You said: people will learn different languages if they feel their survival depended on it or if they feel it can enhance their economic opportunities. In the Caribbean, for example, there is not much trade with Africa, and so, many will not see the relevance of learning an African language to enhance their economic opportunities. The little trade that is done with the Continent is already done in an European language.

Spanish and French are taught in schools across Trinidad & Tobago, and yet there are still very few Trinbagonians who are fluent in either language. One would think that positioned as close as we are to South/Latin America that most Trinbagonians would share a proficiency in one or more of those Latin derivatives.

It should be the responsibility of elected leaders, especially those entrusted with the education of our nation's children, to afford its citizenry the widest margin of opportunity for success. If these opportunities happen to fall outside the scope of colonial gatecrashers, then so be it. Was it a desire for economic enhancement that sparked my childhood curiosity about a foreign tongue? I think not. The fact remains, I was curious and Spanish was made available, my curiosity might have been just as easily satisfied, with Zulu, Shona, Yoruba, or Arabic for that matter.

Your post however, correctly describes the opportunistic African computer science major of the 80's; for whom a command of the Japanese language was a ticket to success. Nowadays, its one or more of a Chinese dialect and in some cases Hindi.