We asked Dr Evelyn Chibaka Fogwe why multilingualism is important. This is her answer, given at the 10th Language and Development Conference in Cape Town. Dr Evelyn Chibaka Fogwe teaches Linguistics at the University of Buea, Cameroon. From 2007 to 2009, she worked as a Georg Forster Research Fellow at the Asien-Afrika-Institut at the University of Hamburg. For more information about the 10th Language and Development Conference, visit our website http://www.britishcouncil.org.za/languageconference