The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in the African Experience

by Alamin Mazrui and Ali A. Mazrui

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226514293
• ISBN13: 9780226514291
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.6"