32. Multilingualism in Southern Africa

Summary

The chapter provides an overview of multilingualism in Southern Africa. In particular, this chapter describes the lives of the indigenous languages vis-à-vis former colonial languages that have currency in the region, namely English and Portuguese, with a focus on issues in language status, language policy and language use especially in the higher domains such as the educational system, the media and the government and administration. The first part of the chapter provides a broader overview of these issues in the region, and the second discusses them in the context of South Africa, arguably the only sociolinguistic area in Southern Africa where language activists and language professionals keep the debate over these issues alive focusing on post-apartheid South Africa. It also looks at the issue of language shift and language death against the backdrop of the hegemony and spread of English in the region, with a focus on South Africa.