In the introductory chapter of the book _African Languages,
Development and the State_ (a compilation of papers from a workshop),
Richard Farndon and Graham Furniss suggest that "multilingualism is
the lingua franca of Africa" - a formulation they credit to Paul Richards.
They explain:
"Any African national or ethnographer of Africa will testify to the
transcontinental genius for facilitating communication by drawing on
language competences however partially these may be held in common.
The African lingua franca might best be envisaged not as a single
language but as a multilayered and partially connected language chain,
that offers a choice of varieties and registers in the speaker's
immediate environment, and a steadily diminishing set of options to be
employed in more distant interactions, albeit a set that is always
liable to be reconnected more densely to the new environment by rapid
secondary language learning, or by the development of new languages.
"Whereas this capacity might be lauded elsewhere, it has been
commonplace to stress the negative side of the linguistic complexity
of contemporary Africa. ..."
Richard Farndon and Graham Furniss. 1994. "Introduction: Frontiers and
Boundaries - African Languages as Political Environment." In R.
Farndon and G. Furniss, eds., _African Languages, Development and the
State_. London: Routledge. Pp. 1-29.
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