Africa’s lingua franca and its role in the successful implementation of the AfCFTA: a case for Kiswahili as the African commerce and epistemological language

Abstract

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is the largest free trade agreement in the world in terms of its membership and it has  tremendous potential to lift millions of Africans out of poverty through boosting intra-Africa trade by ensuring that Africa has one  gigantic market of over 1.3 billion people. For this to be achieved, this trade agreement must be implemented rapidly and to the letter.  This article therefore argues that, among others, the use and adoption of an African indigenous language such as Kiswahili can play an  important role in enabling Africans to trade with one another with ease and mutual trust. The adoption and use of this language as a  potential lingua franca for commerce and teaching and learning also has the potential to harness the innovation and creativity of Africans  as this would be emanating from the age-old ingenuity of our forebears. The main argument made here is that language is both  the reservoir and vessel for culture and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), and without its maximum exploitation, our societies  will not industrialise and develop. Methodologically, qualitative semi-openended interviews and non-participant observation were  conducted in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa to gauge experts’ views on the utility of Kiswahili as a potential Pan-African language.  Pan-Africanism and Afrocentricity are key theories deployed in giving shape to this study.