Prospects and Challenges of Afan Oromo: A Commentary

Abstract

Afan Oromo- the language of the Oromo- is also known as Oromo. The word ‘Oromo’ refers to both the People of Oromo and their language. It is one of the widely spoken indigenous African languages. It is also spoken in multiple countries in Africa including Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Tanzania among others. Moreover, it is spoken as a native language, second language and lingua-franca across Ethiopia and beyond. Regardless of its scope in terms of number of speakers and geographical area it covers, Afan Oromo as a literary language is only emerging due to perpetuating unfair treatment it received from successive Ethiopian regimes. This commentary sought to examine prospects and challenges of Afan Oromo. To this end, drawing on existing literature and author’s own personal observations, salient prospects and challenges of Afan Oromo have been presented and briefly discussed. Suggestions to confront the challenges foreseen have been proposed by the author where deemed necessary. The paper concludes with author’s concluding remarks concerning the way forward.