Gambia to stop using 'colonial relic' English: president

[alp227]

(Reuters) - Gambia will drop English as an official language soon because it is a colonial relic, President Yahya Jammeh has said, without indicating which language the tiny West African country would use in its place.

Gambia's 1.9 million people speak several African languages including Mandingo, Fula and Wolof, the most widely spoken language of Senegal, its only direct neighbor. The country gained independence from Britain in 1965.

"We no longer believe that for you to be a government you should speak a foreign language. We are going to speak our own language," Jammeh said in an address in English last week that was broadcast on Tuesday.

English is the main language of education, but Jammed said that was no reason to keep it. "The British did not care about education, that means they were not practicing good governance. All they did was loot and loot and loot," he said.

full: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/us-gambia-language-idUSBREA2B23L20140312

[MineralMan]

1. 'Jammeh said in an address in English...'

I think they may have a way to go in implementing this.

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Probably not. Many of the former African colonies have official languages...

Which are not widely spoken outside of parliament and official addresses. The general population usually utilizes dialects of native languages in general conversation.

[MisterP]

2. new outfits, too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacost

[Nye Bevan]

3. One thing about the USA, they did not do stuff like this when they won independence.

They could have changed all the place names (like Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, Salisbury becoming Harare City, etc.) but were obviously secure enough to keep names like New London, Georgia, and New York. As well as keeping English as the language.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. Are you seriously comparing African colonialism with the American colonies?

Do you actually know anything about the former?

[Nye Bevan]

6. Is your point that British colonialism in America was somewhat benign by comparison?

In that case, was the War of Independence really justified?

[Gravitycollapse]

8. We murdered the entire indigenous population. Of course no one was around to change the names back.

Because, unlike African colonialism, the fight over American independence was a battle between two external, oppressive groups who stole land from the indigenous.

In African colonialism, we have hegemonic (I feel like I've used this word a lot today) control over the indigenous population by remote European states. There is also the continued maintenance of traditional African culture in contrast to the near entire annihilation of traditional native American culture. Which means that the fight for African independence was a battle waged by original populations and original tradition against European imperialist invaders.

The two situations are essentially incomparable. That you think this is a matter of "security" is offensive.

[LittleBlue]

7. He gave this address about not speaking English...... in English

Wait until most of their society gets the internet and realizes they have to re-learn English.

[Gravitycollapse]

9. There is a symbolic significance of abandoning the language of former imperialist oppressors.

Especially in the case of African colonialism. I highly doubt people are just going to magically erase the existence of English in the country. The point is renewing Gambian traditional pride that existed prior to the imperialist occupation.

In actuality, none of this is funny.

Also, Gambia likely has extensive internet access just like most other African nations.