The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

Language Cover

Language, Culture and Decolonisation discusses the importance of language in decoloniality from a global perspective, and the decolonisation process from the disciplinary vantage points of history, politics, philosophy, and literary studies.

The book makes original contributions to our understanding of how, in Fanon’s words, colonialism gets under the skin of the colonised by taking control of a people’s history, language and culture, and denigrating all three. This edited volume examines classic and contemporary arguments that make the case for the importance of indigenous languages, including creole, in the cultural formation and expression of one’s identity. It also looks at arguments that make the case for the appropriation of the language of the coloniser as a method of subversion. French and English, for example, became the lingua franca of an elite pan-African intelligentsia.

This insightful book also shows how the coloniser, in promoting indigenous cultures and languages, may defuse and control potential political resistance, as we see in the case of the South African government and the Zulu nation.

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm
Pages : 384
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2612-8
Publish Year : August 2022
Rights : World Rights

Introduction: Language and Decoloniality in Context

David Boucher

  1. Language and liberation

David Boucher

  1. Decolonization and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Circulations and Language in the Postcolonial World’

Caio Simões de Araújo

  1. Language in Africa and the Impossibility of African Philosophy

M. John Lamola

  1. The place of colonial languages in Decolonial philosophy and practice

Brian Sibanda

  1. The Need to Decolonise the Language of Personhood (?)

Mpho Tshivhase

  1. African literature as Self-interpretive: the Prospects of Indigenous Reading Modes

Ignatius Chukwumah

  1. Decolonisation and the (Im)possibilities of Literary Language’

Sule Emmanuel Egya

  1. Revealing the Power of Language and Developing Theory from Historical Artefacts

Siseko H. Kumalo

  1. Colonialism, politics of belonging and reinvention of African cultures: The case of South Africa

Sifiso Ndlovu

  1. The Turn to Tradition: Colonialism, Class and the Making of the Zulu Identity

Bongani Ngqulunga

  1. The Politics of Knowledge Production and Publishing: The Case of the Zulu Society

Jabulani Sithole

  1. Minority Language Revitalization: European Conundrums

Colin H. Williams

Notes about the Authors and contributors

Index

David Boucher is Professor of Political Philosophy and International Relations, Cardiff University and Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Johannesburg. He has published on a wide variety of subjects, including colonialism and decolonization; international relations; history of political thought; British Idealism; the political philosophy of R. G. Collingwood; and, cultural studies. He has held visiting fellowships in Oxford, the University of Johannesburg, Canterbury University, New Zealand, The Sun Yat Sen University, Taiwan; and the Australian National University. His most recent books are The Limits of Ethics in International Relations (2009), British Idealism: A Guide for the Perplexed (2011 with Andrew Vincent), Appropriating Hobbes: Legacies in Politics, Law and International Relations (2018), and Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen: Deaths and Entrances (2021 with Lucy Boucher). Boucher is the editor of the Special Issue, International Journal of Social Economics (2019), entitled Social and Economic Injustices of Colonialism.

Share this

You might also consider these related books

Post Schooling

Post-school education and the labour market in South Africa
Labour market in South Africa

South Africa has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment and is renowned for being one of the most unequal societies in the world. In this context, training and education play critical roles in helping young people escape poverty and unemployment.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 272
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2463-6
Publish Year : January 2019
Rights : World Rights
Price R 250.00
2016  Large

Peace-Making in Divided Societies
The Israel-South Africa analogy

This occasional paper explores lessons that the unresolved Israel-Palestinian conflict can draw from South Africa's 'negotiated revolution'. Six realms are compared: economic interdependence, religious divisions, third party interventions, leadership, political culture and violence. The author also sheds light on the nature of ethnicity as well as the limits of negotiation politics.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 148mm x 210mm
Pages : 80
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2080-X (SCI 2)
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2080-5
Publish Year : 2002
Price R 98.00
2141  Large

The Development Decade?
Economic and social change in South Africa, 1994-2004

Covering a breadth if issues, the international developement specialists who have contributed to this volume significantly deepen our understanding of the key socio-economic issues in the first decade of South Africa's democratic Governance.

Locating the South African challenges within a broader international perspective, the issues covered include all the major economic growth challenges confronting South Africa - employment, industrial policy, urban governance, the informal economy - and the social challenges of poverty , inequality, HIV/AIDS and health policy. The key development debates of the post-apartheid era are outlined and the success or otherwise of a decade of reform and experimentation is considered.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 168mm x 240mm
Pages : 484
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2123-7
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2123-9
Publish Year : 2006
Price R 297.00
Safpr Vol 4 Cover 5 Inch

South African foreign policy review volume 4
Ramaphosa and a new dawn for South African foreign policy

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s notion of a New Dawn as the clarion call for his presidency is yet to manifest fully in South Africa’s foreign policy. However, some changes are already indicating a departure from the Zuma era’s foreign policy.

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 416
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7983-0536-5
Publish Year : September 2022
Rights : World Rights
Price R R650.00