Afrophobia and Language

In the plight of the recent Afrophobic (I prefer this term as opposed to xenophobia - for obvious reasons) attacks and the current animosity towards our fellow Afrikan mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, it perhaps would be apt to explore this issue.

Let's start with the degrading word that some of us on this forum use to demean ourselves: amaKwerekwere! A friend of mine once asked a question some time ago: "Why would we call our fellow Afrikan PSL players amaKwerekwere and call (then Sundown's) Jose Torrielba as South American?" I continually cite the fact that we carry on demean ourselves by calling Afrikan visionaries like Nkwame Nkrumah and Mutumwa Mawere amaKwerekwere!!

Someone once attributed the word to the fact that the languages that are spoken by our fellow Afrikans are different, thus strange. (i.e. the word comes from the fact that they are kwerezing (whatever that means) when they talk. As you see, this is sheer ignorance.

So, is the language an issue here? I don’t know…. But if it is, would it be inappropriate for the Afrikan leaders to start with this issue (language) in an attempt to unite Afrika and Afrikan people? We are very happy to use the European languages (notably English, French, German and Portuguese) to trade with each other and with the world. Why then don’t we have a common “business” language for us in the Sub-Saharan Afrika? I am thinking Kiswahili (Swahili) here! The language is spoken in 8 Afrikan countries (and in Oman)… Why don’t we extend it to the rest of the continent? Would it not be liberating to visit Chad or Benin and know that you’ll be communicating in an Afrikan language with your hosts? Development Economists in Afrika and the rest of the word have identified intra-Afrika trade as one of the answers to the development of this continent, so, when this happens at a rapid scale (I have no doubts about its subsequent occurrence), will we still use European languages for us to understand each other?

I am tempted to believe that if we were to have one Afrikan language that we’d all understand, the self-hate that currently prevail amongst us, would be reduced dramatically.

Aluta Continua!