FATE OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES

Two common crude jokes in this country go like, "why buy a cow when you can get milk freely" and "why hire a lawyer when you can buy a judge". Perhaps a third one may go like "why buy gold nuggets when you can get the gold mine freely"! These jokes, as crude as they may sound, seem to describe why foreigners have such a contempt for African languages with no need or interest to learn them. On the other hand,  all over the world people are falling over themselves trying to get a piece of the main Chinese language, Mandarin. Why is it so and not Swahili which is probably understood by about 100 million people?
Perhaps, the major reason for the neglect of African languages could be the stigma that the colonialists bequeathed on them as the languages for the uncultured, heathen, uneducated and the subjugated. The colonialists denigrated our languages so as to make us subservient and continue with their subjugation as they took control over our minds. They ensured that our languages were never promoted in schools and the medium of instruction was left only to their own languages. They made sure that Swahili and mother tongues were not promoted in school by not encouraging the publication of such books during their rule. This has continued even after independence such that any communication in schools in mother tongue is usually met with quick and severe punishment for the offender. The stigma still lingers on such that even in the comfort of our homes we communicate in the colonialist language, perhaps, for fear that our neighbour could overhear and report us to the authorities! It even gets worse such that we describe our children as "clever" when they are able to communicate in flawless English. We even volunteer to become interpreters for our little ones when they visit their grandparents in the rural areas, never mind we don't get anyone to pay us for the service rendered! Therefore, if we continue to encourage the growth of the colonialist language so many years after independence what incentive or need is there for them to waste time to learn our mother tongue when we can engage them flawlessly in their language?
The best thing we could have done at the time of independence so as to encourage growth and preservation of our local languages was to introduce an education curriculum that could be done in them. This means that instruction materials such as books were to be developed for all subjects starting right from those for the kindergarten through university. We missed that chance but it's never too late to mend. in line with this, I think it's absurd for some people to say that Africans don't read when there is no capacity or incentive to do so. How is one expected to enjoy reading something that he has difficulties understanding unless of course it's an exam that guarantees extra shillings after passing. Is it any wonder that we find maths and sciences difficult to follow which has now led to our continent being a scientific and technological desert? On the other hand, when you look at Europe, USA, China, Brazil, Russia, Korea, Japan, Israel, Iran, etc. they are moving in leaps and bounds in those areas because their medium of instruction is their mother tongue. This is the missing link for Africa and this is the time to reinvent ourselves and start publishing instruction books in mother tongues so that learners can follow easily and leisurely. Unless we create a need and incentive to learn and study African languages where people can progress in their careers and other pursuits, I am afraid that they will have to die. That's the tragedy!
Unlike the Chinese, every piece of communication in Africa including switch gears and monitors are manufactured from outside. The installation and commissioning for such sensitive equipment is left to the foreigners. Therefore, what would prevent them from eavesdropping on our secret conversations from the comfort of their offices, within their countries, even without employing the services of Wikileaks! On the other hand, the agile and brilliant Chinese, manufacture and write programs for their secret equipment themselves which makes spying on them difficult and therefore the need to learn their language by foreigners.
Finally, I think there is scope to promote and preserve African languages in our education system if we develop a new curriculum which solely uses mother tongues as medium for instruction. Unless we do so, I think it would be impossible to develop our science and technology to the necessary level to achieve industrialisation, as envisaged in Vision 2030, if we have to continue with the foreign languages. If for nothing else, Our mother tongues may help us pass important messages to each other and save our lives during times of war! Let's go for this one, Africa!