The Thin Line between Identity and Integrity: How Africa's Future is in its Drowning Languages and Not in its Borrowed Tongues

This news has been making the rounds on social media for days now: Nigeria has joined other African countries, the likes of South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, and others, in adding Chinese Mandarin to their formal education curriculum as an optional international language.

While this move may appear strategic, given China’s rising political influence and dominance in the global economy, I believe that alongside such initiatives, Nigeria should also consider reintroducing Nsibidi — the indigenous pictographic and ideographic writing system once used by the Ekpe society in precolonial Nigeria. Reviving and teaching indigenous systems of knowledge can help reshape the country’s future and strengthen sovereignty in science and education.

As Africans, we must not rush into teaching our children foreign languages simply under the banner of “opening more opportunities.” More urgent and profound is the need to reclaim our identity and integrity. Yes, Mandarin may open doors, but it also strengthens China’s soft power agenda, subtly creating a future where our survival becomes tied to theirs.

When will we realize that Darwin’s words: “survival of the fittest”, are not just about biology but about ideology? We are in a battle of ideas. We once trusted the West to educate our children, and what did we get? As Phillip O.C. Umeh lamented, we produced “Ambassadors of Poverty.” Our leaders stash stolen funds in Western banks while signing selfish deals that mortgage the future of generations yet unborn.

Now, disillusioned with the West for funding conflicts in the Sahel, looting our minerals, drowning our youths in perilous migration, imposing sanctions, and closing their borders against us, we turn eastward. But will welcoming China and Russia simply open another chapter of plunder, this time of both our resources and our minds?

True development must start from within. Let us teach our indigenous languages, reinstate our lost glory, and rewrite our histories. Tell our children that Bai Bureh was not a belligerent troublemaker, but a great warrior who fought for our freedom. Equip our youths with skills and self-confidence, not with inferiority complexes that define education as the ability to speak English or any other foreign language.

The Chinese and Indians did not rise to global prominence by learning English first. They mastered science, technology, and philosophy in their own languages, building self-pride and national confidence along the way.

Policies that prioritize teaching foreign languages over indigenous knowledge risk turning education into indoctrination rather than liberation.

In Sierra Leone and Liberia, for instance, introducing the Vai script in schools and spreading it widely would not only preserve our heritage but also inspire innovation. Our languages already hold within them the science and technology our ancestors used to build the societies we inherited. The challenge is whether we have the courage to value and cultivate them.

©Amadu Wurie Jalloh

20/09/25