Insightful points, Dr. Phiwokuhle Mnyandu, PhD and Center for African Studies at Howard University!
African Languages & Tech Fanatic; Advisor to Governments; Futurist; China-Africa Expert; Husband; Father
On February 17, a meeting took place in Beijing where 🇨🇳 president Xi Jinping addressed leaders of some of China’s biggest companies, which are global giants. Leaders of Alibaba, Huawei, BYD, Tancet, Xiaomi, Meituan, DeepSeek, etc., were there. My impression: in this one room are trillions of dollars in net worth, but not a word of English, French, or Spanish was spoken. Indeed, if some of these leaders needed to learn English in order to get to where they are, they may not have succeeded (in China). This is how different the times we live in are, compared to the past. Africans must be more confident in their languages if they want to make progress in education, innovation, tech, etc on a large scale. Languages are entire markets for innovation in and of themselves. Also, they are gateways to bring new products to market. Some of Africa’s biggest sources of economic growth are not natural resources but languages properly developed, respected, and used. Unfortunately for the Africans, the Chinese are already working on African language development in tech more than the Africans are, turning the Africans into consumers of products of their own languages. #languagematters In a small way, our work at Center for African Studies at Howard University exposes US students to this emerging nexus of language, culture, and the global economy, for their own diverse career goals.