The state’s Council of Ministers adopted a constitutional change on Wednesday that elevates local languages to official status and relegates French to the rank of “working language.”
Language status reforms in the former French colony were declared by Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, Minister of Justice and Human Rights.
French is still a working language, but national languages are being institutionalised as official languages in this draft constitution, according to Bayala.
According to the minister, the document includes revisions that would allow non-magistrates to join the Supreme Council of the Judiciary and increase the authority of the Constitutional Council. As per La Nouvelle Tribune, this will enable the state to break free from its colonial past while fortifying its sovereignty and cultural identity.
The decision, according to Bayala, is a component of an effort to amend the military authorities’ constitution. The military authorities assumed power in late September 2022 after a coup. They cancelled the nation’s double taxation deal with France in August of this year.
Mali also approved a new constitution on July 22 that removed French as the official language and elevated the native tongues. English is being prioritised in education changes now underway in Morocco, and Arabic has supplanted French as the official language in Algeria.
