Linguistics In Africa Research Articles

Decolonizing applied linguistics in Africa and its diasporas: disrupting the center

ABSTRACT The decolonization of applied linguistics is a critique of applied linguistics (see Phillipson, 1999; Phipps, 2018 and Pennycook & Makoni, 2020). We argue for a shift toward the Global South, in particular Africa, and for the importance of paying attention to ‘race’ as a significant category of analysis in applied linguistics in Africa. Three points require attention in a decolonized applied linguistics: 1) The identification of northern sociolinguistic theories masked as universal and a shift toward Southern frameworks, 2) The acknowledgment of ‘white privilege’ and ‘white fragility’ in language studies, more generally, and the inclusion of ‘race’ as a category of analysis among authors, and 3) The under-representation of female African scholars. The challenges transcend an agenda that redresses exclusions, and the colonial past of linguistics and location in neoliberal times. We question principles underlying applied linguistics in the Global North, often based on patriarchal and capitalist impositions, and epistemological racism in applied linguistics. We argue for a decolonized applied linguistics which draws from indigenous cosmovisions. These cosmovisions sidestep the dualism that is typical of Global North scholarship: individual/collective, body/mind. We show that Euro-American applied linguistics is evolving toward Africa in particular fields.

Gender and language in sub-Saharan African contexts

In this paper, we examine a range of issues associated with the study of gender and language in sub-Saharan African contexts. These include whether (and in what sense) such contexts may constitute a ‘special case’, the relevance of feminism, and what might be encompassed by ‘context’, ‘African contexts’ and ‘African topics’ – and a substantial amount of what we write is relevant to Applied Linguistics in Africa more broadly (see Makoni and Meinhof 2004 for a discussion). We argue that while all the gender issues are of interest and importance to language and gender study in general, it is possible to see some of these issues as ‘characteristic’ of African contexts (albeit with ‘echoes’ elsewhere). It will be evident from this first paper (and those which follow) that along with taking on board commonalities in terms of the theoretical notions used in our field in African and non-African contexts, there is also a need to recognise a range of situated understandings of gender identities, gender relations, understandings of gender more broadly, and feminism.

Western perspectives in applied linguistics in Africa

The aim of this article is to analyze the nature of the historical and contemporary social contexts within which applied linguistics in Africa emerged, and is currently practiced. The article examines the challenges ‘local’ applied Linguistics in Africa is confronted with as it tries to amplify applied linguistic programs emanating from Europe and North America. The article argues that seemingly progressive applied linguistic projects interconnect in consolidating a western view of Africa in postcolonial Africa. In this way these projects end up mirroring the very theories which they seek to challenge.

Introducing applied linguistics in Africa

Introducing applied linguistics in Africa

Social Issues in Historical Linguistics in Africa

Proceedings of the Twenty-First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Historical Issues in Sociolinguistics/Social Issues in Historical Linguistics (1995)

Oral Data Collecting and Linguistics in Africa

Oral Data Collecting and Linguistics in Africa

Linguistics in Africa: Introductory Note by the Editor

The present number of Africa is devoted to linguistic questions and deals with a number of tasks with which the Institute is concerned. The notes on the results achieved by the publication of the Short Guide to the Recording of African Languages bear on the survey and classification of African languages, and are related to the general report published in the January number of Africa, and at the same time to Dr. Lukas's article on the situation in the area lying between the Nile and Lake Chad. Dr. Lukas's contribution is the first of a series of articles in which it is intended to cover the whole of Negro Africa and to show in detail the present condition of linguistic research of the area dealt with in each article, the existing gaps in our knowledge, and the work to be undertaken in the near future; the articles will also help to classify the languages spoken in each area.