The impact of globalisation on African languages and cultures : a study of selected discourses

Abstract

The process of globalisation has been identified as the most critical factor in developments that affect the evolution of national and international economies. Globalisation offers participating countries new opportunities for the accelerated growth and development but, at the same time, it also poses challenges to, and imposes constraints on policy makers in the management of the national, regional and global economic systems. While the opportunities offered by globalisation can be large, a question is often raised as to whether the actual distribution of gains, in particular, whether the poor benefit less than proportionately from globalisation and could under some circumstances actually be hurt by it. Globalisation has greatly affected African languages and cultures in Africa since the arrival of the Colonisers. There is no culture without a language and no language without a culture, the two work hand in hand. It has been noted that culture is bound up by a language. This is an essential prerequisite because to kill a language is to kill a culture