On-going projects

Microvariation and youth language practices in Africa 

The AHRC-DFG funded project ‘microvariation and youth language practices in Africa’ is a collaborative research project bringing together researchers at University of Essex (UK), Johannes Gutenberg Universität-Mainz (Germany), Great Zimbabwe University (Zimbabwe) and Kenyatta University (Kenya).  This project examines microvariation in African youth languages with a focus on Kiswahili (Tanzania, Kenya and DRC), Lingala (DRC) and isiZulu-isiNdebele in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Previous studies have focused primarily on specific aspects of youth languages, such as creative manipulation, word play and rapidly changing vocabularies. A parallel development in recent years has seen an increasing body of work examining aspects of structural variation in the Bantu languages – a group of some 450-600 languages spoken across much of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. The Bantu language family exhibits a range of broad similarities but also a high degree of fine-grained more subtle differences. This project brings these two distinct strands of work together and provides an improved understanding of youth languages practices on the one hand, and a better understanding of structural variation across the Bantu languages on the other. The project runs from January 2022 to June 2024. 

AaPiA project members: Hannah Gibson (PI)

Youth voice and intergenerational transition of power: Sheng in Kenya

Global population growth and changes in demographic trends have highlighted questions of intergenerational relations in many societies: How can social and economic opportunities, access to power, wealth and wellbeing be distributed fairly among different ages? Across many African societies, the problem centres on young people and the balancing of an overwhelmingly young demographic with a power system which traditionally privileges old age. In Kenya, this social conversation takes place through language, and in particular through Sheng, an urban youth language based on Swahili, which has become ubiquitous in many spheres of public life. The project investigates the role of Sheng in Kenyan political discourse: How do Sheng speakers conceive of political power and their role in the political system? How do political actors make use of Sheng for positioning themselves in the intergenerational discourse? Can Sheng serve to redefine generational and social divides in relation to political participation and engagement?

AaPiA project members: Lutz Marten (PI), Hannah Gibson, Florian G. Kern, Chege Githiora

Collaborators: Merceline Ochieng (Kenyatta University)

Multilingualism, Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of Practiced Linguistic Diversity

Funded by the ESRC, we ask: How can the practice of multilingualism shape conflict and conflict resolution? To date, scholars have oversimplified their approach to language and the linguistic ecologies in which conflict takes place. Multilingualism refers not only to the number of languages spoken in a given area, but the number of codes to which speakers have access. Despite its prevalence, multilingualism is rarely conceptualised, measured or analysed in research focusing on conflict and conflict resolution. Much conflict research has concentrated on static measures of linguistic multitudes. Yet, we need to understand the everyday practice of multilingualism. We bring together a team of UK- and Africa-based academic and non-academic collaborators to provide produce a deeper understanding of lived multilingual realities of individuals and communities against the backdrop of conflict. The overarching goal is to provide the first comparative, large scale analysis of the practice of multilingualism in shaping conflict and its resolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. Empirically, the project provides cross-country evidence, but also focuses on four areas, namely, Eastern DRC, Northern Mozambique, Northern Nigeria, and Northern/Western Uganda. 

AaPiA project members: Hannah Gibson, Florian G. Kern, Fiona Tumusiime, Alain Bernard N’Seka Lilolo Mata-Nseka, Hauwa Mohammed Sani and Crisófia Langa da Camâra
Collaborators: Kristian Skrede Gleditsch (University of Essex), Nancy Kula (University of Essex), Brian Phillips (University of Essex)