•Nigeria has a single language isolate, the Jalaa or Cen Tuum language spoken among
the Cham in the Gombe area.
•Analysis so far suggests that it is unrelated to any other language in the world and
thus is probably a survival from the foraging period when West Africa would
have been occupied by small bands speaking a diverse range of now disappeared
languages
•Other language isolates are Laal (Chad) and Bangi Me (Mali)
•Evidence from Mali (Onjougou), Birimi (Ghana) and Shum Laka (Cameroun) puts
the settlement of West Africa by modern humans at least ca. 40,000
BP
•