Headquartered in Bamako, Mali, ACALAN is the African Union (AU) specialised agency charged with the promotion and development of African languages as a means for fostering continental integration and development.
“National language policy would not only ensure national integrity and sovereignty but would equally promote mass mobilization, information flow to the grassroots, and hence effective and efficient participation of the majority of African population that uses uniquely and essentially African languages in the activities of their daily lives.” the statement further added.
The development of clearly defined language policy, the statement noted, would also promote democracy, equitable access to national resources and ensure that all languages within the boundaries of member states are recognised and accepted as a source of mutual enrichment, to consequently serve as a factor of African integration and sustainable socioeconomic development.
“The heads of states and government of the member states of the AU during the 35th Ordinary Session in February 2022, adopted the Assembly decisions/AU/Dec 796(XXXIV) on the Dar-es Salam Framework for the Action to make Kiswahili a Working Language of the Union and a Language of Wider Communication in Africa, through the concerted efforts of the ACALAN and its partner institutions.”
The statement indicated that the Assembly mandated the AU Commission to implement this enviable task by July 2023.
“Part of the recommendations emanating from the subsequent consultative meeting of Kigali, organised by ACALAN for the East Africa region is that ACALAN should engage advocacy for language policies to ensure that all member states develop language policies according to the provisions of the Language Plan of Action for Africa that gives status and valorising functions to African languages and further recognises Kiswahili as a Working Language of the AU Commission and as a Language of Wider Communications in Africa.”
The statement further disclosed that the Kigali consultative meeting further recommended that ACALAN should have a Language Plan of Action for Africa revised to include the new central role of Kiswahili in addition to other developments that have emerged with over fifteen years of the implementation of the Language Plan of Action for Africa.
“Furthermore, the 2018 Lome consultative meeting on the implementation of the LPAA recommended that ACALAN provides financial support to member states in their endeavors to develop their national language policies.”
“The first member state to request ACALAN’s support to develop a national language policy is The Gambia, followed by Zimbabwe,” it stated.
