By: Helmut Mahongo
Masoyinbo, meaning “Do not speak English” in Yoruba, is the title of a television game show in Nigeria’s commercial centre of Lagos.
The game show is centred on one main rule: if you speak English, you lose, and it is part of a growing revival of African languages as young people, especially those in the diaspora, seek to reconnect with their cultural roots.
Africa is a true hub of linguistic and cultural wealth, with an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 languages according to UNESCO; many African languages, however, are sidelined from mainstream activities like commerce, according to Believe Mubonderi, who is a Linguistics Lecturer at Zimbabwe Open University.
“In most cases, African languages were actually sidelined, they may only be relegated to the home domain, cultural domain. They were never exposed or modernized to be used in commerce, to be used in science and technology,” said Mubonderi.
He highlighted that if Masoyinbo had started maybe like 10 years ago, it wouldn’t have been what it is now.
“But we’re in the age of cultural resurgence. People want to go back to their roots,” said Olalekan Fabilola, the host of Masoyinbo.
Game shows like Masoyinbo, and other initiatives are boosting online language-learning classes.
Nyashadzashe Machingura, one of the Shona language students, said “I remember, my siblings, they would be speaking Shona, and my cousins would be speaking Shona, and I would be the only one who didn’t know how to, and it just made me feel very left out.”
A recent SADC’s Indigenous Knowledge-Based (IK-Based) Technology Innovation Investment Summit that took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, earlier this year also heavily emphasised the need for more indigenous knowledge.
Opening the meeting, Acting Senior Programme Officer for Science, Technology and Innovation at the SADC Secretariat, Reaboka Morakabi, highlighted the strategic importance of indigenous knowledge to the region’s development agenda.
“Indigenous Knowledge Systems are a strategic asset for the region. As SADC pursues its vision of a prosperous, industrialised and integrated region, it is important that we leverage our indigenous knowledge and resources as drivers of innovation, value addition and sustainable development,” said Morakabi.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission), met in the Gambia in 2024, and one of its primary focuses was the significance of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the need to foster economic integration and development across the continent.
The Commission also noted the diverse linguistic landscape of the continent and the need to ensure that the use of local languages is encouraged to facilitate learning as well as communication for trade and commerce at the cross-border level.
Africa seems to have lost the prioritisation of local languages largely due to colonialism; in the schools of colonial Kenya, for example, any pupil caught speaking Kikuyu or any other native language other than English was punished.
One of the most well-documented punishments was being forced to wear a piece of metal or wood bearing the inscription, “I am stupid.”
Post colonial Africa has put in place different initiatives to advance native knowledge and the youth seem to be taking interest in them, especially those in diaspora.
Experts however still warn that many African languages remain at risk after decades of being side-lined in education, business and technology.
