Language Matters in Namibia: History, Development, and Contemporary Dynamics

Language Matters in Namibia investigates the diversity of Namibia’s ethnolinguistic communities and cultures, considering how languages intersect with questions of nationhood, memory, identity, and decoloniality.

Namibia is a country characterised by multilingualism, with 13 officially recognised languages (ten indigenous and three European-based). Within this diverse linguistic landscape, only 3.4% of Namibians speak English at home, despite it being the country’s officially recognised language. Historically, colonial languages have been used in social, educational, professional and occupational contexts, meaning that language is deeply tied up with unresolved aspects of identity, linguistic ideologies, hegemony, language practices, and culture. Emerging at a crucial moment in Namibia’s decolonial agenda, this book considers how language usage, patterns, structures and functions are now shifting and evolving.

Bringing together important contributions from Namibian scholars, this book will be an important read for researchers of African languages, education, and sociolinguistics.