Generally defined as a means of communication between people, language is one of the greatest characteristics of one or more cultural identities called upon to coexist peacefully in order to constitute a nation where the plurality of singularities is not a weakness but an asset that promotes national integration that foreshadows the need not to remain self-sufficient in a petty environment where growth at all levels depends on the quality of the ties we have with others.

Africans have always had ways of expressing their identity that even the unfortunate episode of colonization could not eradicate. From 1845, for example, missionaries from the Baptist Missionary Society in London used douala as a vehicular language, that is to say, used for exchanges between the different communities of the Cameroonian coast. They also undertook the translation of the Bible into this language. At that time, the douala language had the upper hand over the other Cameroonian languages. This superiority, which is now part of the past, was only the preliminary stage of a greater project, namely: to enable all the peoples of Cameroon to receive the word of God in their cultural context and also to appropriate what we consider as a colonial heritage to better integrate into the globalization process.

The role of co-official languages ​​in the national unity of a country

National unity is a process that requires a constant effort from each of the members of the whole to have more meaning. If one considers that unity is essential to guarantee and restore peace, one would think that countries where the inhabitants all speak the same local language are more likely to remain united. But each country has its realities which, in fact, are challenges to be met in order to guarantee a peaceful and permanent coexistence, synonymous with the joy of living together. In Africa, for example, only in Somalia (Somalia) and Ethiopia (Amharic) are African languages ​​exclusively official.

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But that does not prevent the fact that peace is always threatened and the effectiveness of national unity from being doubtful. Unity is therefore in this case, an ideal that requires fighting against anything that could compromise or prevent its development. Countries with ethnic plurality must provide or legislate more laws that give legal status to local languages ​​while putting on the same footing all the forms of singularity that make up the whole. There can be no unity without the feeling of belonging to the same nation and pursuing the same ideal. The unity of a country depends more to him than on any other foreign influence.

International relations

Language is, and always has been, a means of expanding economic, political, and military power. The great nations are those whose language is spoken in several countries and in majority the former colonies. Taking into account the fact that a national language can also be an international language according to the classification of the most used languages ​​in the world according to the United Nations, each African country in particular has in addition to a national(s) language(s), an international language which allows it to forge partnerships, exchanged with the rest of the world and promote the riches of a colonial heritage which is no longer the property of one people, but that of a multitude of cultural identities having in common a same story and especially a same language.

A language that is not spoken is destined to disappear. Unesco's atlas of endangered languages ​​lists three thousands languages (3000), 230 of which have been extinct since 1950. African countries in particular must continue to adopt and promote the benefits of these internationals languages, while investing even more in the promotion of a national multiculturalism essential in the political stability of a Territory and the promotion of the joy of living together. 

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