Is Africa a Continent or a Country?

Well, when I left Tanzania for Los Angeles California in 2000 for higher learning institutions after my high school education at Saint Anthony High School in Dar-Es- Salaam, I never thought that many of my friends in Los Angeles could be ignorant about Africa. I once thought that my classmate at California State University-Los Angeles was joking when she said, “You have a nice accent and I love it, where are you from?” “I am from Tanzania, the home of mountain Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti you see in discovery channel” I replied. Guess what the next question was! “Where is that again? She asked. I replied, “East Africa”. “Is that a country or a big city? What other languages do you speak apart from English?” she asked. Then she said, “I thought Africa was one big country with a few African languages, the home of the Serengeti, giraffes and the Kilimanjaro peaks as we see in movies” I shook my head and laughed. Therefore, I was compelled to give her a quick lesson about African. That Africa is a continent among other continents such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia and others. Africa has 53 independent countries and Tanzania is one of them.

There are thousands of indigenous languages spoken in Africa and many more dialects. Every African country you visit will no doubt be home to more than a dozen (if not several hundred) languages, even the smaller countries. Tanzania alone has more than 120 languages (tribes) including Kisukuma, the major tribe, Kichagga, Kihaya, Kinyakyusa, Kigogo just to mention a few. I speak Kisukuma, Swahili and English. Swahili “Kiswahili” is our national language as you can imagine, a country with over 36 million people at the time has more than 120 tribes, a national language is not only important but as necessity. English is another language that the country puts emphasis on in school as the medium of trade and communication across Tanzanian borders. In the new era of globalization, a global village in which state boundaries don’t seem to exist, English has become the language of trade and the medium of communication at its highest level. Tanzanian officials are now pressing even more emphasis on English as the medium of communication is schools and colleges for competitive advantage in global markets. It is an iron in itself for the country that believed in Swahili and a country that does not only take pride on Swahili as a uniting language, but also a national identity.

Although it might be too late to get Tanzanians ready to face the challenges of globalization with limited English knowledge, English remains crucial to the Tanzanian economy especially when the country continues to conduct investment promotions to the outside world for more integration at the global level. I think Tanzania has no other choices other than forming new curriculum and use English to train the work force of the 21st century. Any country that ignores the challenges of the 21st century will not produce citizens of the new global village.

However, apart from thousands of tribes, Africa is a home of mainly spoken languages such English, French, Portuguese and Italian. Almost every African country was at one time a colony, speaking English, Portuguese, Italian or French. Understanding these languages will also help you communicate if you visit Africa. Many Africans will speak Creole or pidgin versions of these European languages such as Pidgin English, a mixed language with English words but they may not be so easy to understand when you first hear them. Tanzania was one of the first countries to attain independence in 1961 when the efforts to reverse the effects of colonialism started and a national language “Swahili” was declared by Baba wa Taifa, President Nyerere.

Other countries that adapted Swahili are Kenya and Uganda due to the so called East African community that collapsed in 1977. Good relationship among East African countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda remain a key to their economic integration up to these days. While many East Africans speak some English or French, knowing a few words of Swahili will really help you out in the more rural areas and along the coast. Since Swahili is a second language to most East Africans, they will understand a little broken Swahili, and they will certainly appreciate your efforts. Don’t bother to learn other Tanzanian tribes unless you really need to, but you will always be confused because there are so many tribes that lead to my final questions “How would African people communicate among each other if there were no national languages?” There would a disaster without a national language. Do African people discriminate each other based on tribes? Hell, yes, as Americans discriminate one another based on countries of origin or colors of their skin, Africans discriminate one another based on tribes and places of origin within the same country.