This book focuses on language, culture, and identity in nineteen countries in Africa. Leading specialists, mainly from Africa, describe national linguistic and political histories, assess the status of majority and minority languages, and consider the role of language in ethnic conflict.

The question of identity in relation to language has hardly been dealt with in the Middle East and North Africa, in spite of the centrality of these issues to a variety of scholarly debates concerning this strategically important part of the world. The book seeks to cover a variety of themes in this area.

This new study powerfully asserts the pivotal importance of the interplay between language and ethnicity, which is often underestimated as a component for political stability. These leading scholars present five key case studies of South Africa, Algeria, Canada, Latvia and Senegal. All five countries are multilingual nations where language has been a central political issue that has challenged their unity and stability. These studies are underpinned by two general, comparative and theoretical discussions, which analyse how scholars consider social class and economic factors to be the primary sources for political cohesion or of malcontent with the system and the new avenues opened by a focus on issues of langauge. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of linguistics, language, politics and sociology. This is a special issue of the leading journal Nationalism and Ethnic Politics.

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject African Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: B+, , course: Peace,Conflict and International relations, language: English, abstract: The main objective of this work is to investigate how national identity in Cameroon can be constructed around education and language. The specific objectives are the following: To investigate how the education system in Cameroon promotes/ support national identity and nation building, to examine how language can support nation building in Cameroon, to investigate the challenges of nation building in Cameroon. Since November 2016, Cameroon has witnessed violent conflicts due mainly to its colonially brewed linguistic cum cultural divide. What is now referred to as the ‘Anglophone Crises’ has manifested seriously in the struggle by the English-speaking minority to preserve its language, education and judiciary systems, against perceived threats of assimilation by the majority French-speaking population who tend to dominate the central government, given that they are in majority. Therefore, this work set out to show that the absence of national identities, especially in the languages and education systems adopted by Cameroonians, poses serious challenges to achieving durable peace and sustainable nation-building. A qualitative content analysis was used for the study. Content in the social studies where materials read and collected from both primary and secondary sources to determine patterns and generate themes. The study was analyzed descriptively and presented in graphs, tables, and charts, while critically the study found that although common understanding is growing across the English-speaking and French-speaking Cameroonian population, the State has done far too little to create, popularize, and mainstream concrete tokens of national identity, such that over time the evolved ‘Cameroonian’ identity progressively displaces the alien and divisive “Francophone and Anglophone” identities. Accordingly, a multi-stakeholder, all-inclusive and continuing national dialogue process should be institutionalized to construct national identities to serve pivots upon which national policies on communication, education, and adjudication are anchored. Achieving the above outcomes, however, calls for political will, sincerity of purpose, and sound diversity management and peacebuilding policy implementation capacities.

There seems to be general agreement that children learn better when they understand what the teacher is saying. In Africa this is not the case. Instruction is given in a foreign language, a language neither pupils nor the teachers understand well. This is the greatest educational problem there is in Africa. This is the problem this book discusses and it is therefore an important book. The recent focus on quality education becomes meaningless when teaching is given in a language pupils do not understand. Babaci-Wilhite concludes that any local curriculum that ignores local languages and contexts risks a loss of learning quality and represent a violation of children’s rights in education. The book is highly recommended. Birgit Brock-Utne, Professor of Education and Development, University of Oslo, Norway Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite’s illuminating African case studies display a mastery of the literature on policies related to not only language policies integrally related to human rights in education, but to the relationship between education and national development. The book provides a paradigm shift from focusing on the issue of schooling access to the very meaning education has for personal and collective identity and affirmation. As such, it will appeal to a wide audience of education scholars, policy makers and practitioners. Robert F. Arnove, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA A very important and timely book that makes crucial contribution to critical reviews of the policies about languages of instruction and rights in education in Africa. Brilliantly crafted and presented with great clarity the author puts into perspective issues that need to be addressed to improve academic performance in Africa’s educational systems in order to attain the goal of providing education for all as well as restoring rights in education. This can be achieved through critical examination of languages of instruction and of the cultural relevance of the curricula. Definitely required reading for scholars of education and human rights in general, in Africa in particular, as well as for education policy makers. Sam Mchombo, Associate Professor of African Languages and Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, USA This book contributes to enlighten a crucial academic as well as a democratic and philosophical issue: The right to education and the rights in education, as it is seen in the dilemmas of the right to use your local language. It offers a high-level research and the work is both cutting edge and offers new knowledge to the fields of democracy, human rights and education. The book is a unique contribution to a very important academic discussion on rights in education connecting to language of instruction in schools, politics and power, as well as it frames the questions of why education and language can be seen as a human right for sustainable development in Africa. The actuality of the book is disturbing: We need to take the debate on human rights in education for the children of the world, for their future and for their right to a cultural identity. Inga Bostad, Director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, Norway

This book examines how the interplay between globalization and the assertion of local identities is reshaping the political landscape of Africa. While defending their values against external forces, people simultaneously – and paradoxically – use the interconnectivity of global networks to maximize their particular interests. Focusing on the relation between national identity and state formation, the authors explore the far-reaching consequences of these contradictory dynamics. Although Africa shares many common trends with other parts of the world, it also displays distinctive features. A region characterized by the increased mobility of people, goods and ideas challenges some conventional assumptions of statecraft and also highlights the advantages of federalism – not merely as a constitutional option, but as a pragmatic device for managing diversity and holding fragile states together. The book further explores emerging types of state formation in the same political space, as exemplified by the combination of elements of a kingdom, an independent state and a national power base in the province of KwaZulu-Natal and the careful crafting of an alternative state within a state by the Solidarity Movement in South Africa. Informed by examples and case studies drawn from different parts of Africa, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Africa, politics, sociology, media studies and the social sciences more generally.