I really enjoyed the presentation about African languages and the struggles that the people of Africa deal with every day. We learned that many countries in Africa have an official language of French but most only speak their native languages; which in Cameroon can be 24 major African languages.
The speaker we listened to is from Senegal, Africa and explained to us that he has a really hard time getting his children to speak any language other than Wolof. The official/national language in Senegal is French and to be considered "successful" (in the business world at least) it is important to be able to speak French and/or English. Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, and Mandinka are the other languages spoken in Senegal and the speaker said that most people on the streets in his town speak Wolof.
It was really interesting to hear about different cultures and the many languages that are spoken in Africa (more than 2500!) It is upsetting to hear that so many Africans are struggling with the ability to be able to write in their native languages, mostly because most of the languages cannot be written. I liked the passage from chapter 3 of Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe from Nigeria. It was written in English but the tone and the way words were written made it somewhat difficult to understand, but I found it really interesting to be able to see (African) words explained in a story written in English.
I found it really interesting to hear the different arguments on African literature in Indigenous languages and in European languages. Achebe who wrote Things Fall Apart defends African literature in European languages saying "European languages offer Africans a medium of communication that transcends all ethnic groups". While Ngugi defends African literature in Indigenous languages because "literature written by Africans in European languages is not Africa literature but Afro-European literature."
Overall, I really enjoyed this special lecture and it was interesting to be able to listen to languages other than our own, English.
