Languages and Cultural Identities in Africa

Abstract

This article departs from the very foundation of the existence of languages in order to examine their importance in the formation of African cultural identities as well as their role in the development and consolidation of these identities. Languages are the pillar and primary driver of African culture, marked as it is by orality. Orality is fundamentally profound, contributing morally and spiritually to the enrichment of the African individual. Furthermore, for African people, orality promotes self‐fulfilment as well as illuminating their vision of the world. This is why African languages have endured and continue to endure in spite of centuries of domination, from the slave trade to cultural neocolonialism, including colonization. Today, they must be redeployed through the structures put in place in Africa, without retreating into a logic of paralysis. Also, despite being a basis for African cultural identity and local development, should African languages seek mutual enrichment through contact with other cultures and identities? As the musician Manu Dibango says, ‘You cannot paint white on white, or black on black; each needs the other to define itself.’

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