DYK: Many Middle-Class Africans Avoid Teaching Their Children Their Native Language?

In a bid to access global opportunities, many middle-class African families effectively enforce a "Linguistic Imperialism" at home, prioritizing English or French over their native tongues (Ga, Twi, Yoruba, Swahili).

This is a lingering effect of the colonial education system, which punished students for speaking "vernacular" and framed European languages as the only vehicles of intelligence and success. By raising a generation that cannot speak their mother tongue, we are inadvertently finishing the colonizer's work: erasing our cultural identity to fit into the Empire's economy.

"Effective colonization of a people must involve changing the people's life philosophy, self-identification and culture."
— Harvey Kwiyani, Ph.D., Decolonizing Mission (p. 168)

Decolonization starts at home: Speak your language to your children. It is the carrier of your history.

hashtag#DecolonizingMission hashtag#LanguageIdentity hashtag#AfricanCulture hashtag#LinguisticImperialism hashtag#DeJoeQuarcoo hashtag#GuidingLightPress