Vehicular Cross-Border Languages, Multilingualism and the African Integration Debate: A Decolonial Epistemic Perspective

Abstract

The proposition that African vehicular cross-border languages are best positioned to facilitate African integration is underpinned by a hegemonic and colonial philosophy that misdirects the African multilingual debate. This becomes apparent when the perceived utility of this category of languages is considered against the backdrop of contestations surrounding language definition traditions and the incidence of language multiversity in Africa. Drawing on the ideas of decolonial scholarship from the Global South, this article provides a critical analysis of African vehicular cross-border languages and perceptions about their ability to resolve the anticipated intercultural communication problems of an integrated Africa. The article seeks to bring to the limelight some of the fundamental omissions and blind spots of such projective conclusions about the potential of vehicular cross-border languages and how such projections are shaped by dominant, neo-liberal and conservative language ideologies and ideologies of (or about) language.