Encounters with Xenophobia: Language Learning Experiences of Cameroonian and Nigerian Migrants in South Africa

Abstract

This article focuses on the fraught relation between xenophobia and language use and learning in the South African sociolinguistic context. It begins with the issue of labelling and the linguistic drawing of boundaries that speak to the phenomena of “othering” and xenophobia. It then proceeds to aspects of diasporic communication and identity negotiation as revealed in language learning, language crossing, and translanguaging in this fraught context. The article draws on two ongoing case studies of selected language practices and choices of Cameroonian migrants and Nigerian returnees. The research on Cameroonians was conducted in Cape Town while the Nigerian work involved preliminary interviews with, and observations of, Igbo returnees from South Africa in Igboland. The nature of xenophobic manifestations in South Africa may appear to be aimed at silencing the “other.” Yet some syntheses are possible, as evident in some acts of language learning and translanguaging that are presented in the article, especially among the Igbo returnees to Nigeria.