Keeping languages alive, keeping African culture going

A language is dead when its last speakers die, unfortunately many African languages are on this journey, a slow march toward extinction.

A complex combination of factors have conspired to rob young Africans of a very vital aspect of their identity; language. Fewer and fewer of them attain fluency in their mother tongues, English and French have quietly replaced indigenous African languages as the modern African child’s language 1, I feel strongly about this.

For very apparent reasons our kids need to be fluent in English and French, but the great thing about language acquisition is that it is not a zero-sum game, one language doesn’t have to be lost for the other to be gained. Actually, a lot of research shows that learning additional languages greatly boosts cognitive function and facilitates the quick mastery of others. Many parents fear that their children will get confused when they attempt to learn multiple languages at once, this is not true, it is actually quite the opposite.

We at SPiiKA Inc believe that African languages need to be preserved and we have been working on a way to make them fun and easy for kids and adults to learn. It has been an insightful, long, hard journey and we are counting on your support to bring it to life and keep African languages alive.