Reflection of African languages

By


Sampson I.M Onwuka



Image from spectra-speaks

The problem of African languages can be viewed in contest of several stimuli, one which is the case the geographical distribution of the peoples of Africa and associating them with four or fie distinct groups of language tree. These are Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan, the rest of these languages are given several different interpretation. 

It seems that some of the generalization of this group of African languages is based on geographical location and where they were found in by others - especially Africans and Europeans in the age of the exploration.

It is possible to suggest that this generalization is based on procedures used to demarcate one group from another, or best places vintage argument derived from geography where a section of peoples of the world sharing more a pair of languages can be grouped together. 

Like we have mentioned in several essays, a method such as historical narrative and linguistic process show a link between communities and the past, show some degree of process between languages of the world and neighbors and draw and eventually leads to several versions of world languages and language tree. 

The connection between world language tree and human dispersion theory and the themes from languages of the world and human beings sometimes sponsor false notions of these languages and their origin to a point that if for instance an African language, whether or not the errors are consciousness or unconscionable, the main point is that justifying the sweep of language either as an outcome of the 'cross boarder' speech and speaker community or some problem of language gravity, there is a lot to say about language death which occur at this period leading to changes in any given language some of which die gradually due to exposure some of it become the subject several studies or groups of language in a line of language tree. 

We may note that the injury that is done to other languages in Africa may have come from the influences and models available to the composers.

Once we learn that 12 major languages of Africa seem to be spoken by millions of Africa, and that the population percentage of the speakers is 75 of the general demographic, we may lean to close to the natural assumption that these prime languages may have at some point or another commanded the largest center of gravity in the continent.

We can cite the aforementioned example that there are three major groups of Africans languages, such as the (1) Afro-Asiatic (2) Nilo-Saharan and (3) Niger Congo. 

We shall discuss these categories of African languages in proper light but we must note that the models and formula which led to the idea of grouping African languages are themselves subject to constraints, which may mean that the arrangement and conclusion was based on models that were faulty from the beginning.

We may yet discuss some of the constraints in dealing with these models but a firsthand glance at the arrangement and location of the said languages will reveal that one of the major constraints of African Languages is one of geography. In respect to the method of linguistic comparison applied by linguist, we may note the example of Isoglosses.

One epic problem with Isoglosses as method in linguistic comparative is that it builds from the false impression of the land locked diagrams, as if the Cultures and Languages of a said continent and people never changed from the very beginning of time till the arriving of these linguists and their Anthropologist.

That word 'Anthropology' no less than the evolution theory and biology, leads us into a field that is plural in essence. The story regards the specific mention of the differing schools of Paleontology that may or may not have sponsored this argument and false faith, may or may not have led to the culture of seething the Continent into its present path leading to one of its major languages as Afro-Asiatic.

In reaction therefore to these examples, we lead our mindset to the brochure that compel the rest of African languages to become isolated from the more parent tree of Ancient Egyptian languages. 

Part and parcel of that reaction is the issue of proclivity from probably tree of world languages - at least much of it - leading from African to Asia as the case would be, involving the interior of Africa such as the Sub-Sahara and Far East and South of Africa as remnant of the much older African language.

It is wrong to proclaim the death of Bantu migration, which so features in recent synthesis of the continent, which also involves false etymology of words such 'Nilo-Saharan' as if the traveling party moved East from West and removed themselves from the East through Southern limits of Continental Africa.

We need to emphasis that the assumption of a group of people in one place and the temptation to speak the language of others and your neighbors is the chief motivation for indicating to the rest of world that human beings have always lived where they were found, and if they have traveled or dispersed, they must left for other reasons which wurm ages diminished and perhaps forced into silent death. 

To mention that Africa is several layers of world history, of people departing and entering, or cultures and religious devotee struggling and stranded into part of the African global continuum, may or may not make sense, and other attempts would attempt to spur on the general  theories in Anthropology and in language history if these lessons are not well treated.  

Let us state clearly that Africans found in South Africa or in South of Africa may have problems establishing their history. Once the tribes ease into the circumstances of their past, they enable their own history but the synthesis of that in the global Africa, becomes a puzzle to a point that the blanket theories of its existence helps as much it heals the rift between East Africa and Sahel, where Swahili speakers navigate between the African Arabs and Asiatic many of whom settle in the Sahel and in the mouth of the River called Sind, where the Africans - perhaps others like them from Persia such as the black princes of Arabia and spice trading, descendants of Prester John in Ethiopia-Abyssinia which is the beginning as they say of India and Indus Valley. 

Other Persians who settled in East Africa include the Seven sons of a Sheik who left Persia into Africa during perhaps the expansion of the Mongols, Genghis Khan, and later Kublia Khan which the Kilwa Chronicles of African history indicates, perhaps as part of African historical past the Kilwa Chronicles no less different from Shona Chronicles, speak loftily on these periods of Africa history - the two cited examples are sources that can perhaps be reduced to documentary hypothesis which should be challenged with higher criticism.    

The silver lining is the direct and indirect kick on origins of Swahili, perhaps composed together as Afro-Asiatic language, perhaps Nilo-Saharan, which must be understood from the standpoint of Kushana (Kush) - especially the late arrivals and those who survived the fracture of Palestine Society especially the Jews and Arabs who migrated to Himryat and Abyssinia.

Several languages evolved separately out of Ethiopia and Abyssinia, for instance the Amharic, the Guez, and the Oromo are eponymous  departure in world and African history deserving their own treatment, but unlike the Shaka (scythians) and the Kushan, Amharic was a later day addition to Africa languages some fo which is fracture to other ends of the continent.  

For instance the Sahara Deserts, the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean are specific geographies in Africa that can gain our attention on linguistic influences, it took the world to Turkey, Arabia, the Persia Gulf region, Indian, and Far East. 

All of these in years apart are more or less influenced by the view of the rest of the world.  But on the east of the continent is the Afar Junction, the ‘tectonic’ that yield to the Red Sea, Sea Rift, in Adar Ridge, and East Africa Rift. 

The Great Valley of Syria, Afar triple – Junction. Red Sea, Adar Ridge, and East Africa are places that have all the works of history given to its shoulders and may have languages of the world influence Africa and African languages a world by itself. 

The main important part of the whole thing was the side that deals is the Great Rift Valley, for Northern Syria in South West Asia, to central Mozambique in East Africa. There is always the White Nile of Uganda, the Abbai a Blue Nile, Lake Victorian, Khartoum, Rwanda, Rukara, Nwogo, Nyabe. 

To form a better estimate of the Medieval and Spanish Age of the 1600 through 1700, we must look at the population of Spain during the Medieval era, at least in the years leading to the penetration of Spain by religious zealots and Africans and the departure sometime later. For sure, the coming of Europeans into Africa was a reversal of process and couldn't have a first hand contact and such people could have done better sampling opinions about origins leading to open-ended conclusions on the Continent.

Here we can also introduce the issue of Continental Africa as a realized demonstration of theories from the several schools of philosophy, which may be overlooked in the terms of understanding the blinding philosophy of these linguistic curators, a theory about people and language known as 'Continental Philosophy', which is ever at war with the 'Analytic School' as they affect the binding philosophy of 'nature' versus 'nurture', of 'out of Africa' and 'not out of Africa'.

This surrounding theme is part of the Paleontologist constraints, constraints that are now blurred by the many artificial examples leading one major school to several schools, all of which influence themes evident in African history and language.

"...Mungo Park 'Travels into the Interior of Africa' (1799), listed a certain group of people that he encountered sometime in the 1800 at the time of his arrival in that part of West Africa. The diary concerns the 'travels in the interior districts of Africa performed under the direction and patronage of the African association in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797' and his job was 'to pass on to the river Niger, either by the way of Bambouk, or by such other route as should be found most convenient'. 

It was in the context of the brief and unfortunate episode leading to the re-discovery of Niger (its discovery), that his observations were made. We refer to this Mungo Park incident as a theme within a theme, such that the stories of his adventures are very late in the annals of world history, that Africa which is already in decay could hardly resist the division of its language tree by place and geography.  

It was not the first time that a visitor from the outside world has made a point about the physical attribute of the cultures that were discovered in Africa, especially the features of the so called group who he regarded as the Moor. 

Although the latest versions of the man's travel had been 'civilized' to retain certain assumption about the continent, it is not impossible to see that he may have laid the foundation for what became a past time in the annals of would be navigators, into the forays of West Africa.

That there were Africans in that part of world is not in doubt, that they were few books on popular interest regarding African and the source of the Niger, seem in many ways out of rich until the travels of Mungo Park. 

His reports was widely celebrated in England and in Whales that many people seeking to look into the land once renowned as the 'tropics' or the 'wild' where a certain barge of Africans of darkly kind were harvested for slavery.

Mungo Park in his book brought to the knowledge of the world, the descriptions of a certain brand of West Africans such as the 'Feloops', the Jaloff, the Foulah's and the Mandigos. 

He made elaborate records of the business and businesses that occupied these Africans in that part of the world, and made deals torching the Europeans buyers of African materials, some of whom at the time of his arrival bought many things including the Gold and Slaves from West African country of Gambia. 

The Jaloffs (the Yaloffs) were described as the 'active' 'warlike race', deeply black but in the worlds of Mungo Park "considered by 'White Travellers' as the slightest Negroid in the North".

That these people resemble the Mandingos but excelled them in cutton cloths, spinning the loom and color dyeing. He mentioned another group called the Foulahs who pay tribute to the people who own the land. In the words of Mungo Park, the Foulahs are the lanky people, light skinned and their occupation was primarily cattle rearing.

It is clear that the people that he mentioned in the context of the occupation are in fact related to the same group of migrants or follow the same route and tradition as the Migrants of the North. The difference is the emphasis on 'those who own the land' and little else can be made by way of their language and the historical separation between the new incoming groups and those who arrived in the events leading to 1492.

It equally clears that as far we can see that the mindset of the so called Mungo Park was by far influenced by the nativity stories of a people whom he called the 'White Travelers'. For even as at 18th century the structure of historical graces of White crowds was glued towards races. 

That the Majority of these people or European retractions were well warned up by the disgrace that was meted out to a certain culture and race of the Africans.

At that, the idea that the continent was overrun by certain visitors since quite clear in the minds of these White Travelers, that it may not therefore be wrong to suggest that the idea of 'conquest' or the idea of migration of a certain race in their own struggle for existence or survival, was already popular in their minds.

Mungo Park was therefore not kidding when he mentioned that "As the Negroes have no written language of their own, the general rule of decision is an appeal to 'ancient customs', but since the system of Mahomet has made so great among them, the converts that the faith have gradually introduced, with the religious tenets, many of the civil institutions of the prophet and where the Koran is not found sufficiently explicit, recourse is had to a commentary called Al Sharia, containing, as I was told, a complete explosion or digest of the Mohemmedan laws, both civil and criminal, properly arranged and illustrated".....

"...the theme of migration has added its own color to world history, particularly histories of Africa and in histories of North America. It does not fail in its rendition of the proper understanding of world history largely for the fact that Africa in history has gone through several incarnations and may therefore yield to bad interpretation or synthesis. The ‘migration theme’ no more than the theme of ‘Scramble’, indicates that the continent with several parts or ethnology should be understood from several parts without perhaps understanding the ethnological behind the much of the African culture and religion.

The presumed descendants of the Nubians, who in spite of what history say, may have migrated towards the sea line of continent and then on-wards to deeper reach of Africa. 

There is a whole lot to appreciate about this view, for some tribes of Africa of say Ethiopian highlands regard themselves as better than other tribes of say East Africa and the impressions of such tribe as the Amharic is that they were conquering group.

That fact seem to gel with the some migration model used to interpret African history and African languages, as if in the order of things, human language appeared as once and were used ever since.

Far more worrying is the lacuna of segregating Africa from much of Middle East, insisting on Africa as separate from Egypt and calling everything in Egypt and neighboring cultures, Near East.

It is not without notice that the issue of Near Eastern Culture as a feature in world history may or may not have added some problem in understanding Africa. t needs be said that a change in the teleology of Near East as Historic apparatus to be nothing short of Africa in actual reality will check half the problems of history associated with the Continent.

Such new approach to History - for instance relocating Near East to Africa will make the case of language similarity between Africa and the world much easier to absorb or at least attack since the history of Near East is quite old and quite recent such that connecting tube between the ancient and the modern may be realized in terms of Africa, North Africa and Near East Africa.

We are likely to pursue this line of thinking given the fact the population of foreign elements in North Africa has superseded the natives to such degree that one will be conceived as Africanist or Afrocentric to indulge the argument on race and racial types for Egypt.

The school of interpretations of Egypt for instance accommodates all probably studies on the Continent and therefore acceptable representative to a large extent adding the fact that there are no shortages of Muslims and Arabs of great descent in these schools and in Africa.

The school of investigative study into Nubia and its descents may have become too clouded with non-Africans that the position that African history as World History may be true to the general damage of alternate and probably actual African history which the new facility of language will show.

That African language continues to the rest of the Continent is not beyond the scope of learning, but the learning curve is not ‘living in color’ and shouldn’t have, but breathing in Models used to discography much of the unknown or unwritten history of Africa.

It may have factored in the nature of representation where Institutional views as challenged to declension seem that evident, whereas the initial is the language of the majority – even when wrong – the latter - the careful minority, which are narrow groups, accepting the view that the narrow views are nearly always right.

It does not mean that either party could be right or wrong on any plausible grounds except mediums of expression and models of synthesis. In this case – as we shall re-emphasize – the guiding the psychology of the conquering lot from Arabic Asians to Europeans of 20th centuries, implicate with some doubt, the vulnerability of Historians of outside influence.

It does reflect that no point exist for building regions of a continent into regions of history, where the sluices of a tribe or tribes, navigate between the overall history of any people or culture, and the their allocation in modern times.

As such it is simply too difficult to demote the view of a migrating band of Bantu people from part of Africa another, that in as much as reason exist for such a group to exist and such migration to have taken place, a greater reason prevail over the fallacy of such a claim. 

Assuming we are able to understand Bantu from these migration routes as probable fitting for an ancient and modern Africa, we may now be tempted to grapple with the more tempting issue of range and swathes of such movement.

In essence it is wrong to harmonize the history of different peoples or tribes of Africa as one probably descent of say Bantu origin, as if one major etymon is responsible for the disappearing lot of much of Africa, as if the ancient and modern history of the continent is variegated and not anything alike. Perhaps we may tend to educate ourselves on the probability the aplomb of languages.

It is acceptable that Egyptians and Libyans for instance were Africans of no particular kind, it is possible that they were Africans of all kind and that majority of them had a lenient towards the darker hue. But if any African could make that case without the linguistic jury, he is sentenced to the class of Afrocentric.

He or she is given the purview of a preacher and perhaps a historian forcing his way into the equations of the world, that such a person ridden to the phantoms of Martin Bernal and his ‘Black Athena’ and may be forcing new injections to the subject. But this is not the case neither is the essay a critic of History.

These schools of interpretation gave serious influence to the school of Near East and Middle East historians. Of course much of the story relate to the age of archaeological discovery and architecture, to Biblical Archaeology and excavation.

The fascination with great hordes of migration like Israelite in Moses and Joshua’s time, sweeping down on their enemies after the departing Egypt and Africa, conquering expeditiously many countries of the world and overcoming many cities and countries as the Bible did indicate was only expected to be naturally embroidered into the fabric of discoveries which tell their own stories. I

t cannot be exempted from the cultural probability of seething with confidence the search for archaeological materials which should have been objective enough, which by article of faith and the story concerning the Exodus may force the new evidences of artifacts and archaeological materials to kneel to the grips of faith.

As such the meaning behind biblical archaeology is that the initial masters on the school of Archaeology were towing a certain line, line already made available to them via the teachings of the Bible in spite of the in fluency of modernity in Europe and Australia. 

As such dim lighted documentary facts of Exodus may by incident to themes of migration and conquest, may have occupied the general fancy of the historians from Christian background and eventually led biblical Archaeologist of mostly Christian background to draw all kinds of conclusion about Middle East.

In fact the likes of W.F Albright and his students, John Bright, et al, followed the conservative model in describing the ruins of the ancient city of Ai, where in the Bible, Joshua and the Israelite essentially brought Ai and the culture to an end in route to the Promised Land. 

W.F Albright account of how Christianity essentially manifested itself is best illustrated in what should be called his ‘Magno-opus’ ‘From Stone Age to Christianity’, where enough emphasis on the movement of the Israelite from the Egypt into the land of the Bible is selected side by side the Archaeological discoveries of his time.

The issue that challenged his assumptions is indigent to the history of the world, for instance regarding the nature of the Hebrew movement from Egypt to Israel the promised land the histories differ. He was also motivated by how the eventual arrival or settlement in what is now Israel. 

The influence of Biblical Archaeology is narrating modern African history is so much that it takes a will of iron to get things going in terms of the willingness to read further than necessary and bring into light some of the information about Africa and Africans.