African Renaissance and language policies in comparative perspective

The predicament of the continued usage of colonial languages for economic reasons is contrasted with the demand for recognition and state support for indigenous and non-dominant minority languages. However, new African elites define competitiveness in the global arena as a crucial goal. To this end, despite talk of African Renaissance, African languages are relegated to the private realm, where a vibrant oral tradition exists. In turn, dominant Western languages which hold out the promise of access to wider opportunities are valued. Fluency in English and French is associated with education, status and urbanity, which both distinguishes as well as distances the elite from their constituencies. New approaches of multicultural recognition of all linguistic traditions in a multi-ethnic state discussed at a Goree Island Conference in 1998 are explored comparatively.