Proper english" is that a good thing. Shouldn't we be trying to destroy english. I do also have a question. What significance does teaching first French have on Black Children? Next Arabic? I ask these questions, My Queen and I had these questions an "Independent Black School in Chicago" I've seen and been told is teaching French and Arabic. Why are these important unless we lived in societies where this is the major means of Communications? I do know. I think French are Crakkka's too. Ronuoko Rashidi, Bro AK you might can answer this in a recent lecture in D.C. where I saw Bro Rashidi he said that either the French or Spanish were the most vicious in their colonialization of Afrika. I can not see why an Afrikan Centered School would learn French then publicly have his child recite this in front of Afrikan people. This brother means well. I mean no disrespect, we all have to have our criticisms and self criticisms? So why do week need to learn french. We do not need to have ten thousand langauges especially no predominately CRAKKKA langauge like French. Arabic well maybe that is more like now Afrika is right now still largely Islamic.