This book argues for centrality of language to address Africa’s developmental challenges. It contends for the empowerment of African languages to serve in all domains, and it propagates ways to empower African languages for African socio-cultural and economic development in the twenty-first century.

Africa’s diversity is best illustrated linguistically. Thousands of endogenous and exogenous languages are linked to and central to the identity and reality of Africans. Language is a vital lens for analyzing these multifaceted challenges in Africa, where a deeper understanding of the entire linguistic landscape is germane to understanding sociopolitical and cultural systems. Concentrating on instrumental and emblematic functions of language in Africa, Language, Society, and Empowerment in Africa and Its Diaspora argues for the critical value of African languages beyond functionality into philosophical consideration of their importance for African unity and advancement. Akinloyè Òjó calls for the development and empowerment of African languages to serve in various domains, including the support of basic literacy and daily survival of their users. Òjó propagates ways to empower African languages for African sociocultural and economic development in the twenty-first century. The author productively engages works by linguists and language pedagogues to provide an ardent case for the empowerment of African languages in the renewed era of globalization, the internet, and an emergent Global Africa. Òjó posits and accentuates some of the notable modalities for empowering African languages in specialized domains for national and continental development.

List of Maps

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Language in Africa: A General Introduction

Chapter 2: Classifications of Languages in Africa

Chapter 3: Language, Ethnic Identity and Multilingualism in Africa

Chapter 4: A Panorama of Language Planning across Africa

Chapter 5: Language-Based Problems and National Development in Africa: Nigeria as a case study

Chapter 6: Empowering African Languages for Socio-Cultural and Economic Development in the 21st Century

Chapter 7: The Emergent Field of African Language Pedagogy in North America and Western Europe

Chapter 8: Language Variation and Ethnicity: The Case of African American English (AAE)

Afterword

Bibliography

About the Author