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<donaldo@bwc.org> It is, of course, common to refer to African countries as being English-, French-, or Portuguese-speaking (or Anglo/Franco/Lusophone) based on the languages inherited for use in (at least) government and education from the colonial period. Yet on a certain level these terms are misleading, since the use of European languages is as a second language and in many areas is not widespread at all. In some cases these terms conceal the importance of other languages: Many more people in Mali speak Bambara (or other closely-related inter-intelligible Manding tongues) as a first or second language than speak French; and notwithstanding the importance of English (and local languages!) in Kenya and Tanzania, couldn't these countries be more aptly considered as "Swahilophone"? Without seeking to deny the historic, political, and even cultural dimensions of use of one or another of the former colonial languages (and without wanting to make this another "politically correct" labelling issue) I wondered if there were a more accurate/comfortable set of terms that people are using? I've been tempted to employ the somewhat cumbersome "countries that use English/French/Portuguese (or Spanish!)."
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