From Thousands of African Languages to a Pan-African Language for the African Continental Free Trade Area: A Framework Promoting Kiswahili as Common Language for Intra-African Trade

This paper proposes a framework for promoting Kiswahili as the pan-African trade language to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in achieving its goal of boosting intra-African trade on a continent that has over 3,000 spoken languages and no common lingua franca. We draw from Scott’s (1995) institutional theory to structure the promotion of Kiswahili around the regulative, normative, and cognitive pillars. The framework aims to stimulate scholarly discussion on a pan-African trade language and serve as a tool for policymakers at national and supranational levels to promote Kiswahili as a pan-African language for trade.