Abstract
Charles University This study deals with language policies in Africa with a special focus on multi-ethnic and multi-lingual states including Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Democratic Republic of Congo. The study will thus examine relations between state and minorities, the status of major and marginalized languages, the roles of European languages in politics as well as theoretical frameworks. Sub-Saharan Africa has undergone a remarkable process from linguistic imperialism to linguistic pluralism and revivalism. Until the 1960s the superior position of the European languages (English, French, and Portuguese) was evident, but after the Africanization of politics and society in many African countries, a strong accent on linguistic emancipation was initiated. Nowadays, many African countries follow the principle of linguistic pluralism where several languages enjoy the same rights and space in the media, administrative, education, etc. This study will discuss some important case studies and their specific language policies.
Highlights
This study aims to depict a role which languages play in the socio-political sphere of African multi-ethnic states
The most important event was the approval of full rights to minority languages, which brought a certain revision of Ethiopian history based on linguistic imperialism with Amharic as the sole dominant and acknowledged language
Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa in their social, political and economic context are directly influenced by the colonial heritage since foreign (European and Arabic) languages dominate the continent while indigenous African languages struggle to gain the widely accepted status of international languages
Summary
This study aims to depict a role which languages play in the socio-political sphere of African multi-ethnic states. We will deal with the development of language policies in theory as well as in several case studies including Cameroon, Ethiopia and West Africa. Each of these regions represents a specific historical, political and sociocultural experience. One of the crucial questions in studying language policies is the role of the former colonial powers in promoting their national languages (English, French, Portuguese), which in many cases overtook the functions of national and/or official languages in the postcolonial states in Africa. The last part is dedicated to several short case studies which illustrate the researched topic and the variability of language policies and statuses of African languages in postcolonial Africa. This study is a part of my postdoctoral research project Separatism, conflicts and seeds of tensions in Africa: theories, causes and case studies (GA ČR 409/09/P061)
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