This paper hopes to contribute to the discourse on the question of decolonisation in the literature on languages in Africa. Africa represents over 1 billion people with an estimated 2,140 ‘living’ languages (Etnologue, 2019). The linguistic vitality calls for a re-framing of sociolinguistic discourse to include a multicultural sensibility.
This paper hopes to contribute to the discourse on the question of decolonisation in the literature on languages in Africa. Africa represents over 1 billion people with an estimated 2,140 ‘living’ languages (Etnologue, 2019). The linguistic vitality calls for a re-framing of sociolinguistic discourse to include a multicultural sensibility. This means challenging the dominant narrative that promotes monolingual and native speaker ideology, and celebrate the multiple ‘ways of seeing’ (Piller, 2016) that these vibrant languages offer. I build on ‘ways of seeing’ metaphor as a powerful ontological frame for decolonising the mind through the lens of African languages. Also implicated in policy discourse is the classification of languages as central–periphery (e.g. de Swann, 2001). This paper adopts raciolinguistics lens that challenges 'ideologies links the white speaking and listening subject to monoglossic language ideologies, which position idealized monolingualism in a standard national language as the norm to which all national subjects should aspire’ (Flores & Rosa, 2015). The hegemonic role of English in the post-colonial landscape of Africa has been well-documented and ‘analysed within a variety of theoretical, ideological, and economic frameworks’ Kachru (1997, p. 73). Nevertheless, diasporic English using communities are challenging the monolingual paradigm through transcultural creativity. Critical multicultural literacy can help preserve African ways of seeing through the appropriation of the colonial language. This paper sees language and ideology as linked, consequently where a sign is present, ideology is also present (Volosinov, 1973). In conclusion, to decolonise the mind, we must create a space for genuine dialogue where scholars from the ‘Global North’ and Africa can come to the table of brotherhood to decolonise the language. Ref:Flores, N. and Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in Education. Harvard Educational review, Summer 2015; 85, 2: ProQuest. Pp. 149-171.
