Sub-Saharan African Languages: Are They Remote?

Africa has a long history of being a multilingual continent. And as expected, these multiple languages are derivatives of the many cultures in the African space. Africa is said to be home to an estimated two thousand to three thousand distinct languages. One of the arguments for this linguistic diversity is the influence of European languages.

At the end of the 19th century, European countries targeted Africa. Before then, Africa was home to raw materials that many inhabitants and leaders were unaware of. The industrial revolution to source raw materials was a notable motivation for European colonists to troop into Africa. However, apart from the much emphasized economic factors, European imperialists impacted the cultures of the people. African languages were greatly influenced.

Alongside reasons such as European influences, historical developments also contribute to Africans’ vast and diverse languages. It is believed that Africa has been home to humans longer than any other part of the world. But then, this belief, coupled with the inability of the dominant cultures to absorb differing ethnicities over the years, explains why Africa has up to two thousand languages compared to Europe, which has just about two hundred languages.

This view is for a broad consideration of Africa as a continent. However, the vast language diversity is evenly spread across the five regions or sub-regions of Africa. The sub-regions of Africa are Northern, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. All these sub-regions except Northern Africa belong to Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Distinction of Sub-Saharan Africa

Northern Africa identifies hypothetically with the Islamic world, Middle East, and Asia. Some people would even go a step further to refer to them as “European Africa.” Another obvious distinction of the laypeople in Northern Africa from the rest of Africa is their skin color. At times, they are even referred to as “White Africans.” However, all these hearsays do not make them any different from other Africans. But between Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan African is the Sahara Desert.

It can be established geographically that Sub-Saharan Africa is different from Northern Africa. The major peculiarity of this geographical difference is Sahara. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of Africa that lies south of the Sahara Desert. Countries belonging to Sub-Saharan are 42 of Africa’s countries plus six island nations. Due to the skin color of the inhabitants, this area of the continent was once referred to as the “Black Africa.” And this was predominantly where Africa as a continent got the appellation “the Dark continent.”

The Distinction of Sub-Saharan Africa

Northern Africa identifies hypothetically with the Islamic world, Middle East, and Asia. Some people would even go a step further to refer to them as “European Africa.” Another obvious distinction of the laypeople in Northern Africa from the rest of Africa is their skin color. At times, they are even referred to as “White Africans.” However, all these hearsays do not make them any different from other Africans. But between Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan African is the Sahara Desert.

It can be established geographically that Sub-Saharan Africa is different from Northern Africa. The major peculiarity of this geographical difference is Sahara. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of Africa that lies south of the Sahara Desert. Countries belonging to Sub-Saharan are 42 of Africa’s countries plus six island nations. Due to the skin color of the inhabitants, this area of the continent was once referred to as the “Black Africa.” And this was predominantly where Africa as a continent got the appellation “the Dark continent.”

Sub-Saharan African Languages

At least 1.34 billion people inhabit Africa. Eighty-one percent, which is 1.09 billion, of this population, are inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa. There are no less than a thousand languages among countries that belong to this region. Given that the citizens of Nigeria alone (a country in Sub-Saharan Africa) speak over 500 languages, allocating just a thousand languages to the region is believed to be a gross devaluation.

Popular to the sub-Saharan region of Africa are languages such as Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Wolof, Amharic, Shona, Oromo, Kongo, Lingala, Zulu, and so on. These languages are divided into major language families. These families are Bantu, Indo-European, Niger-Congo, and Austronesian. Excluded from this list are other popular African languages such as Afroasiatic and Nilo-Saharan, which are more popular to Northern Africans.

Are Sub-Saharan African Languages Remote Languages?

The term local or remote is often used in many African contexts. The main reason for this is the global racial disapproval of African depictions. However, the Sub-Saharan languages have not suffered a similar fate. Sub-Saharan languages are widely accepted. It is often asked if these languages are spoken only by the people living in this part of the continent. The answer is no.

Each of these languages is spoken all over the continent and beyond the continent. The Hausa language is a good example to consider. There are about 63 million people who speak the Hausa language as their mother tongue. And there are 50 million people who speak the language as a second language. This statistic goes beyond the natives of the northern part of Nigeria, where the language is most dominant. It includes foreigners in South West Africa and as far as Berlin in Germany.

What about the Yoruba language? It is spoken by no less than 60 million people globally. Apart from its widespread use in Africa, countries such as Brazil and Cuba are home to the Yoruba language. Swahili, Igbo, Yoruba, Pidgin, Kinyarwanda, Hausa, and other sub-Saharan African Languages have gained more popularity as they are recognized by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

African languages are not remote. In fact, they are quite widespread. Many people have not realized that some of these Sub-Saharan Africa languages have more speakers than European languages. More so, tertiary institutions all over America and Europe are offering courses relating to these languages and their cultural heritage.

Final thoughts

Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Northern Africa, is home to a vast number of languages. However, against popular notions, the over two thousand languages of natives of sub-Saharan Africa are not restricted to the locality of their most predominant speakers. Most sub-Saharan languages have more speakers than many European languages. This popularity has given them an edge in the global landscape to transcend the “remote language” label. However, sub-Saharan countries still use colonial languages such as English, Portuguese, French, and Spanish as their lingua franca.

Take a look at the Crystal Clear Translation website to find out more about available language offerings.

Ready for an Interpreting and Translation Quote?

Professional interpreting and translation services are essential for your organization. And if you find yourself in need of interpretation while working with migrants and refugees, help is just a step away! To have your ideas and interests well communicated with the parties, use our quote tool to get help.