ENGLISH IN AFRICA

We must change our attitudes… our minds we must realized that from now on we are no more a colonial but are free and independent people…

The African sun set on the Union Jack but not on the English language. Africa needs a link language even more than India and English, or Creole English, provides it.

This is paramount chief Anlaf the II. Just in his tiny chiefdom there are six languages spoken. Africa itself has over a 1000 languages.

Most people talk Time and the others talk Susu, but we have some minority tribes like Lokos, we have Limbas as well. We have the Pulaas and the Madingos are here.

The African nations with hundreds of languages need a lingua franca and sixteen countries have retained English since de-colonization. English Creoles are spreading rapidly throughout the markers and bazaars of West Africa. Perhaps as many as 200 million people now speak them.

And Standard English is taught in Africa’s schools. For these children good English spelling and grammar will be vital for a career in law, medicine or government. As president of Sierra Leone, Siaka Stevens welcomes the role of Standard English in Africa’s future: Once the people chart their own course and they know what they are about, they realized as they do here, that the purpose of education is not to rid yourself of your own culture but to get as much as you can from outside, mix it with your own, and get something solid. If you want to earn your daily bread, the best thing to do is to learn English. That is the source from which most of the jobs come