ABSTRACT
Publishing newspapers in indigenous African languages has largely been a precarious business as many of such newspapers disappear shortly after their introduction to the newsstands. Several factors may be responsible for this short life-span. One is the apathy to indigenous languages in Africa, which results in low patronage in terms of copy sales and advertisement placement. This language apathy is traceable to colonialism, which has adversely affected indigenous languages and elevated colonial languages as languages as the norm in government, business, education and media. In essence, colonial languages are languages of power and progress. Just like Africa, Asia was also a colonized continent. The power of English and its attendant attraction, for instance, is also felt in the former Asian colonies. This, in a way, has also had implications for the survival of indigenous language newspapers in Asia. Interestingly, Asian language newspapers are, compared to a majority of their African counterparts, thriving and, in a good number of cases, performing better than English language press in terms of circulation. A saving grace for Indian language newspapers, for instance, is the government subsidy. This paper examines lessons that Africa can learn from Asia in terms of the development and sustainability of local language newspapers.
