Sinfree Makoni

Disinventing and (Re)Constituting Languages.

In this paper we argue that although the problematic nature of language construction has been acknowledged by a number of skeptical authors, including the recent claim in this journal (Reagan, 2004) that there is no such thing as English or any other language, this critical approach to language still needs to develop a broader understanding of the processes of invention. A central part of our argument, therefore, is that it is not enough to acknowledge that languages have been invented, nor that linguistic metalanguage constructs the world in particular ways; rather, we need to understand the interrelationships among metadiscursive regimes, language inventions, colonial history, language effects, alternative ways of understanding language, and strategies of disinvention and reconstitution. Any critical (applied) linguistic project that aims to deal with language in the contemporary world, however estimable its political intent may be, must also have ways of understanding the detrimental language effects it may engender unless it confronts the need for linguistic disinvention and reconstitution.

The Modern Mission: The Language Effects of Christianity

Christian missionaries have played a crucial role not only in assisting past and current forms of colonialism and neocolonialism, not only in attacking and destroying other ways of being, but also in terms of the language effects their projects have engendered. The choices missionaries have made to use local or European languages have been far more than a mere choice of medium. On the one hand, missionary language projects continue to use and promote European languages, and particularly English, for Christian purposes. The use of English language teaching as a means to convert the unsuspecting English language learner raise profound moral and political questions about what is going on in English classrooms around the world. On the other hand, missionary linguists have played a particular role in the construction and invention of languages around the world. Of particular concern here are the ways in which language use, and understandings of language use, have been-and still are-profoundly affected by missionary projects. Bilingualism between indigenous languages and a metropolitan language, for example, was part of a conservative missionary agenda in which converting to Christianity was the inevitable process of being bilingual. The ongoing legacy of the language effects of Christianity is something that needs urgent attention.

Aging in Africa: A Critical Review

My goal in this article is to analyze gerontological discourses in Africa using articles in this collection as a spring board. The broad intention is to explore the possible areas of intersection between research in African aging and other social science disciplines such as history, politics and linguistics as a way of demonstrating how gerontology may contribute to scholarship in other disciplines.

Communicative dynamics of police-civilian encounters: South African and American interethnic data

Research in the American West, China, and Taiwan has shown that officers’ communication accommodative practices (and attributed trust in them) can be more potent predictors of satisfaction with the police than are the sociodemographic characteristics of those judging. With Black and White respondents, this study continues this line of work in Louisiana and South Africa and tests a new model about the relationships among perceived officer accommodation, trust in the police, and reported voluntary compliance from civilians. In addition to an array of differences that emerged between nations and ethnicities, officer accommodativeness indirectly predicted civilian compliance through trust. The hypothesized model was partially supported and culturally-sensitive.

Zimbabwe Colonial and Post-Colonial Language Policy and Planning Practices

This monograph focuses on the development of colonial and post-colonial language policies and practices in Zimbabwe, attributing changes to evolving philosophies and politics in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe. In colonial Zimbabwe, we argue that the language policies had as one of their key objectives the development of a bilingual white colonial ruling class proficient in both English and at least one African language. Contrary to what some scholars might think, we will show that what was being imposed during the colonial era was not English on Africans but European variants of African languages on Europeans. The monograph also describes how, through linguistic description, Europeans appropriated African languages as a prelude to the imposition of European variants of African languages on Africans under the guise of the promotion of indigenous language. Despite the power and influence of the colonial regime, we demonstrate how Africans still retained a strong sense of agency during the colonial period which enabled them to select, albeit within restricted limits, the nature and type of education they received, the languages through which they were taught, and indeed even the materials which were used in teaching them languages, particularly English.

Language Planning From Below: The Case of the Tonga in Zimbabwe

Arguments for bottom-up approaches in language planning are currently in vogue. Rarely, however, are such arguments supported by evidence demonstrating how such bottom-up planning leading to successful implementation can be achieved. This article presents evidence based on archival documentation in the form of annual reports and manuscripts written by administrators that document how, through community empowerment, the Tonga, a minority (a term which the Tonga do not use) language group from Zimbabwe, successfully lobbied for the promotion and development of Tonga as the language of instruction in all Tonga-speaking areas. But the success of the promotion is constrained by the nature of the framework within which language, heritage and micro-nationalism form the basis of the promotion exercise.

Language and human rights discourses in Africa: Lessons from the African experience

In this article, we investigate the question of who benefits from language minority research by analyzing the discourses of language rights and human rights jointly, because language rights are perforce part of human rights. We argue that some ‘small’ minority languages flourish and others fail unless speakers of these languages articulate their voices and needs. We also explore how human rights discourses relate to traditional practices. The interests of local communities and the involvement of linguists do not enhance the status of minority communities unless linguists traverse the gap between academic discourses on rights and vernacular discourses on similar topics. African linguists are themselves in a double bind: on the one hand, they seek to promote the interests of local communities and, on the other hand, they have to meet their professional obligations. They are not able to address the material needs of local communities because advocating language and human rights cannot resolve Africas intractable problems. In addition, epistemologically, African scholarship is not sufficiently contextualized to be relevant to complex, labile, and polyvalent contexts. The defining epistemological trope contributing to the crises in African scholarship on rights and other sociolinguistic topics is ‘theoretical extraversion’: African linguists construe their professional work as a space to test Western constructs rather than to develop endogenous knowledge practices, a situation that is difficult to overcome.

Reported compliance in police-civilian encounters: The roles of accommodation and trust in Zimbabwe and the United States

Abstract Recent research has demonstrated that, for young adults, officers’ accommodative practices are potent predictors of civilians’ attributed trust in the police, and their perceived likelihood of compliance with police requests. The present study continued this line of work in the African nation of Zimbabwe and in the United States. Besides differences between nations, results revealed that for US participants, officer accommodativeness indirectly predicted civilian compliance through trust. For those in Zimbabwe, however, only direct relationships were found – between officer accommodation and civilian trust, and between accommodation and compliance. The theoretical and practical significance of these are discussed.

Toward a More Inclusive Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching: A Symposium

Finally, it is important to consider critical applied linguistics within a global context. The principal concern here is whether the sort of critical applied linguistics I discuss here has sufficient relevance for a diversity of contexts. Is it perhaps just an Anglo-American view of the world? (Pennycook, 2001, p. 171)

The Wordy Worlds of Popular Music in Eastern and Southern Africa: Possible Implications for Language-in-Education Policy

Language-in-education policy in Africa is replete with debate regarding the use of standard African languages as part of mother-tongue education. An issue inadequately addressed within this debate is the role and function of urban vernaculars which have become “the” mother tongue of the greater part of Africas population. Using data from the lyrics of popular music from eastern and southern African songwriters as an instance of ground-level language practices, this article argues that, to the extent that urban vernaculars and standard African languages act as international languages in popular music, there is justification for using urban vernaculars as languages of instruction. The extensive use of urban vernaculars in popular music has led to its popularity, and if these urban vernaculars are used as part of mother tongue education, socio-cultural relations between the school and society may improve. Despite the fact that educational strategies based on language practices in popular songs subvert social hierarchy, the use of urban vernaculars reshapes and blurs linguistic boundaries and, thus, constructs plurilingual identities. Using urban vernaculars not only provides access to education for a large portion of the population but also consolidates “glocal” identities while affirming cultural roots.