Cabdrivers are universally renowned as a source of political gossip. In October 1969, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia, I was anxious to hear the latest gossip on my weekly shopping trip to Muqdisho, for a military coup had just occurred. Rumors about the assassination of the civilian president, the political chaos that ensued in naming his successor, and the foreign intrigue that had encouraged the military officers to stage a coup were rife.

I hailed a cab to drive me from the vegetable market to the fish market and anticipated a lively conversation. Thanks to my Peace Corps language training, I was able to talk politics with the driver in the Somali language. Having been in the country a mere five months, I was rather proud of my language achievement. As we reached the fish market, I asked him how much the fare was, and he responded “Cinquanta.” Not knowing Italian, the colonial language in southern Somalia, I told him that I did not understand. He responded, in Somali, that I must be an idiot if I can't learn foreign languages.

Anecdotes like mine about the cabdriver show only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining the kaleidoscopic language scene in Africa. It is not uncommon to meet people in all walks of life who speak many languages. My cabdriver claimed facility in Somali, Arabic, and Italian, each of which belongs to a distinct language family. Multilingualism is so common in Somalia that the driver could hardly believe I could not count to fifty in Italian.