JANUARY 2023
Connecting Africa and the Caribbean: Building Resilience for Tourism Sustainability
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NIGERIAN SCHOOLS SET TO CONDUCT LESSONS IN LOCAL LANGUAGES
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igeria says it wants primary school teachers to conduct lessons in local languages instead of English, which is currently used. But how practical is that in a country where more than 600 different tongues are spoken?
Kareem Abiodun Habeebullah, whose mother tongue is Yoruba, was just a secondary school student when he was whipped in class for not speaking in English. "When I was growing up, I was struggling to speak English," he said. "There was a particular class," he says, recalling the
incident in 2010. The teacher called him up to answer a question, and he was stumped. "I know the answer but I can only respond with my mother language," he remembers saying. The teacher replied: "No way", came to where he stood, and then the beating began. Corporal
punishment is still common in some Nigerian schools, although moves have been made to eradicate it. She gave me one stroke of the cane." His was not an isolated incident he says, and other students at his school received harsh reprimands for daring to speak in Yoruba instead
of English. More than 60 years after independence from Britain, English remains Nigeria's official language, and is used in public settings such as schools, universities, government and many workplaces.
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frica’s ecological and geological characteristics, as well as its geographical location, have been identified as major factors contributing to the volatility of continental tourism. Many African destinations have traditionally, and more intensely since the emergence of the climate change phenomenon, experienced exaggerated risks associated with droughts, earthquakes, floods, cyclones, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, population displacement and disease outbreaks. The COVID19 pandemic has further compounded the inherent vulnerabilities of African tourism. Africa recorded a 75 % decline in tourist arrivals in 2020 and an estimated USD 120 billion in GDP contributions from tourism in 2020. This translates to over five times the loss in receipts recorded in 2009 during the global economic and financial crisis. This also translates into the loss of 12.4 million jobs, or 51 % less jobs in the tourism between 2019 and 2020. Unsurprisingly, many local communities, especially those in the vicinity of wildlife conservation areas and who depend on tourism for their economic livelihoods, are now facing risks of starvation and lack of basic humanitarian services, due to the steep tourism decline experienced over the past several months.
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