Challenging African Scholars through African Languages: A Re-Examination of the Question of Development

Abstract

The underlying conception of African societies as societies of orality does not foreclose the possibility of integration into a global development initiative. Though finding a unilateral and concrete definition of development is a difficult task, the debate concerning the very possibility of development in Africa has different dimensions to it and the lack of writings in African languages is one of the major obstacles to development. It is against this background that this paper considers the possibility of development through a process of knowledge acquisition and scientification of African languages. This initiative will enhance the thought system and deliver the continent from the hammer of underdevelopment. Hence, the paper argues that the potentialities of African languages are not exhausted as there is no culture whose traditional ideology cannot cope with the demands of the developing modern world.