When the Pan-African Parliament meets, lawmakers debate issues that affect more than 1.5 billion Africans. They discuss peace and security, trade, education, climate change, infrastructure and the future of continental integration. Yet for millions of Africans, those conversations remain out of reach\u2014not because they lack interest, but because they are held in languages many citizens do not use in their daily lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the Pan-African Parliament is to become the people’s parliament, it must speak the languages of the people. Pan-African Parliament<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Language is more than a means of communication. It is the bridge between institutions and citizens. A farmer in northern Ghana, a trader in Mali, a fisherwoman in Tanzania or a teacher in Ethiopia is more likely to understand and engage with continental policies when they are explained in familiar languages. Democracy becomes stronger when people can access information without first having to translate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The African Union has long recognised the importance of African languages. Through the African Academy of Languages, it has promoted the development and wider use of indigenous languages across the continent. The challenge now is to move from policy to practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pan-African Parliament should make African languages part of its public engagement strategy. Parliamentary debates, committee updates and major decisions should be translated into widely spoken African languages and shared through radio, television, community media and digital platforms. This would not replace the Union’s working languages. It would ensure that more Africans understand the work carried out in their name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is also a call to the media. African journalists should do more than report parliamentary sessions. They should interpret decisions in local languages, explain their impact on communities and create platforms where citizens can respond. A Parliament that speaks only to governments cannot fully represent the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agenda 2063 describes Africa as a continent whose development is driven by its citizens. That vision cannot be achieved if communication stops at official communiqu\u00e9s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The success of the Pan-African Parliament will not depend only on the quality of its debates. It will depend on whether those debates reach ordinary Africans in languages they understand. When citizens hear Africa speaking in African languages, they are more likely to listen, participate and help shape the continent’s future.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1635,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[264],"tags":[40,237,33,31,494,469,392,240,517],"class_list":["post-1615","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-governance","tag-acalan","tag-african-languages","tag-african-union","tag-agenda-2063","tag-citizen-participation","tag-democracy","tag-governance","tag-language-policy","tag-pan-african-parliament"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n