Keynote Address at the Second Congress of NATOG in 1994

Abstract

Keynote Address At The Second Congress Of NATOG
By Professor Segun Odunuga, Dept. Of Modern European Languages,
University Of Ibadan, Nigeria, April 1994.

Language is one of the creations of the human society and it has its origin
in a particular community after which it is inamed Once in existence not
even the "owners" can restrict its use to themselves because it becomes a
property available to otliers in the attempt to facilitate communication
between them, the owners and those whose convenience the language
serves in conducting affairs of importance to them.

The partition of Africa in the 19th century by European powers gave little
regard to ethnic cohesion and linguistic affinity in that the primary aim of
the colonial administration was to make the language of the metropolis the
language of social intercourse between the various ethnic groups while at
the same time grooming an elite that was to serve its interests It was,
therefore, a deliberate policy of the European powers to promote their
languages in territories under their control and relegate to the background
local languages to the extent that at the end of colonial rule these European
languages remained official languages regardless of the percentage of the
population that speaks them.

Black Africa is today referred to broadly as English-speaking, French-
speaking or Portuguese-speaking. The role these languages have had to
play by accident of history in bringing formal westornized education to
Africa enhanced their positions and na the artificial boundaries became
national borders ethnio groups on both sides drifted further apart and
viewed themselves as belonging to different nations. The European
languages in question becane tho medium of expressing nationalism and
Conducting foreign policy. In 1961, a specialists meeting recommended
that a second European languago ". should be considered not only as a
means of communication between English-speaking and French-speaking
countries in Africa, but also as an international language with a wider
purpose which, jointly with the first language, would enable Africa to
communicate with other countries of the world."