This contribution aims to introduce the reader to the African socio-linguistic panorama and to the main issues bound to the often oversimplified dichotomy which sees, in abstract terms, verbal communication as opposed to written production. In the present article I will try to bring t light all different aspects which contribute to make the question a very complex and multilayered one, at least in Africa, above all because the vast majority of African languages to date do even not have a written form.
In such conditions, the issue is not weather, when or how, writing is used or allowed, but why the lack of adequate written varieties is so pervasive and weather and how things could be possibly changed for the better, in order to really value, protect and promote the use of minority and endangered African spoken languages.
In brief, I will discuss the following 5 points: 1) the number of living languages in the continent (and the difference between pluri- and multilingualism); 2) the presence of indigenous African scripts and imported alphabets from the 3rd millennium b.C. to present day; 3) the supremacy of orality over writing with specific references to traditional literature and artistic production; 4) the unfair distribution of literacy and formal education in the continent; 5) the importance of linguistic policies for the right to education and the protection of endangered minority languages and communities.
