Paper 1401
The State of African Languages and the Global Language Politics: Empowering African Languages in the Era of Globalization
Zaline Makini Roy-Campbell
1-13 (complete paper or proceedings contents)
Abstract
This keynote address draws its inspiration from the richness and diversity of Africa languages. Within the current era of globalization, it focuses on some of the key questions related to the tensions inherent in the legacies of cultural and linguistic domination. It considers the past devaluation of African languages within the colonial context and the current efforts to mine the indigenous knowledge inherent in African languages through biopiracy. The paper speaks to how some African linguists are tapping traditional bonds of cultural and linguistic similarity among groups to address the multiplicity of African languages through their work on harmonization of languages. In this regard the address proposes the empowerment of African languages as vehicles of scientific and technological discourse to be an essential task in the positioning of African countries in the world in the 21st century.
Published in
Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Shifting the Center of Africanism in Language Politics and Economic Globalization
edited by Olaoba F. Arasanyin and Michael A. Pemberton
Table of contents
Paper 1401
The State of African Languages and the Global Language Politics: Empowering African Languages in the Era of Globalization
Zaline Makini Roy-Campbell
1-13 (complete paper or proceedings contents)
Zaline Makini Roy-Campbell
1-13 (complete paper or proceedings contents)
Abstract
This keynote address draws its inspiration from the richness and diversity of Africa languages. Within the current era of globalization, it focuses on some of the key questions related to the tensions inherent in the legacies of cultural and linguistic domination. It considers the past devaluation of African languages within the colonial context and the current efforts to mine the indigenous knowledge inherent in African languages through biopiracy. The paper speaks to how some African linguists are tapping traditional bonds of cultural and linguistic similarity among groups to address the multiplicity of African languages through their work on harmonization of languages. In this regard the address proposes the empowerment of African languages as vehicles of scientific and technological discourse to be an essential task in the positioning of African countries in the world in the 21st century.
Published in
Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Shifting the Center of Africanism in Language Politics and Economic Globalization
edited by Olaoba F. Arasanyin and Michael A. Pemberton
Table of contents
edited by Olaoba F. Arasanyin and Michael A. Pemberton
Table of contents