Introduction: Situating Language Policy and Communication in Sub-Saharan Governance and Politics

The chapter introduces this multi-authored edited volume whose focus is on governance, language policy and political communication in the sub-Saharan African context. As such, the centrality of language and communication in issues of governance is demonstrated, together with the inability of sub-Saharan African governments to deal with rampant challenges such as corruption, absence of the rule of law, underdevelopment and the dependency syndrome as emanating mainly from the language choices, the rationale for such linguistic choices and communication practices. Thus, the chapter argues that the missing link to effective governance and development in the sub-Saharan African region can only be found in language policies and the ideologies associated with them, with the former colonizers’ languages mostly remaining the preferred ones. The chapter outlines the structure of the book, which has three distinct Parts. Part I has four chapters dwelling on the general theoretical background, Part II has four chapters exploring the sociolinguistic situation of selected African countries and the five chapters in Part III provide a discourse analysis of selected politicians’ speeches.