Introduction

The term Southern Africa is in fact primarily a political rather than a geographical description of the countries south of the Equator which have a historical link with white South Africa. Traditionally, Southern Africa has included English-speaking countries (South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi) which are former colonies of Britain, and the Portuguese-speaking countries of Angola and Mozambique, which are former colonies of Portugal. Namibia, which was a mandated territory of South Africa, is also English-speaking.

Needless to say, the linguistic geography of Southern Africa is such a complex phenomenon that it would take a paper of its own for it to be treated with justice. Despite that complexity, however, Southern Africa – with the exception of Angola and Mozambique – enjoys language unity through English. This point is important in understanding the context in which the case study papers in this section are set. Apart from perhaps Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana, all the countries in the region are multi-ethnic and multilingual. In each country, there are serious clashes of interest when the question of local languages is at issue. Yet, for some reason, solace is often found in the fact that English is there to act as a common language.