African Academy of Languages, ACALAN Executive Secretary Dr. Lang Dampha Fafa has reaffirmed that African values should be the platform upon which African development is built.

He made this known in a chat with CEOAfrica in Abidjan recently. Dr. Dampha  posited that Africans should embrace her values and culture in building a better Africa.

He said, "Africa is the only continent that is using other people's culture and values to develop Africa and that doesn't work. We have left the era of slavery and colonialism, we are now in the post-colonial era, still living in imperialism. We have seen countries that have been colonized in the past but have since started working to improve themselves but they wouldn't have been able to achieve what they have achieved by using other people's values like Africans are doing presently.

"Imagine an African child who doesn't speak English or French for instance, speaks the mother tongue in  the family, you take the child to school today and start teaching him or her in English or French, this is a problem for Africa, so we need to introduce our languages into our education system according to the provisions of the Language Plan of Action for Africa (LPAA).

"We need to develop language policies to identify and situate our languages to know the role of our languages in our development. As Africans, we must channel our own values towards developing Africa."

He added that the language development issue is one that cannot be compromised.

"At ACALAN, we believe that Africa cannot develop using other people's culture and values. We can learn other languages because language is an asset. African integration and development must be taken seriously and we believe that the development and promotion of African languages is key to that," he stated.