Long after the emancipation of the African continent, its people continue to experience the shadows of colonial rule through a linguistic legacy that cannot be easily erased, even with the passage of time. Within their cultural landscape and orientation is a reengineered sense of identity—one that flaunts altered social structures, an influenced fashion culture, and supplanted belief systems.
One of the known primary vehicles colonists used to propagate these changes was language. Colonial languages were introduced as superior and imposed as means of communication within colonies. Through missionary agendas and newly established educational systems, these languages were institutionalised in key societal pillars such as education, media and government. Simultaneously, indigenous languages were banned from formal domains, particularly within classrooms, where their use was often punished. Many victims have recounted how students were often demoted, beaten or humiliated for speaking their native tongues in colonial schools.
Over time, African indigenous languages became marginalised. Missionary programs particularly played a complex role in this transition: while they contributed to the documentation and study of local languages, producing dictionaries, grammatical texts, and translations of religious scripture, their efforts simultaneously positioned colonial languages as instruments of power, literacy, and socioeconomic mobility.
When colonies were eventually relinquished in the twentieth century, an inevitable mark was left on its survivors: a deeply entrenched linguistic influence that showed the world just how successful colonial domination had been. The long term effects of this carefully orchestrated assimilation are visible today: indigenous languages have lost their vitality and are gradually fading away. As of date, over 200 languages have gone extinct as a direct result of imposed linguistic hegemony while 428 others have been declared in danger of extinction according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Despite the evident decline of many indigenous languages, the persistence of colonial languages in post-independence Africa cannot be understood solely through the lens of loss. Following independence, many newly formed states deliberately retained the use of colonial languages and institutionalised them as official languages, not in commemoration of their colonial lifestyle but as functional tools for governance and national unity. Particularly within linguistically diverse societies, these languages were perceived as neutral instruments with an undeniable potential to unify an already fragmented population. Hence, they evolved into lingua francas, and assumed critical roles in facilitating administration, education, and interethnic communication.
A Common Language
Today, three languages dominate the African continent — English, French and Portuguese, representing the three major colonial masters that explored and subjugated its terrain: Britain, France and Portugal. Their continued dominance has been the subject of numerous arguments across the world centered around understanding the question: Why did Africa not transition back to its indigenous languages post independence?
As mentioned earlier, independent African states recognised how important a common language was in the immediate aftermath of colonial rule as well as in the midst of delicate political transitions. Remarkably, most regions boasted hundreds of distinct ethnic groups which raised the critical challenge of how to govern territories without internal strife. Adopting one indigenous language often risked privileging one ethnic group over others, no matter how huge such an ethnic group was. This would have led to internal tensions and even war in a fragile post-independence state.
Colonial languages, on the other hand, were politically neutral and therefore capable of serving a politically unifying means. Consequently, they were adopted as official means of administration. Nonetheless, these languages were often already entrenched into institutional frameworks such as educational curricula, laws, political documents and economic systems — all critical stakeholders in the subsistence of any nation — and an abrupt change in a predominant communication method would have required immense financial, administrative, and intellectual resources — resources many postcolonial states did not have at the time.
Globalisation has further reinforced the dominance of colonial languages in Africa. English and French, in particular, have gained such prominence across the world that they have become recognised languages for commerce, diplomacy, science, and technology. Proficiency in any of these languages offer immense benefits and will continue to offer the same in the future. Consequently, these colonial languages have transcended their identity as historical inheritances into being strategic assets in a competitive global world.
Hence, we can say that this continued dominance of colonial languages in Africa is a convergence of historical memory, political pragmatism, economic necessity and global interconnectedness. What originally began as instruments of colonial control have, over time, become central pillars of statecraft and opportunity, even as debates about linguistic justice and cultural preservation persist.
What Has Africa Gained?
In a continent with thousands of languages, with some countries sometimes having as many as a hundred languages, the adoption of English, French or Portuguese has not been without its benefits. To date, this adoption functions as a neutral medium that facilitates national administration, education and legal systems. It may even be said that this adoption boasts a crucial advantage: Unity among ethnic groups.
These languages have also positively empowered African states to navigate global networks of diplomacy, trade, science and technology. For those who have mastered the art of these languages, they become valuable assets in trade systems, facilitating negotiations, contracts and dispute resolutions and even serving as ambassadors — a benefit that has always accrued even in the colonial era.
For scholars, these lingua francas grant them access to global markets, foreign investments, academic research and international institutions. In a world where functionality and interconnectedness are indispensable, these global languages have become assets that enhance mobility and global competitiveness.
However, these advantages coexist with complex cultural trade-offs, reasserting the fact that this linguistic inheritance is both a tool of opportunity and a reminder of historical subordination.
Counting the Cost: Cultural Erosion and Language Endangerment
Language is not just a communication tool, it is an intricately carved bank of a people’s history, values and culture. When a language weakens or becomes lost, the worldview and cultural heritage it carries within it also vanishes. Today, many African languages have been relegated to the backside, often described as informal, inferior, and inadequate.
There are real-world consequences to this. Hundreds of languages now face the threat of extinction in Africa, with some only remaining with a handful of speakers. For example, the N|uu language of South Africa, which also happens to be one of the world’s oldest linguistic forms, and forms a part of the unique Khoisan language families, survives today with fewer than ten speakers, making it critically endangered. Similarly, in Cameroon only a tiny number of elderly people still speak Njerep, a Mambiloid language on the brink of disappearing altogether.
Other languages such as Laal — spoken by just a few hundred people in Chad — and Defaka in Nigeria, with roughly 50 speakers, are tragic examples of how small language communities are increasingly pressured by dominant regional languages and limited institutional support. Even languages with larger speaker populations, like Bade in Nigeria, are vulnerable as their communities shift toward more dominant tongues, risking both linguistic and cultural loss.
Known impact goes beyond rare languages. A growing body of research shows that many communities are reducing their use of indigenous languages in favour of colonial ones, often because proficiency in global languages is associated with education, social mobility, and economic opportunity. As a result, weaker languages are further marginalised. Futuristic trends point to the fact that even widely spoken national languages are at risk of losing their depth and cultural importance if they are not intentionally protected.
Language endangerment is not only a loss of vocabulary; it is a loss of unique cultural knowledge systems, oral histories, traditional practices, and the philosophical concepts that languages vitally embody. As UNESCO warns, 10% of Africa’s linguistic diversity could disappear within the next century, taking with it chapters of humanity’s cultural heritage. Already, communities are losing hundreds of indigenous histories, folklore, ecological practices and several other localised knowledge that were once transferred naturally through native tongues.
Today, younger generations are increasingly prioritising colonial lingua francas for economic advantage and as a result, intergenerational transmission of cultural heritage weakens, thereby negatively affecting identity formation.
Is this the End for African Languages?
Colonial languages came into Africa with two sharp edges of the same sword: as tools of unity and global access but at the cost of Africa’s unique voices. The challenge is clear — its inhabitants must learn how to harness these languages without letting them extinguish its soul. The question remains: Can Africa preserve the languages that form its identity while exploring a world dominated by global tongues? Or will its own voice be lost to history?
