Language in Contemporary African Cultures and Societies

Reviews / Votes

Language in Contemporary African Cultures and Societies provides great insights into the richness of the African continent in regards to its indigenous languages. The authors of the book highlight different aspects connected to African languages and literature on the African continent and in the diaspora. They discuss in detail the importance of African languages for communication, collaboration, development, and empowerment. They also delve into areas of research in acquisition of multiple languages and documentation of oral literature. It is a great contribution to the field of African languages and literature. -- Alwiya S. Omar, Indiana University - Bloomington This edited volume, some of which written by key players in the field of African languages and linguistics, brings to the forefront the importance of African languages in the economic development of Africa. The role of language in Islamic extremist narratives and counter-narratives and the continuing acquisition of multiple languages by African adults, challenging the popular Critical Period Hypothesis, are some of the significant and timely contributions of the book to the field of linguistics at large. The editors of the book must be commended for bringing new insights, charting a new territory for research and teaching, and more importantly, for recognizing the critical importance of African languages in various areas in Africa and in the African diaspora. -- Fallou Ngom, Boston University Language in Contemporary African Cultures and Societies is a collection of original chapters dealing with the social dynamics of African languages and literatures studied, analyzed and commented through multidisciplinary lenses. It diverts the reader's attention from usual discussions on the adaptation to useful monolingualism as a must for formal education. Instead, it launches a debate on functional multilingualism, first as a hard reality that many African countries live in, especially in urban areas, and mostly as prized assets towards a sustained development of the continent. The highlighted viewpoints are multifaceted in approach and polyphonic in their multidisciplinary engagement. The analyses relate to areas such as linguistics, language acquisition, discursive analysis, futuristic projection, gender interrogations, enacted language policies, literary analysis, film analysis ... The book stands as a conversion of views that see African languages as powerful assets for Africa's and the diaspora's development and identity consolidation. Rather than attempting to consecrate prestigious monolingualism, encouraging and preserving functional multilingualism, the prime assets for self-valorization, means 'unlocking language forts' in order to foster and enhance social empowerment. This is a new vista that Muaka and Lisanza offer us over the landscape of African languages and literatures! -- Kasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond