The Linguistic Culture of African Union: Implications to Regional Unity, Identity and Development

Abstract

The major objective of African Union is to have a united and strong Africa. This objective manifests in their anthem. One of the major media of unification, identification and development amongst a group of peoples is culture which embodies language. This paper attempts to investigate the linguistic culture of African Union (AU) and to find out whether language and culture go a long way in fostering unity, identity and development among member states of AU. The data were collected from the AU deliberations which were applied to the present day situation of AU. The finding show that the AU is still under linguistic imperialism; that the African identity has eluded AU and that the quest for African development is still a mirage. The suggestion then, is that AU should go back to the drawing board and be linguistically liberated and independent so as to foster real unity, to have real identity which will ignite reasonable technological, scientific and manpower development.