Language politics in postcolonial Africa revisited: Minority agency and language imposition

Abstract

This article returns to the knotty question of minority language maintenance in the face of impositions of hegemonic national language(s) in postcolonial Africa. Drawing on postcolonial resistance theories, empirical data on the language ecology of Zimbabwe and case studies from other multilingual African contexts, the article is a rethink of the agency of minority ethnolinguistic groups to the declining use of their languages. The article confronts an issue that has so far not been addressed directly by research scholarship on African sociolinguistics – the role of minorities in the marginalisation of their own languages. The premise is that the imposition of hegemonic languages is not always achieved without any form of resistance and/or consent from speakers of dominated languages. It is concluded that in spite of the existence of official language policies, there is still room for ‘unplanned’ language planning activities to be used in resisting hegemonic language ideologies.

Keywords:

• cross-border languages
• hegemonic national languages
• language planning from below
• minorities
• ‘unplanned’ language planning