The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in the African Experience

Abstract

Part 1 Global Africa: language an drace in the black experience - an African perspective African languages in the African-American experience linguistic Eurocentrism and African counterpenetration - Ali Mazuri and the global frontiers of language language and the quest for liberation - the legacy of Fritz Fanon. Part 2 Continental Africa: language in a multicultural context - the African experience language planning and gender planning language policy and the foundations of democracy - an African perspective language policy and the rule of law in Anglophone Africa. Part 3 Regional case studies: dominant languages in a plural society - English and Kiswahili in post-colonial East Africa a tale of two Englishes - the imperial language in post-colonial Kenya and Uganda roots of Kiswahili - colonialism, nationalism, and the oral heritage the secularization of an Afro-Islamic language. Concluson: the linguistic balance sheet - post-Cold War, post-apartheid and beyond structural adjustment.