Black History : How important is your mother tongue?

panafrica

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Aug 24, 2002
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The Diaspora
A Ghanaian woman living in the UK has produced a series of videos to teach the children of African immigrants their home language, because many of these children grow up speaking only English.
And with the growth of international media, business and the internet, even in Africa - especially in cities - people can grow up not knowing the language of their forefathers. Many smaller languages may soon disappear. But does this matter?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4123852.stm
 
anAfrican said:
Oh, I so want to know as much as I can get my heart, brain and hands around! It's a heck of a lot more important to me than anything that comes out of this country ferdemnshure!

I think this thread ties in with the one sister PoeticManifesta created on the Open Forum (which praises enslaved Africans learning English). I believe this perspective might show what was lost in the process.
 
panafrica said:


It's very important for one to be able to speak his/her dialect if given the opportunity and that is regardless of where one was born or grew up. We are Africans, black and we'll never be considered to be European even if we change our citizenship or live in Europe for decades so let us not pretend just because we were born in Europe or America. Why are the black in the USA called African American and not Americans only? This must be a lesson for many African who are trying to claim to be special and different from us in Africa.
Kapinga Ntumba, Harare, Zimbabwe


Do the French want their children to speak English only? Africans must stay in touch with their culture. Why take on someone else's culture when one day they will reject you and you be lost in the wilderness. My mother language is what differentiates me from the cultureless westerners.
Regerai, Avondale, USA



Brother Pan, I was struck by these two emails, as we've been discussing these kinds of things at the forum... They seem to speak more to African perception of whom we African Americans are than the reality of whom we are... I makes me to wonder whether learning African languages, and indulging in African Ethnic Culture would even serve to disabuse Continentals of the perception that we are "cultureless..?"

Peace!
Isaiah
 

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