Synopsis
Africa is often depicted as the continent with the lowest literacy rates in the world. Moving beyond this essentialising representation, this volume explores African literacies within their complex and diverse multilingual and multiscriptal histories and contexts of use. The chapters examine contexts from the Maghreb to Mozambique and from Senegambia to the Horn of Africa and critically analyse multiple literacy genres and practices – from ancient manuscripts to instant messaging – in relation to questions of language-in-education and policy, livelihoods, Islamic scholarship, colonialism, translocal migration, and writing systems. As a whole, the book serves as an advanced introduction to language and society in Africa seen through the lens of literacy, and marks a unique contribution to scholarship in literacy studies offering a convenient collection of perspectives on and from Africa.
About the Author
Kasper Juffermans earned an MA from Ghent University, Belgium, and a PhD from Tilburg University, Netherlands. Kasper has regularly travelled to The Gambia during the last decade for sociolinguistic fieldwork, focusing on issues of linguistic inequality, and has recently been awarded a Core Junior project grant by the Luxembourg Fonds National de la Recherche to investigate sociolinguistic trajectories and repertoires in actual and aspired mobilities between Africa (Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde) and Europe (Luxembourg). He is currently based at the University of Luxembourg. Yonas Mesfun Asfaha obtained an MA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, and a PhD from Tilburg University, Netherlands, and is a recipient of an Elva Knight research grant from the International Reading Association. An expert on early reading development and multilingual literacy and language policy, Yon as is currently Assistant Professor of Eritrean Languages at the College of Arts and Social Sciences at AdiKeyih, University of Asmara, in Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. Ashraf Abdelhay holds a PhD in the field of Sociolinguistics from the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research interests lie in the area of language planning and policy in the Sudan, focusing on the intersections between discourse, ideology and power relations. He was an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, and a Postdoctoral Associate at Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge, UK. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Translation, King AbdulAziz University (KSA).
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