Language and National Identity in Africa

by Simpson, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780199286744
• ISBN10: 0199286744
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book focuses on language, culture, and national identity in Africa. Leading specialists examine countries in every part of the continent - Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanbia, South Africa, and the nations of the Horn, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Each chapter describes and examines the country's linguistic and political history and the relation of its languages to national, ethnic, and cultural identities, and assesses the relative status of majority and minority languages and the role of language in ethnic conflict. Of the book's authors, fifteen are from Africa and seven from Europe and the USA. Jargon-free, fully referenced, and illustrated with seventeen maps, this book will be of value to a wide range of readers in linguistics, politics, history, sociology, and anthropology. It will interest everyone wishing to understand the dynamic interactions between language and politics in Africa, in the past and now.

Author Biography

Andrew Simpson is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California. He has studied and travelled extensively in Africa, and is particularly interested in the dynamics of post-colonial language development in West Africa. He is the editor of the Language and National Identity in Asia (OUP 2007).

Table of Contents

List of Maps
Introduction	p. 1
Egypt: From Egyptian to Pan-Arab Nationalism	p. 26
Morocco: Language, Nationalism, and Gender	p. 44
Sudan: Majorities, Minorities, and Language Interactions	p. 61
Senegal: The Emergence of a National Lingua Franca	p. 79
Mali: In Defence of Cultural and Linguistic Pluralism	p. 98
Sierra Leone: Krio and the Quest for National Integration	p. 122
Ghana: Indigenous Languages, English, and an Emerging National Identity	p. 141
Ivory Coast: The Supremacy of French	p. 158
Nigeria: Ethno-linguistic Competition in the Giant of Africa	p. 172
Cameroon: Official Bilingualism in a Multilingual Stare	p. 199
D. R. Congo: Language and 'Authentic Nationalism'	p. 214
Kenya: Language and the Search for a Coherent National Identity	p. 235
Tanzania: The Development of Swahili as a National and Official Language	p. 252
The Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia	p. 267
Zambia: 'One Zambia, One Nation, Many Languages'	p. 291
South Africa: The Rocky Road to Nation Building	p. 314
References	p. 339
Index	p. 363
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