5) Swahili, national language of Tanzania, official in Kenya and other eastern African countries, having some older literature written in Arabic script and abundant modern literature in Latin script, and spoke by about fifteen million people;
6) Hausa, official language of northern Nigeria, lingua franca and commercial language of western Africa, significant literature (some older) written in Arabic and Latin script;
7) Yoruba, semi-official language in western Nigeria, having abundant modern literature, spoken by more than five million people;
8) Ibo, semi-official language of eastern Nigeria, spoken by more than three and a half million people;
9) Fula, lingua franca in northern Cameroun but spoken in several other western African countries, having sizable literature in Arabic and Latin script, spoken by over five million people;
10) Akan, representing a group of languages, proposed as the national language of Ghana, lingua franca in Ivory Coast, spoken by over three million people;
11) Mande-Tan, representing a subgroup, proposed as official language of Mali, important lingua franca of western Africa, having some literature written in Arabic script or indigenous script (e.g. Vai) and spoken by over six million people;
12) Rwanda (-Rundi), an important language of eastern and east-central Africa, having a good deal of transcribed oral literature, and spoken by over five million people;
13) Zulu, spoken in South Africa and the surrounding countries, of great interest to phoneticists;
14) Shona, the language of Zimbabwe;
15) Sotho-Tswana, a language with important modern literature from southern African and also phonetically interesting; and several others. For the study of any of these languages, there exist good and even excellent grammars, dictionaries, and readers.
Normally, it is not possible to teach more than a limited number of languages in one department without a large number of faculty that are recruited gradually. But it is possible to select half a dozen to a dozen African languages on the basis of their long history of literary records, possession of extensive written or oral literature, modern usage in literature, education, commerce, and importance in philological studies and to group these languages together to form a departmental unit. Five professors who are experts in one specific area but who are able to handle several related languages can be recruited to develop a coherent curriculum along these lines: a professor of Egyptian languages and literature who takes an interest in the problem of the stu-of Meroitic and who possesses some knowledge of Berber or a Cushitic language; a specialist in Ge'ez who can also handle some of the Cushitic or Semitic languages of the Horn; a specialist in Swahili who can handle some other important eastern-central languages of Africa (e.g. Kikuyu); a specialist in Hausa who can handle some of the important languages of western Africa; and a specialist in Zulu, Soth-Tswana, or Shona who can handle some of the important languages of southern Africa.
Respect for a genuine mature understanding of the mind and culture of a people comes mainly through the patience necessary to master their language and a willingness to look at the world from their point of view. In this spirit, should Harvard not end intellectual indifference to black culture and establish a Department of African Languages and Literatures--which could eventually be developed into a Department of African Languages and Civilizations?
Ephraim Isaac, associate professor of Afro-American studies, is on sabbatical during this academic year, completing a major work, "An Introduction to Classical Ethiopic Literature", through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.