The President of the Assembly of Academician of the African Academy of Languages, ACALAN, Prof. Beban Sammy Chumbow has reiterated that no meaningful development can take place without the use of the indigenous language of a people.

He made this known recently in an exclusive chat with CEOAfrica in Brazaville.

According to him, " the role of the Assembly of Academicians of ACALAN among other things is to ensure that the policy of the AU is implemented and the policy of AU as far as language is concerned is encapsulated in the document Language Plan of Action for African (LPAA) as well as the charter of African cultures.

"This means that the academy has the responsibility of advising the head of states on any modification or development as far as policy is concerned so that development in Africa will be anchored on the use of African languages in partnership with colonial languages which have now become the official languages of most countries and which unfortunately seem to be used as the only language by many countries as the only language for bringing development at the position of AU is that no intrinsic development can take place without the use of the languages of the people because the development needs of the people must be addressed in  the language they understand and to that extent, the Academy as a whole and the Assembly of

Academicians have the responsibility of ensuring that this policy is well conceptualized and implemented by interacting with the various components of the academy that have roles to play.

"We do know for instance that, the national structure in every country which is responsible for the language policy of that country, those structures serve as focal points for African Union and especially ACALAN,and to that extent we work with these structures to ensure that we co-ordinate the activities of the language policy implementation on the continent," he said.