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² The 15 original member states can be grouped thus, Anglophone: The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia. Francophone: Benin, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger. Senegal, Togo, Upper Volta. Lusophone: Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, which joined later.

³ The defunct East African Common Market, and the Central African Economic and Customs Union (UDEAC). See Jalloh, A. A., “Recent Trends in Regional Integration in Africa”, in: Nigerian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 6, No. 1 & 2 (1980), pp. 71–81Google Scholar.

⁴ Quoted from Hilf, M., Auslegung mehrspraehiger Vertrage, Springer, Heidelberg, (1973), p. 20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁶ Research, has revealed that well over 500 languages are spoken in West Africa.

⁷ Mazrui, Ali A., A World Federation of Cultures, Free Press, New York, (1977), p. 322Google Scholar. Sir P. Sinker was said to have remarked: “When we consider what is or is not a world language, the significant feature is not the home market but the export market”. Thus English and French rank as the most exported European languages in Africa.

⁸ See generally Crowe, C. S. E., The Berlin West Africa Conference 1884–1885, especially chapter VGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Togoland, formerly a German colony, became a Mandated Territory under the League of Nations. Under the United Nations, it became a Trusteeship territory entrusted to the French administration whereby French became the official language of the territory. Thus, German ceased to be an official language in West Africa in 1919.

¹⁰ Mazrui, Ali A., op. cit., pp. 332–333Google Scholar.

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¹² Alexandra, P., “Linguistic Problems of Contemporary Africa”, in: Presence Africaine, Vol. 13, No. 41, Second Quarterly, (1962), p. 16Google Scholar.

¹³ Ladefoged, P., A Phonetic Study of West African Languages, Cambridge (1968), p. xiGoogle Scholar.

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²⁴ Hyder, M. highlights this in his article, “Swahili in the Technical Age”, in East Africa Journal, (02 1966), Vol. 11, No. 9, p. 9Google Scholar. This situation contrasts sharply with that in East Africa where Swahili is the lingua franca of the entire region.

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³⁷ L. Makay, Secretary-General of AAU, restated the divergent views at the seminar.

³⁸ L. S. Senghor, op. cit. Moreover, compare Senghor's view with Professor Mazrui who said, “But it was not simply the religion and morality of the West which helped to transform Africa culturally; it was also the languages of the West. The role of the English and French languages have been especially important in the transformation of Africa”—Mazrui, , op. cit., p. 91Google Scholar.

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⁴⁷ Verbatim Report of the Proceedings of the Standing Committee Meeting on the Establishment of the African Institute of International Law and the Documentation Centre.

⁴⁸ Ibid., p. 16.

⁴⁹ Ibid., p. 34.

⁵⁰ Mellinkoff, D., The Language of the Law, Little, Brown & Company, Toronto (1967), p. 33Google Scholar.

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⁵³ In August, 1981, the present writer had an interview with the ECOWAS Deputy Executive Secretary, Dr James Inti, who confirmed that the Community was not preoccupied by the choice of African languages.

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