English in the Sub-Saharan Linguistic Landscape: Beginning of Millennium Observations

Abstract

The paper begins with an overview of Africa's linguistic landscape, and a review of the change of status of English in its history in Africa and Asia. In a subsequent discussion of colonial language policies, it is shown that the colonial masters had different and varying attitudes towards the local languages, ranging from their sheer repression in favour of the European language, to their full promotion. In all colonies, however, due to a number of circumstances, European languages reigned supreme at independence. Positive attitudes towards indigenous languages gradually developed only later, resulting in the decline of English in some countries and its disinstitutionalisation in others. At the turn of the millennium, however, the gains of English on the continent, both in quantity and in quality, had outnumbered the losses. The paper analyses the reasons why some African languages despite the regained pride on them by Africans, may hold on a thin thread for their survival in the third millennium, while no foreseeable development seems likely to threaten the position of European languages in general, and that of English in particular.