About Africa

Introduction

In Africa, after the collapse of the colonial system, the newly emerged African states are faced with the problem of creation and development of national languages ??and cultures, as well as the preservation of their ethnic and cultural identity of the peoples of the domination of languages ??of the former colonial powers. The total number of live African languages, according to the 16th edition of the catalog of languages ??of the world, "ethnologist" of 2110, which puts it on this indicator on the second in the world after Asia, the number of languages ??which are 2322. However, the linguistic diversity in Africa is much higher; since almost the same number of languages ??has a population (as of 2009) is four times smaller than in Asia. Most African languages ??have no written language and have never been used in the public administration and education. In these circumstances, former colonial languages, especially English, French and Portuguese continue to be the official languages, while most African languages, but the most common are used only at the level of local communities. Therefore, all the issues and aspects related to Africa will be discussed in detail.

Background of the Issue

Currently, the number of independent and sovereign states in Africa is 53. Despite the fact that many of them have changed their names, most have remained within the same boundaries that have divided the colonies. The development of post-colonial African countries is characterized by extreme political and economic instability and ethnic conflicts. Conditionality boundaries imposed by European colonizers, also leads to permanent territorial disputes, reaching to the armed conflict. With a total number of African peoples and ethnic communities in excess of 2,000, most of them include several thousand or even hundreds of people and live in several villages. Languages ??and cultures of these peoples are particularly vulnerable and are on the verge of extinction. At the same time, some large and largest African people have between one and ten million or more people each, and their languages ??are widely used in all walks of life, except the government and higher education (Harvey, 167).

Current Situation of Africa

Africa is reflected in the list of official languages ??of the largest African intergovernmental organization, the African Union, which includes 52 states. The African Union, which is the successor to the Organization of African Unity, in Article 11 of the Charter proclaims as its official languages, Arabic, French, English, Portuguese, and the only African language Swahili. The largest linguistic sub-regions are the English and the French-speaking group of countries. In terms of territory and the number of French-speaking countries of the world in the region slightly larger than the English-speaking Africa, although inferior in terms of population as it includes the sparsely populated areas of the Sahara. In six of the eighteen countries of the English-speaking world Saharan Africa English language divides an official with one of the most common local languages, and in the Republic of South Africa, other than English and Afrikaans, the official recognized ten African ...