Rethinking Language Use in Digital Africa

Leketi Makalela works in the Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. His research interests include translanguaging, African multilingualism and African languages and literacies.Goodith White is Senior Research Fellow, University of Nottingham, Malaysia. Her research interests include language use in Africa, language pedagogy and the use of technology in political and educational contexts.

• ContributorsIntroductionPart 1: Multilingual Practices1. Leketi Makalela: Multilingual Literacies and Technology in Africa: Towards Ubuntu Digital Translanguaging2. Epimaque Niyibizi, Cyprien Niyomugabo & Juliet Perumal: Translanguaging in the Rwandan Social Media: New Meaning Making in a Changing SocietyPart 2: Linguistic and Cultural Maintenance3. Elvis ResCue & G. Edzordzi Agbozo: Creating Translated Interfaces: The Representations of African Languages and Cultures in Digital Media4. Kirsty Rowan: Mdocumentation: Combining New Technologies and Language Documentation to Promote Multilingualism in Nubian Heritage Language Learners of the DiasporaPart 3: The Effects of Communication Outside Africa5. Sarah Ogbay & Goodith White: A Network of Anger and Hope: An Investigation of Communication on a Feminist Activist Facebook Website, The Network of Eritrean Women (RENEW)6. Bonny Norton: Identity, Language and Literacy in an African Digital Landscape7. Susanna Sacks: Networked Poetics: WhatsApp Poetry Groups and Malawian Aesthetic NetworksPart 4: Language Change8. Abdulmalik Yusuf Ofemile: Human–Agent Interaction: L1-mode Intelligent Software Agents Instructing Nigerian L2 Speakers of English During Assembly TasksConclusionIndex

This is a timely and welcome addition to the burgeoning body of scholarship on language and communication in times of crises. It draws our attention to the importance of digital literacies and e-learning platforms in the communication of critical health information in marginalised multilingual communities. Measured in its aspirations yet far-reaching in policy implications, this volume deserves a space on the bookshelf of any serious scholar or student of applied and educational linguistics.