Multilingualism in Southern Africa : Issues and Perspectives

This collection showcases perspectives from established and emerging scholars on the contemporary landscape of multilingualism in Southern Africa.

The book explores the broader impact of colonialism and neocolonialism on language policies and practices, drawing on case studies from such countries as Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The volume is organized thematically around four different sections, looking at issues around linguistic diversity across different sectors including contemporary debates on African languages, language education, youth languages, and language documentation.

Taken together, the collection seeks to offer readers with a more nuanced understanding of fundamental issues in the development of multilingualism across different countries in Southern Africa today and encourage future research on multilingualism in Africa more broadly. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars in multilingualism, sociolinguistics, language policies, language education, and African studies.