Book: Language and National Identity in Africa

Editor: Andrew Simpson
Hardback: ISBN: 9780199286744 Pages: 448 Price: U.S. $ 150.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9780199286751 Pages: 448 Price: U.S. $ 55.00
Abstract:

This book focuses on language, culture, and national identity in Africa.
Leading specialists examine countries in every part of the continent --
Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Ivory Coast,
Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and nations
of the Horn, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Each chapter
describes and examines the country's linguistic and political history and
the relation of its languages to national, ethnic, and cultural identities,
and assesses the relative status of majority and minority languages and the
role of language in ethnic, and cultural identities. The chapters also
assess the relative status of majority and minority languages and the role
of language in ethnic conflict. Of the books authors, fifteen are from
Africa, and seven from Europe and the USA.

Jargon-free, fully referenced, and illustrated with seventeen maps, this
book will be of value to a wide range of readers in linguistics, politics,
history, sociology, and anthropology. It will interest everyone wishing to
understand the dynamic interactions between language and politics in
Africa, in the past and now.