The colonial construction of monolingualism and its impact on the development of African languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1519-5392.2025v25n1p54-76Keywords:
Colonial Construction, Monolingualism, African LanguagesAbstract
African countries exhibit a vast linguistic diversity, making it common for Africans to speak two or three languages from their country. During the colonial period, European languages were established as official languages; African languages, in turn, came to have a hierarchically inferior status compared to European languages. Considering this situationit, this work aims to analyze the ideological construction of a monolingual society imposed by Europeans during the colonial period in Africa and its impact on African languages. Based on data obtained from written materials on the subject, we found that the colonial construction of monolingualism had and continues to impact the development of African languages. After the independence of African countries, the colonial language policy was maintained, with European-origin languages continuing to be used as official languages. African languages came to be seen as an obstacle to the unity of peoples and the development of nations.
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