The Internationalization of African Languages: A Communication Leap in the Present Millennium

African languages have, for the most part of the immediate past millennium, remained in the dark ages – thanks in part to the disparaging effects of colonialism. Fortunately, though ironically, the colonialists’ tools of oppression, i.e. their languages, have turned out to be linguistic assets for the African who can henceforth use them as a springboard to launch a new linguistic offensive in the present millennium. The African linguist can achieve this by first studying the characteristics of currently acknowledged international languages, and then technically developing his indigenous language to reflect the same qualities. Internationalization in the modern sense presupposes the worldwide use of a language by a large section of speakers, with access to modern communication means such as the electronic media, the print media, the internet, the worldwide web, etc. African linguists and communicators owe it to themselves to develop their own communication systems and thereafter integrate them into the technological culture as being practiced in the present millennium. This will ensure a viable communication leap for African languages in the present scientific and technological era.