The burden of 'national languages' and the bondages of linguistic boundaries in postcolonial Africa

Abstract

The topic of borders, borderlands and boundaries in Africa is both old and new. It is old in the sense that it dates back to pre-colonial (and colonial) periods of pastoralist seasonal migration and human population movement for purposes of trade and other social and cultural exchanges. This topic is new in that it continues to evolve, is being shaped and mediated by the ever changing social, political and economic circumstances both within the African continent as well as globally as suggested by Ndhlovu (2010). While there has always been a growing interest in this subject, the focus has largely been on borders and borderlands in the geographical sense. The common story in both academic and popular discourse is that African national borders and their adjacent borderlands are sites of 'ethnic conflict', political instability and criminal activity, giving an impression that the borderlands (and those residing in them are) at best are a costly nuisance and at worse a serious threat to states' (Cassanelli 2010: 133).