As Africans, we are often asked by foreigners whether we canspeak African, as if there is a single language which applies tothe whole of the continent. In fact, there are approximately2035 different languages spoken throughout Africa which isestimated to represent about a third of the world’s languages,making Africa the most linguistically diverse continent onearth.1 These languages can roughly be grouped into four families, of which three originated on African soil. The otherfound its way to Africa around the seventh century when theArabic nations became accepted as part of the linguistic neighbourhood. But despite the diversity and all-inclusive languagepolicy adopted by the African Union, the most widely spokenlanguages in Africa are in fact not African at all. Arabic mightbe the largest language of African origin, but it is surpassed bythe number of English and French speakers (the first and secondmost prolific languages in Africa). Both are used mainly assecondary languages and have been adopted by many Africanstates as either a national language or the Lingua Franca.
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