The influence of colonial languages on language policies of francophone sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Language as part of the colonial heritage has and will still stand as a challenge to the development of African languages and even bigger challenge facing language policies makers in African countries. As part of the former French colonial empire, Africa is now the most French speaking continent on the planet. In Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, although rich with numerous ethnic groups and thus languages, lots of its countries at the independence chose French as one of or the only official language of the country. This research endeavor sets out to analyze the language question in Africa, most particularly sub-Saharan African French speaking countries history and language situation, in a bid to understand the impact of French as official language on these countries’ language policy and planning, analyze efforts made by some of these countries in terms of policy and planning of national languages, and possibly offer some perspectives on language planning and policy in sub-Saharan African French speaking nations.