Postscript

other African languages

Afrikaans

Arabic

English

French

Portuguese

Spanish

Swahili

This map shows the official languages of the countries in Africa.

I used to think that a national or official language of a country was the language that everyone in that country knew.  What I’ve learned since I started working for Wycliffe is that the reality is much more complicated.  Below is some of what I’ve learned from our linguist colleagues about language use.

In Africa the main official languages are French, English, Arabic and Portuguese, but for the most part African countries host a multilingual environment where different languages are used by different people in different contexts. Sometimes the language listed as the official language of a country is only spoken by 20% or less of the population.  Often other languages are used in the home and maybe even another language or two for trade.

Let’s take Kenya as an example. More than 50 different languages are spoken there.

• Most of these languages would be considered home languages, or languages that people use with their family or with other people from the same ethnic group. It’s often a language people use to express their deep feelings with the people with whom they are closest.  For some people, particularly in rural and remote areas, it may be the only language they know or the only one for which they have an extensive vocabulary.
• Trade languages are languages that different ethnic communities in a geographic zone use to conduct business and communicate with each other.  One of the trade languages used all around Kenya and in many other parts of East Africa is KiSwahili.  However, sometimes other languages are used for this same purpose in smaller geographic areas.
• The official language of Kenya is English (KiSwahili was recently added as another official language).  Official languages are the languages used by the government–in the courts, in official documents, and in other government contexts.  Official languages are often the languages used by the elite and those with the highest levels of education and in areas with a high concentration of ethnic diversity (like large urban slums) where another trade language is not the primary means of communications. In a big city like Nairobi where not only are there many different Kenyan ethnicities coming together but also people from other parts of the Africa and the world, English is more widely spoken than in other cities in Kenya.  Trade languages and official or national languages can be referred to as languages of wider communication or lingua francas because they serve as bidges that allow diverse groups of people to talk to each other.

People in highly urban areas may regularly use three or more languages even in the course of one day. In contrast, someone who lives in a remote or rural area may only know one language well and may have limited vocabulary in another one or two languages.

These become important factors to consider in Bible translation projects and generally in determining what languages to use in ministry.  African church leaders as well as non-African foreigners who have ministries in African countries must carefully consider several factors:

• How well do their audiences know different languages?
• What kinds of vocabulary do they know in each language?
• How do they use each one?
• In which language do they express feelings, ideas or deep truths?
• Does one language have more status than another, and what implications will choosing one language over another have in a given context?

Multilingualism isn’t new. We know from the Bible that Jesus knew several languages: Aramaic (likely his home language), Hebrew, and Greek since it was the trade language of the eastern Roman empire. He probably didn’t know the official language of the Roman empire (Latin) because it was not widely spoken in the eastern part of the empire.

Popularity: 26% [?]

I took this short video from the hotel where I stayed for several days while I was in Cotonou, Benin in August.  You’ll notice that there are a lot of motorbikes on the road.  This is one of the most popular means of transport.  The motorbike taxis, called Zemijans, will take you just about any where.  Two years ago I road on one. Not this year.  Leaving the hotel to go somewhere wasn’t a problem, but figuring out how to get back would have been challenging.

Popularity: 10% [?]

When we moved to Kenya in 2009, one of the challenges was learning to drive on the left.  The most difficult parts of that transition were learning to feel the edge of the road and remembering to pick the correct lane when turning onto new roads. It’s a skill we were thankful to have already acquired when we moved to South Africa, which is also a left-side drive country.  Kenya and South Africa are two of the 14 countries in Africa which drive on the left.  The remaining 41 countries all drive on the right.

Map created by Benjamin Esham

In the world 76 countries drive on the left and 164 countries drive on the right.  Countries where traffic flows on the left include several island nations and island territories in Europe and North America, a portion of the in countries Africa, most of the countries in the Pacific, and a few countries in Asia and South America.

Which side of the road do you drive on?

Popularity: 24% [?]

So what’s in those big glass bottles?  Take a guess.

OK, one clue…this is in Cotonou, Benin, West Africa.

Still don’t know what this is?

Let’s zoom out.

Here’s another clue…the stuff in these bottles makes vehicles go.

Guessed it, yet?

…

It’s gasoline (petrol) at one of the many informal gas stations that you can find around Cotonou and in many other parts of Benin.  Nigeria, a country just to the east of Benin, is an oil-rich country, so fuel is cheaper there.  Some vendors in Benin go to Nigeria, fill up bottles with gasoline and bring them back to sell in Benin.  From what I heard, this fuel is half the cost of a traditional gas station.

Popularity: 10% [?]

As far as I know, most of my ancestors came from Ireland, Scotland and England, a few came from various countries in mainland Europe, and some in my family also believe that we have a few native Americans amongst our ancestors.  The Christian heritage of my family, at least people who would identify themselves by the name of Christian, seems to go back at least a few hundred years.

In Acts 16, the Bible records Paul’s Macedonian call, which probably was the beginning of the spread of the gospel in Europe.  In Europe, Christianity eventually reached all the way to Ireland and Britain and became established by the third and fourth centuries. Sometime after that, I imagine that one of my ancestors became part of the church.

When I think of the Christian heritage of Europe, I can think of how old it is.   I was reminded again on my trip to Ethiopia that Europe is not the only place outside the Middle East with an old Christianity, and it isn’t the only place for which the Bible records early evangelism.  Africa also has ancient Christian roots.  Christians in Ethiopia have a Christian heritage going back more than 1500 years.

This travel blog photo’s source is TravelPod page: Rocking On In Ethiopia

Before Paul is called to Macedonia, in Acts 8 Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch who becomes a follower of Jesus. Many believe this was part of the beginnings of the spread of Christianity in Africa.

Christianity became established in the ancient Ethiopian Aksumite Kingdom by the fourth century and has remained strong ever since.  A unique attraction in the northern part of Ethiopia is  rock-hewn churches from the 12-century.  They can still be visited and are one example of the archeological testimony of the longevity of Christianity in Ethiopia.

Popularity: 43% [?]