Why do groups of people who live close to each other speak completely different languages in Africa?
The people of Africa were tribal and very warlike. They might have lived in near proximity to each other but they only interacted with your own tribe. There was no inter-tribal commerce so no need of shared language. This violent tribalism is also tragically what allowed the slave trade to flourish. One tribe would sell the neighboring tribes out. The slave trade could never have been so successful if many Africans hadn’t sought to profit from it by selling their neighbors who spoke a different language. This part of the story usually gets left out.
