Paper short abstract:

This paper highlights significant parts of a broad range of recent critical institutional interventions by CBAAC geared towards the promotion of interest in African indigenous languages to foster development, unity and integration of Africans.

Paper long abstract:

For effective communication, there is the for African languages to be written in such fashion that they reach very wide audiences or at best reach the optimum size of audience. That can only be achieved if we harmonize existing orthographies so that instead of producing a book for a million people, we can produce a book which can be read by 10 million people. In other words, the harmonization of African languages is the first step towards creating a firmer foundation for the production of literature which can then be used to enhance civic participation or advance public service media. This paper highlights significant parts of a broad range of recent critical institutional interventions by the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) - an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria - geared towards the promotion of interest in African indigenous languages, arts and culture to foster development, unity and integration of Africans. The harmonisation and standardisation of select cross-border languages in the West Africa sub-region using Nigeria as a pivot through workshops and technical sessions represents a significant part of the core mandate of CBAAC. The paper articulates identifiable concerns and challenges as well as proffers feasible mechanisms for effective transmission of vital ancestral knowledge systems suppressed by several decades of domination by foreign languages.