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The present book is about Hausa linguacultural practices. Its primary goal is to demonstrate aspects of the relationship between Hausa language and culture as it affects northern Nigeria, the territory with the largest concentration of native-Hausa speakers on earth today. Using various examples, illustrations and real-life situations, the book seeks to portray Hausa speakers experiences and practices as they daily exploit their language to communicate their needs and, in the process, express their culture. These experiences and practices are realised largely through Hausa verbal and non-verbal means or both which together give rise to linguacultural patterns of behaviour unique to the speakers. It is hoped that readers, particularly non-Hausas, will find the book enjoyable especially in trying to experience what native-Hausa speakers, using their language to communicate, experience during social interactions. Supported by a number of optional activities and exercises, students and teachers of Hausa will particularly find the book not only resourceful and entertaining but also reader-friendly especially with regard to the role of culture in language learning and teaching. Indeed the book has been partly written to encourage the use of Hausa culture in language teaching and learning.
This book examines the role that Africa has played on the world stage, the African Union, the African leaders' efforts to take care of their own problems and lessen their dependence on the United States and European countries.
Linguists estimate that there are currently nearly 2,000 languages in Africa, a staggering figure that is belied by the relatively few national languages. While African national politics, economics, and law are all conducted primarily in the colonial languages, the cultural life of the majority of citizens is conducted in a bewildering Babel of local and regional dialects, making language itself the center of debates over multiculturalism, gender studies, and social theory. In "The Power of Babel," the noted Africanist scholar Ali Mazrui and linguist Alamin Mazrui explore this vast territory of African language. "The Power of Babel" is one of the first comprehensive studies of the complex linguistic constellations of Africa. It draws on Ali Mazrui's earlier work in its examination of the "triple heritage" of African culture, in which indigenous, Islamic, and Western traditions compete for influence. In bringing the idea of the triple heritage to language, the Mazruis unravel issues of power, culture, and modernity as they are embedded in African linguistic life. The first section of the book takes a global perspective, exploring such issues as the Eurocentrism of much linguistic scholarship on Africa; part two takes an African perspective on a variety of issues from the linguistically disadvantaged position of women in Africa to the relation of language policy and democratic development; the third section presents a set of regional studies, centering on the Swahili language's exemplification of the triple heritage."The Power of Babel" unites empirical information with theories of nationalism and pluralism-among others-to offer the richest contextual account of African languages to date.
Covering the entire span of human history across the African continent, this book begins in the Garden of Eden in the highland interior of East Africa and ends with the disintegration of apartheid. In the first chapter the author introduces us to our earliest tool-making ancestor (known affectionately as "dear boy"), in the last the author ponders the changes we are likely to see as the political elites of Africa begin to review the operation of their single-party systems. The human colonization of the continent - the origins of food production, the formation and diffusion of African languages, the achievements of Ancient Egypt, the impact of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, slavery, the caravan trade, exploration and colonization, the economic, political and social developments which gave rise to the modern nation states - this book looks at all these aspects in an overview of the history of Africa.
This book introduces beginning students and non-specialists to the diversity and richness of African languages. In addition to providing a solid background to the study of African languages, the book presents linguistic phenomena not found in European languages. A goal of this book is to stimulate interest in African languages and address the question: What makes African languages so fascinating? The orientation adopted throughout the book is a descriptive one, which seeks to characterize African languages in a relatively succinct and neutral manner, and to make the facts accessible to a wide variety of readers. The author’s lengthy acquaintance with the continent and field experiences in western, eastern, and southern Africa allow for both a broad perspective and considerable depth in selected areas. The original examples are often the author’s own but also come from other sources and languages not often referenced in the literature. This text also includes a set of sound files illustrating the phenomena under discussion, be they the clicks of Khoisan, talking drums, or the ideophones (words like English lickety-split) found almost everywhere, which will make this book a valuable resource for teacher and student alike.
How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.
Gyekye offers a philosophical interpretation and critical analysis of the African cultural experience in modern times, and shows how Western philosophical concepts help in addressing a wide range of specifically African problems.
This text presents the broad historical contours of the African experience in Spanish America, from enslavement, resistance, and rebellion to the crucial participation of Afro-Latin Americans in the wars of independence, and a region-by-region account of their varied treatment in the newly-founded republics from the 19th century to the modern era.
Text and artwork by Simon Combes. Foreword by David Shepherd. Available to the trade for the first time. A safari in Africa can be one of the great highlights of our lives, and Simon Combes has lived his life on one. He is one of the finest painters of wildlife alive and with this book makes his mark as a writer as well. The story of his life contained in this volume is an enthralling one: the son of an expatriate raised in colonial Kenya, a military career that spanned both sides of that nation's independence, a safari guide and artist with an eye for the adventure that is Africa. Simon's art has been published by the The Greenwich Workshop since 1980.
The first global history of African linguistics as an emerging autonomous academic discipline, covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.