Indigenous Languages And Techno-scientific Development In Africa: A Case For Pragmatic Approximation

The quest for techno-scientific development in Africa has been the concern of scholars of diverse origins and disciplines; theories have been pontificated and papers of diverse colours (white, blue, etc.) have also been published; yet the situation remains the same. Our focus in this work is to explore how an often neglected cultural element, language, could be developed, scientificalized and used effectively with dominant European languages in the African polity such as English and French in achieving the seemingly herculean task of techno-scientific development. Firstly, we examined the present fate of indigenous African Languages used; next, we analysed various researches conducted in education, communication and psychology on the role of indigenous languages in knowledge acquisition, enhancing cognitive understanding and removing pedagogical barriers in learning. We also evaluated the precarious state of indigenous languages in African states' educational language policies. In conclusion, we suggested how best to achieve an African Languages Scientific Manual using what we called the Pragmatic Approximation.