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Africa North
Mali drops French as official language
2023-07-28
[AFRICANEWS] With its new constitution, Mali has dropped French, which has been the country’s official language since 1960.

13 other national languages spoken in the country will receive official language status.
According to reports, under the new constitution passed overwhelmingly with 96.91% of the vote in a June 18 referendum, French is no longer the official language. Although French will be the working language, 13 other national languages spoken in the country will receive official language status.

Mali which has about 70 other local languages spoken in the country and some of them, including Bambara, Bobo, Dogon, and Minianka, were granted national language status under a 1982 decree.

Recall that, Mali’s junta leader Col. Assimi Goita put the country’s new constitution into effect, marking the beginning of the Fourth Republic in the West African nation.

According to the Presidency, Mali’s military since taking power in an August 2020 coup, has maintained that the constitution would be critical to rebuilding the country.

Mali witnessed two subsequent coups in recent years, one in August 2020 and the other in May 2021.

The junta had initially promised to hold elections in February 2022 but later delayed them to February 2024.

The decision by Mali to drop French comes at a time of growing anti-France sentiments across West Africa due to its perceived military and political interference.

Posted by:Fred

#7  Any bets on how long before Arabic only and Sharia Law get declared?
Posted by: magpie   2023-07-28 15:54  

#6  ^^^^ As many economic opportunities in these area as there are in France?
Posted by: mossomo   2023-07-28 12:35  

#5  "13 other national languages spoken in the country will receive official language status."

Are their as many economic opportunities in these areas where these languages are spoken?

I doubt it.
Posted by: mossomo   2023-07-28 12:33  

#4  About 40 percent of Californians speak a language other than English at home — more than 200 languages and dialects — and one in five have limited English knowledge.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2023-07-28 12:07  

#3  Yeah, but it is Authentic African Gibberish. I wonder if they will give up writing too.

No offense to the good people of Mali, but if you have 13 national languages, you don't have a national language or even a real nation. It's just of bunch of tribes living in a geographic boundary.

According to well-known experts, "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
Posted by: SteveS   2023-07-28 09:23  

#2  They decided to shift to Gibberish.
Posted by: ed in texas   2023-07-28 08:21  

#1  Tower of Babel?
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-28 00:01  

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