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Palgrave Macmillan

Swahili in Spaces of War

A Sociolinguistic Odyssey

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alamin Mazrui

    1. Academic Building, West Wing, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA

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  2. Kimani Njogu

    1. Twaweza House, Muthithi Road Mpesi Lane, Twaweza Communications, Nairobi, Kenya

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Captures the changing contours of a language caught between parties in conflict
  • Traces the role of Swahili as a language in conflict zones over a century of East Africa
  • Argues that language as a malleable tool can be used in conflict to create meanings and counter-meanings

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Languages at War (PASLW)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Alamin Mazrui
    Pages 1-27

  3. Swahili and the Maji Maji Resistance Against German Rule

    • Kimani Njogu
    Pages 29-56

  4. Swahili in Military Context: Between World War I and World War II

    • Alamin Mazrui
    Pages 57-88

  5. Swahili and Imperial Britain: Colonial Creation/African Appropriation

    • Alamin Mazrui
    Pages 89-115

  6. Swahili and the Wars of the Great Lakes Region

    • Alamin Mazrui, Kimani Njogu
    Pages 117-146

  7. Swahili in the Context of Cold Wars

    • Alamin Mazrui
    Pages 147-177

  8. Swahili and the War on Terrorism

    • Alamin Mazrui
    Pages 179-213

  9. Conclusion

    • Alamin Mazrui
    Pages 215-224

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 225-232
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Keywords

About this book

This monograph examines the roles and functions of Swahili in war/conflict situations, and the impact of wars on the destiny of the language. Covering a period of over a century, the monograph explores this sociolinguistic theme in the context of six wars/conflicts: the Maji Maji resistance against German rule, the two World Wars, the anti-colonial resistance to British colonialism, the wars of the Great Lakes region, the cold wars, and the ongoing war against terrorism. In geographical focus, some of the war situations explored here are “local,” others are “transnational,” and others still rather “global” in scope and ramifications. In the final analysis, the monograph provides important snapshots of the conflict-based history of the Swahili language, demonstrating once again that language is a malleable tool that can be appropriated and galvanized to serve the interests of either party in a conflict and sometimes as a means of creating hegemonic and anti-hegemonic meanings.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Academic Building, West Wing, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA

    Alamin Mazrui

  • Twaweza House, Muthithi Road Mpesi Lane, Twaweza Communications, Nairobi, Kenya

    Kimani Njogu

About the authors

Alamin Mazrui is Professor at Rutgers University, USA. He has authored and edited several books and written numerous articles in sociolinguistics, education, literature, and culture. He has a special interest in human rights and civil liberties and has written policy reports on these subjects. He is also a published Swahili poet and playwright.

Kimani Njogu holds a Ph.D in linguistics from Yale University (1994). He is the Executive Director of Twaweza Communications, Nairobi, and serves in the Kiswahili Commission at the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), an organ of the African Union. His research interests revolve around language, culture and society.

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