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and implement policies conducive to developing these languages. Furthermore,
Article 19 of the charter urge African member states to effect reforms to integrate
African languages in their education systems. In order for the objectives of the
charter related to African languages to be attained, African languages should
be accorded a proper place in cyberspace.
Another decision taken during the Khartoum summit in 2006 relates to the
linkage between education and culture. According to this decision, when
African Union Member States undertake the reforms in their curriculum,
within the ambit of the Second Decade of Education for Africa, they should
ensure that the content of the curriculum is informed and inspired by African
culture. ACALAN has been assigned the task of monitoring the process and
regularly report to the African Union Commission.
Conclusion
A holistic approach to the efforts to put African languages in cyberspace is
therefore required. This approach will not only take into account the various
decisions and resolutions pertaining to the development, promotion and use
of African languages, but will also broaden the research agenda on Human
Language Technology, as it would be difficult for African languages to gain
an equitable place in cyberspace without strengthening applied research in
that domain. In other words, in order to address the various challenges facing
the efforts to accord equitable space to African languages in cyberspace a
collective effort is required. Such effort should go beyond the concerns of
linguists, language practitioners, teachers of African languages and other
stakeholders whose work involve African languages regularly. As is well
known, language is not everything; but it is in everything. This implies that
according equitable space to African languages in cyberspace should be
part and parcel of the search for viable strategies to bring about sustainable
development that would change the lives of the vast majority of Africans for
the better. Once again, we can remind ourselves of the African proverb cited
above “one thumb alone cannot crush a louse.”
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