Vernacular Palaver Imaginations of the Local and Non-Native Languages in West Africa

by Adejunmobi, Moradewun

• ISBN13: 9781853597725
• ISBN10: 1853597724
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-22
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Summary

Vernacular Palaver examines the continuing appeal of the idea of ‘the local' for cultural brokers in West Africa, even in instances where they have a growing interaction with diverse global and continental languages of wider communication. It highlights the contribution of foreign and indigenous languages of wider communication to the formation of the new alliances and sodalities that are testing the relevance of locality, and reshaping the concept of local culture, in West Africa. The author traces the role of discourse about language in West African identity politics from the cultural nationalists of the early 20th century to the religious transnationals of the contemporary period. Using examples from video film, popular literature, the activity of religious associations, and educational practice, this book seeks to advance our understanding of the varied functions of non-native languages in multilingual societies.

Author Biography

Moradewun Adejunmobi is an Associate Professor in the African American and African Studies Program of the University of California, Davis, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Acknowledgements	xi
1 Colonial Encounters and Discourses of the Vernacular	1	(51)
Vernacular Literacy and Colonial Education	4	(6)
African Responses to Colonial Discourses of the Vernacular	10	(5)
Major and Minor Discourses of the Vernacular	15	(8)
Modernity, Contestation, and the Colonizer's Language	23	(29)
2 African Literature, European Languages, and Imaginations of the Local	52	(49)
African Languages and African Literatures	56	(5)
African Literature as a Pan-Africanist Practice	61	(9)
Imaginations of the Local in Critical and Creative Writing	70	(9)
Debating Language	79	(22)
3 Foreign Languages, Local Audiences: The Case of Nigerian Video Film in English	101	(30)
Video Film in Nigeria	103	(4)
English in Nigerian Popular Culture	107	(2)
Defining the Audience	109	(6)
'Foreign' Languages and African Audiences	115	(16)
4 Romance Without Borders: Narrating Love, Femininity, and the Local in Contemporary Ivory Coast	131	(33)
Visions of Femininity in the Romance Narratives of Ivory Coast	135	(6)
Biton Koulibaly and Ivorian Popular Writing	141	(11)
Cultural Outsiders and the Politics of the Local	152	(12)
5 Languages of Wider Communication and Alternative Sites of Belonging	164	(39)
Language, the State, and the Nation	166	(5)
Language and the Charismatic Church	171	(8)
Languages of Wider Communication and the Community	179	(10)
Interactions with the West	189	(14)
Conclusion	203	(3)
Bibliography	206	(16)
Index	222