Reassessing the Impact of Colonial Languages on the African Identity for African Development

The question of African development is examined as a close nexus between development and language. Language alone affects, structures, defines, and interprets all other aspects of human life. On the other hand, when we think of development, we think of human resources, about people who are the active agents in bringing about accomplishments in any field of endeavour. We cannot have a critical mass of human capital if the constituents are people who aredefined by others through pejorative words and have, unreflectively, accepted these words as an indicator of their true identity. My focus is on the English language, which embodies attitudes, referential meanings and perceptions that have greatly helped to distort the identity of the Africans. Given that words act as guides to the interpretation of social reality, Africa, caught on the wrong side of the colonial language, cannot make meaningful progress in her spiritual andmaterial civilisation. This paper concludes that until linguistic imbalances that demean the African are reviewed and righted, Africa’s strivings towards sustained development will continue to be severely checked.