Is anybody learning or studying any African languages? I am learning Swahili. My Swahili teacher told me If I was to learn Swahili, Hausa and Arabic, I would pretty much be able to communicate with people everywhere in Africa. But I think it's a pretty good idea to learn an African language. I first got intrigued with learning an African language when one of my comrades told me about how when he was in prison, that bruthas (at that time) was "making" him learn Swahili and then they would communicate in Swahili and nobody would ever know what they was plotting *smile.*

cool, that sounds great. love, peace and much success.

I was thinking about the fact that we need "uniformity" in the writing of African languages today.

We need a new script possible. And this script would be used for all African languages.

This new script would allow for instance in Ethiopia the letters "BAD" may mean "snake" and in the Congo, they may mean "cut", and in Ghana it may mean "Bite", so while your language is different the writing of it would give just about the same meaning and it would be the same uniform script.

For instance if the government wrote "write", in Ethiopia it might mean "write" and in South Africa it might mean "sign" and in Liberia it might mean "permanent". These would generally result in the same actions with different words.

Sorta of incorporating the spoken language into a written form.

As you said, most languages in Africa while different and unique do have similar meanings associated with similar sounding words.

I think we need to think about doin away with the Roman script [the one we use for English] and pretty much get a uniform script that takes into account African word usage.

I do not know. I am not a linguist but I think it could work.

Another good language to learn would be French...as a great number of African countries are French speaking

I am not learning any African languages at the moment. But, I would love to learn a few. Kiswahili and Yoruba.

Yoruba would be an interesting language to learn...but it would limit you to Nigeria. French and Swahili would enable you to communicate with more ethnic groups & countries.

PanAfrica,

Good Idea. Another idea is to take Spanish. Some African countries still speak spanish. And you have the added benefit that Spanish and French are very similar. My sister who speaks french can understand my son who speaks spanish. And then another benefit is that you can speak to latin Americans.

Thus with Spanish, you can communicate with Africans, Europeans and Latin Americans.

it is also a very very simple language to learn. Since it is a phoenetic language. In other words their vowels only make one sound. If you see the word read in Spanish it always sounds like READ. Not like here where the word Read can sould like READ or RED. Very Easy.

What African countries speak spanish? Maybe you mean Portugese like in Mozambique.

I would choose Yoruba because I know of a few people who actually speak the language. :D

Rebel Afrika,

Your right. It is Portugese. I am always thinking they speak Spanish down in Brazil where 50 percent of the pop. is African. But it is Portugese. I was thinking of Angola. A large percentage of the slaves brought to south America were from Angola.

Of course the same still holds true about what I said about Spanish and French, maybe even more true about Spanish and Portugese.

Anyways, that is a choice between two things european languages.

I think I am like Monet. I might choose a more African language. I know a few people who speak Yoruba. I actually have the Yoruba language sounds down loaded to my computer.

Bowini!

Actually there is one African country that I am aware of that speaks Spanish, Equatorial Guinea, which was a Spanish Colony until 1968 (it was formely called Spanish Guinea). I have intimate knowledge of this country because my wife and in-laws are from there. However besides Equatorial Guinea I am not aware of any other country in Africa where Spanish is spoken. As a matter of fact, French is starting to become dominate even in Equatorial Guinea.

Learning spanish would allow you to communicate with people in South Americ and the Carribean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico). Where many blacks in the Diaspora live. It can also help you obtain jobs in the U.S. with the increasing number of hispanics coming over here.

However, once again while it would indeed be interesting to learn a "original" African language like Wolof, Hausa, Yoruba, Bubi, etc. It is not really practical because of its limitation. Every African nation has multiple ethnic groups with different languages & dialects. Learning a specific ethnic groups native language would limit you to only being able to speak to that group. Whereas learning...1. French, 2. English, 3. Arabic (in the order of their importance)...would only to communicate with practically every ethnic group in every country across the entire continent.

On a separate note........the black population in Brazil is actually over 85%. It has the highest number of black people in the world, outside of Nigeria. :)

PanAfrica,

Your probably right but there has been a dirty trick done in South America of late. [I got the 50 percent stat from the first Black Governor of a Brazillian state by the way, now she is just mayor]

All over the world Black People are being white washed OUT.

Years ago, I looked up the race of Cubans for an argument I was having for someone and the CIA world fact book said that the population of Cuba was 81 percent African and 19 percent other.

If you go and look again at the population of Cuba, you will now see that it says that it is only 20 percent African, 61 percent Meztico and the rest other.

The same is true of Brazil and other places. Now those 35 percent who used to be counted as Africans are now counted as Meztico [Mulatto or Mixed]. Officially the population of Brazil is only 50 percent Black NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

It is the same thing they are trying to do in America. After announcing to the whole world that Latin Americans now are larger than African Americans. They then turned around and announced that in fact they did not count those who marked African American and Other as African Americans and they also did not count those of Latin American origin who marked Black as their race.

We are being white washed OUT.

This former Brazillian Governor was talking about the fact that in Brazil, the 50 percent of the population that is officially considered Black, is not even acknowledged by the government when making their decisions.

In most of those south American states they have a policy of IMPORTING OTHER RACES and NOT allowing more Blacks in.

I just saw an article in the BBC [the article was probably 2 years old]. Where a Black woman was detained by the Argentina police because she had an argentina passport and the Argentine airport officials thought it was a fake because they teach and brag to the world that they have no Blacks.

Quite surprising to the 2 million Black people who live in Argentina.

One Black Journalist went there and said that Blacks are basically kept out of the big city, he had to leave the city to see the Blacks.

I meant to clarify that Brazil's population being 85% black or African (actually I believe it is a little higher) is by our standards. Meaning the appearance and ethnic background of 85% of the population of Brazil is what most blacks across the Diaspora would consider to be black. However Brazil like much of South & Latin America has serious issues with race and skin color. Thus it is common to encounter a Hispanic or Brazilian that is as dark as Manute Bol with hair like Angela Davis or Dr. J in the 1970s deny that they are black. However, whether or not they classify themselves as black or African.........that is exactly what they are. Decendants of African slaves......directly from Angola as Crunchystuff already stated.

Peace,

I'm studying kiswahili as well...Next year I hope to start Hausa classes...I cant wait till the day I'm fluent in both languages.

*sigh* I wish it was so simple that we all could just decide to learn Swahili and call it a day, LOL!!!

P.S. Medinastar!!! Habari Gani??? *smile*

Originally posted by rebelafrika
*sigh* I wish it was so simple that we all could just decide to learn Swahili and call it a day, LOL!!!

P.S. Medinastar!!! Habari Gani??? *smile*

RebelAfrika ... we have our very own live voice chat ... www.************* ... available 24 hours a day 7 days a week ... seems it would be very simple to just decide to get together and learn Swahili and call it a day !!! ... of course we'd need a teacher ... :wave: ... Haaaaaaaaay MedinaStar ~ Welcome !!! ... :wave: ... but that's all :wink:

:heart:

Destee

:) @Destee. We "in the forums" COULD come together to learn Swahili, I don't deny that...but I was wishing that we "as a people" would learn Swahili. I don't have a mic (as a matter of fact, my computer aint all that hot either) and I am at beginners level Swahili, so we would need a teacher...but hopefully they would be better at Swahili than I am :rolleyes:

*smile*

RebelAfrika ... so you are hoping for "we as a people" all together, at one time, to learn Swahili? What have "we as a people" done all together, at one time, before? For that matter, what people has achieved such a thing?

I'm a firm believer that it doesn't take all of us to be doing the same thing at the same time for progress to be made. Just one, two, or a few will do. Those few are then armed to pass the knowledge on, until "we as a people" are all on the same page.

I feel you and it's all good.

In regard to the Voice Chat (http://www.*************), you don't need a microphone to hear the sounds of us, music, poetry, discussion or Swahili classes (if we are ever so blessed). The mic is needed only if you want to speak. This system i'm on isn't "all that" and it gets into voice chat quite easily. I'd love for you to give it a try and join us there. It doesn't take a whole lot my Brother. If you have any specific questions or problems trying to enter, let us know. We want you with us, remember, it only takes a few! :wink:

Thanks for being here.

:heart:

Destee

Originally posted by Destee
RebelAfrika ... so you are hoping for "we as a people" all together, at one time, to learn Swahili? What have "we as a people" done all together, at one time, before? For that matter, what people has achieved such a thing?

Thats why I was "wishing" ;) ...although I do believe that with the creation of a "United States of AFRICA" eventually we could decide on one "African national language" and from there, institue a 5-10 year plan in which we would phase out all other languages. Not phase them out "completely," but make them into "secondary" languages while the entire continent has one primary language.

Originally posted by Destee I'm a firm believer that it doesn't take all of us to be doing the same thing at the same time for progress to be made. Just one, two, or a few will do. Those few are then armed to pass the knowledge on, until "we as a people" are all on the same page.

I'd like to add to that because it is similar to one of my beliefs. I believe that we are a people at war...and just like in any other war, you gonna loose some folks. So because of this, you can't get (or save) "EVERYBODY" and this is why I agree with you when you say it doesnt take "ALL" of us to be doing the same thing at the same time for progress to be made. I believe that you CAN'T get all of us. But another thing I believe is that the masses are makers of history, not the individual. And that these few who you describe as "armed to pass the knowledge on" are interconnected with the masses. You know? I hope I'm not confusing you. *blush*


As far as the voice chat is concearned, Ima try to check it out sometime soon. I am a little tied up right now with finals and ALD and all. What times are "you" in the voice chat? :)

www.************* our very own voice chat 24/7

rebel...we'd love to have you join us anytime...live poetry readings, delicious music and you can chat on topics on just about anything--just like here only in real time so you don't have to wait for responses...come check us out. You'll meet some great people!!! :)

Originally posted by rebelafrika
I'd like to add to that because it is similar to one of my beliefs. I believe that we are a people at war...and just like in any other war, you gonna loose some folks. So because of this, you can't get (or save) "EVERYBODY" and this is why I agree with you when you say it doesnt take "ALL" of us to be doing the same thing at the same time for progress to be made. I believe that you CAN'T get all of us. But another thing I believe is that the masses are makers of history, not the individual. And that these few who you describe as "armed to pass the knowledge on" are interconnected with the masses. You know? I hope I'm not confusing you. *blush*


As far as the voice chat is concearned, Ima try to check it out sometime soon. I am a little tied up right now with finals and ALD and all. What times are "you" in the voice chat? :) RebelAfrika ... yes i do know and no, you've not confused me. Thanks for sharing with me. :)

I'm in Voice Chat (http://www.*************) all the time!!! Gosh, i really live there! How can it be 24 / 7 and no one is there! :wink: Come in any time, i'll be anticipating your arrival.

:heart:

Destee

hi

Hello majornn and welcome! Feel free to share this experience with us by introducing yourself. Your location indicates you're from Ghana. Please tell us about your country. We are very interested.

:)

I'm interested in learning Kiswahili. Yet, I also want to learn French, Shona and Kwazulu. I know this is a vast list, yet I would like to be able to communicate on a more personal level as I plan on visiting/moving to South Africa.

Hi folks,
I'm a continental African, some some info for you.

The Swahili language is spoken in East Africa only.
In Tanzania it is the official language, in Kenya it is co-official
alongside English. It is spoken in the South eastern part of the
Democratic Republic of Congo ( formerly Zaire ), Northern Malawi,
and Northern Mozambique, parts of Uganda, the Comorros and
the southernmost tip of Somalia. It is the mother tongue of the
people on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba in Tanzania, the
southernmost coast of somalia and the Comorros. In all other
places, the people have totally different languages, and use
Swahili as a second language for wider communication.
Total worldwide Swahili speakers about 70 million.

The Hausa language is the mother tongue of 30 million people
of North Western Nigeria, about 5 million more people speak it
as a sevond language in other parts of Northern Nigeria. In the
republic of Niger, it is the mother tongue of half the population,
mainly in the south west. Across West africa, and pockets of
North Africa about 15 million people speak Hausa.
Total Hausa speakers worldwide about 50 million people.

Other Major African languages:

Wolof - Most of Senegal and parts of Gambia - 12 Million max
Bambara - Mande dialect, Mali, Guinea etc - 10 million max
Mossi/More - Bourkina Faso - 5 million max
Twi - Ghana, Ivory Coast - 12 million max
Ewe/Fon - Ghana, Togo, Benin - 8 million max
Amhara - Ethiopia - 35 million max
Oromo - Ethiopia, Kenya - 20 million max
Nguni(Zulu/Xhosa) - South Africa etc - 30 million max
Igbo - Nigeria - 30 million max
Yoruba - Nigeria, Benin, Togo - 30 million max
Kinyarwanda - Rwanda - 7 million max
Urundu - Burundi - 6 million max.

Others are Lingala, Kikongo, Kikuyu, Kanuri, Luo, Fulfulde etc

Swahili is not spoken in southern, central, western and north
Africa. Hausa is not spoken in eastern, central, southern and
northern Africa. Most west African languages are completely
different from each other. Unlike in eastern, central and southern
Africa, where languages can be so similar that knowing one of
them, enables you to understand several others.

Folks, this info is mainly from half remembered memory fragment,
so please feel free to look up these languages in libraries or on
search engines, to verify or correct this information. I hope the
little I have written has helped someone.

Regards

Hujambo...ummm...that's about all I remember from the Kiswahili class I took a couple of years ago. I'm an Africana Studies major and learning an African language was apart of the curriculum, but now I think I need a refresher course. I think exposure to African languages is good for us all, because to really learn the language you have to emerse yourself in the culture and the thought process of the people who speak it. After I re-learn Kiswahili I want to learn Zulu...I have this wonderful CD where the guy is singing one of the songs in Zulu and it sounds so beautiful.
Kwaheri!

E ku ikale Baba Ahmed/Hello Baba Ahmed,

Thank you for your kind welcome.

Araegba means a person from Egbaland.
The Egba kingdom is one of the Yoruba speaking kingdoms of
west Africa. And yes I am an Egbaman, I suppose I could have
used the Anglicised version Egbaman instead of Araegba. But I
like Araegba better.

Yes, I forgot to mention the Songhai language, it is spoken in
the extreme north-west corner of Nigeria, parts of Niger, and
also Mali. I do not have any information about the number of
speakers. You may feel free to look it up further on google
search.

Check out my reply to you on the "Are you African or..." thread,
you may not like my reply, nevertheless post your response.


Odigba/Bye for now.

Bawo ni eyin enyan mi/ how you doin' my people ?

Here's some weblinks that might interest you.

A website looking at a variety of Nigerian Pidgin English, it shares
some similarities with Sierra Leonian Krio, Camerounian pidgin and possibly the Gullah language:
http://www.ngex.com/personalities/babawilly/dictionary/default.htm


A website for beginning learning the west African Yoruba language. An audio greeting in Yoruba, followed by English
welcomes you to the site. In the alphabet section, click on any
letter to hear the correct pronounciation:

http://www.learnyoruba.com/


This page shows the linguistic family of the Yoruba and related languages:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=66


Another introductory website on the yoruba language, this one is in French though:

http://www.geocities.com/edeawoyoruba/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=Nigeria&seq=5


This here shows the Yoruba speaking area within Nigeria:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=Nigeria&seq=5


A general African languages website for children:

http://wus.africaonline.com/AfricaOnline/kidsonly/languages/index.html


Here is a general page looking at African languages and places where they are spoken.
The info is note totally accurate in all cases, but gives a rough idea:

http://www.ethnologue.com/country_index.asp?place=Africa



Regards

Why are the people on this site deluding themselves about the African continent and it's languanges. I've read many people wanting to learn Kiswahili as language...as if it were an authentic African language! Swahili is as language resulted from the mixing of Arab masters/slave traders and their African "servants". Therefore it is a bastardized(forgive my french) language...as is somali and even Hausa to many extent. It is closer to Arabic than it is to the neighboring African languages spoken in east Africa.

Just to make it clear to everyone the most wide spoken language spoken as first tongue on the African continent is not even African. It's Arabic, which is spoken by around 180 million people. Then Hausa, which is spoken by about 33 million(about 47 million if you count second language speakers). Then Yoruba with 28 million, followed by Igbo with about 25 million speakers. Believe it or not Swahili is not spoken by as much people. What gives Swahili it's linguistic strength is that it is spoken over a great distance along the coast of east Africa whilst the other three African languages are concentrated in a relatively small but highly dense rigion.

Now, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo speakers are predominantly found in the country of Nigeria. So I suggest that anyone trying to learn African languages look up and research this country, because Nigeria has more languages spoken within it's borders than any other country on the African continent.

Very good points.

Are African Americans feeling the need to learn an African language because it gives them a sense of re-connection to Africa? After all, one of the successful ploys used by Europeans in the American slave trade was to deny Africans the opportunity to speak in their native tongue to make it difficult for them to plot an uprising. But even so, it was difficult for Africans to communicate among themselves on slave ships anyway because we came from so many different parts of Africa which, as you say, people spoke different languages.

I'm not sure that every African American that wants to learn how to speak an African language actually intends to use it, but it might be more of a 'romantic' notion than anything else. It could also be a form of rebellion to blatantly demonstrate that although we live in America, we don't consider English as our only language. So it could be a socio-political statement as well.

More and more, English is (or has) becoming more widespread around the world. Learning an African language is great if it empowers you. But as far as a r/evolution for Black people in America, we need to speak the language that the great majority of us understand, and ebonics works for me.

my mother (RIP) was from Kinshasa, Zaire (The DRC).
She spoke Lingala. I can speak it to an extent. if i had a dictionary, which i plan on buying
i would be fluent in no time.

peace

my mother (RIP) was from Kinshasa, Zaire (The DRC).
She spoke Lingala. I can speak it to an extent. if i had a dictionary, which i plan on buying
i would be fluent in no time.

peace

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I am learning Wolof because I am going to Senegal and GAbon this year. I think it is important that when we go to the motherland we show respect and love for our people by learning the language. It makes me feel good to speak to my Senegalese friends here in Wolof. Even though I don't know a lot of words they are always happy to say Jama ak Jama (Peace and Peace) to me and me to them. I also feel that it gives us a connection with how our ancestors spoke and developed words.

African languages fit our mouths, lips and tongues. These european languages are not easy for us to learn. That is why we devloped our own languages that derive from Africa (e.g. Hatian creole, portuguese creole, Patwa, Ebonics).

In Wolog "dig" means to hear. Can you dig it. OKay is also an African word. I am having a wonderful time learning the language of my ancestors. My great grandfather was from Senegal so I do have a deep connection.

I think we all should take a Wolof, Bambara, Mandike, etc classes. Africans know how to speak up to 4-7 languages so don't think it is not possible for us to do that too because it is.

Peace.

I think we all should take a Wolof, Bambara, Mandike, etc classes. Africans know how to speak up to 4-7 languages so don't think it is not possible for us to do that too because it is.

Well said pdiane, and I agree

Blessed Love, I am studying the oldest language in the universe. Amharic (Ethiopian) way older than arabic. can anyone else speak Amharic or are lurning? Blessed Love

Yettebarreke Weddeda, nen haqqenna habesha, egziabeher yamessghen, QEDDUS AMANUELL ENE SELASSIE ENE JAH RASRAFARI, Yettebarreke Weddeda

Nabiyy Chris