Alamin M. Mazrui's Books

The Power of Babel

Language and Governance in the African Experience

By: Ali A. Mazrui,Alamin M. Mazrui,Alamin Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Power of Babel

Language and Governance in the African Experience

By: Ali A. Mazrui,Alamin M. Mazrui,Alamin Mazrui

Linguists estimate that there are currently nearly 2,000 languages in Africa, a staggering figure that is belied by the relatively few national languages. While African national politics, economics, and law are all conducted primarily in the colonial languages, the cultural life of the majority of citizens is conducted in a bewildering Babel of local and regional dialects, making language itself the center of debates over multiculturalism, gender studies, and social theory. In The Power of Babel, the noted Africanist scholar Ali Mazrui and linguist Alamin Mazrui explore this vast territory of African language. The Power of Babel is one of the first comprehensive studies of the complex linguistic constellations of Africa. It draws on Ali Mazrui's earlier work in its examination of the "triple heritage" of African culture, in which indigenous, Islamic, and Western traditions compete for influence. In bringing the idea of the triple heritage to language, the Mazruis unravel issues of power, culture, and modernity as they are embedded in African linguistic life. The first section of the book takes a global perspective, exploring such issues as the Eurocentrism of much linguistic scholarship on Africa; part two takes an African perspective on a variety of issues from the linguistically disadvantaged position of women in Africa to the relation of language policy and democratic development; the third section presents a set of regional studies, centering on the Swahili language's exemplification of the triple heritage.The Power of Babel unites empirical information with theories of nationalism and pluralism—among others—to offer the richest contextual account of African languages to date.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

248

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226514285

ISBN 13

9780226514284

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Literature, Language, and Identity

By: Alamin Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Literature, Language, and Identity

By: Alamin Mazrui

Africa is a marriage of cultures: African and Asian, Islamic and Euro-Christian. Nowhere is this fusion more evident than in the formation of Swahili, Eastern Africa's lingua franca, and its cultures. Swahili Beyond the Boundaries: Literature, Language, and Identity addresses the moving frontiers of Swahili literature under the impetus of new waves of globalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These momentous changes have generated much theoretical debate on several literary fronts, as Swahili literature continues to undergo transformation in the mill of human creativity. Swahili literature is a hybrid that is being reconfigured by a conjuncture of global and local forces. As the interweaving of elements of the colonizer and the colonized, this hybrid formation provides a representation of cultural difference that is said to constitute a "third space," blurring existing boundaries and calling into question established identitarian categorizations. This cultural dialectic is clearly evident in the Swahili literary experience as it has evolved in the crucible of the politics of African cultural production. However, Swahili Beyond the Boundaries demonstrates that, from the point of view of Swahili literature, while hybridity evokes endless openness on questions of home and identity, it can simultaneously put closure on specific forms of subjectivity. In the process of this contestation, a new synthesis may be emerging that is poised to subject Swahili literature to new kinds of challenges in the politics of identity, compounded by the dynamics and counterdynamics of post-Cold War globalization.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

217

Publisher

Ohio University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0896802523

ISBN 13

9780896802520

Swahili State and Society

The Political Economy of an African Language

By: Ali AlʼAmin Mazrui,Alamin Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Swahili State and Society

The Political Economy of an African Language

By: Ali AlʼAmin Mazrui,Alamin Mazrui

This text examines the social and political impact of the Swahili language.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

188

Publisher

East African Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

9966468234

ISBN 13

9789966468239

Cultural Politics of Translation

East Africa in a Global Context

By: Alamin Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Cultural Politics of Translation

East Africa in a Global Context

By: Alamin Mazrui

This book is the first full-length examination of the cultural politics at work in the act of translation in East Africa, providing close critical analyses of a variety of texts that demonstrate the myriad connections between translation and larger socio-political forces. Looking specifically at texts translated into Swahili, the book builds on the notion that translation is not just a linguistic process, but also a complex interaction between culture, history, and politics, and charts this evolution of the translation process in East Africa from the pre-colonial to colonial to post-colonial periods. It uses textual examples, including the Bible, the Qur’an, and Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, from five different domains – religious, political, legal, journalistic, and literary – and grounds them in their specific socio-political and historical contexts to highlight the importance of context in the translation process and to unpack the complex relationships between both global and local forces that infuse these translated texts with an identity all their own. This book provides a comprehensive portrait of the multivalent nature of the act of translation in the East African experience and serves as a key resource for students and researchers in translation studies, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, African studies, and comparative literature.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

282

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317233182

ISBN 13

9781317233183

English in Africa

After the Cold War

By: Alamin M. Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

English in Africa

After the Cold War

By: Alamin M. Mazrui

This text offers a critical examination of aspects of the politics of the role of English in Africa and its Diaspora. It looks at its changed location in the post-Cold War era and the challenges it poses to the enduring quest for intellectual liberation, pan-Africanism and Afrocentricity. The study also explores the spaces and possibilities for appropriating the language towards a counter-hegemonic African-centred agenda under the present global order.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

156

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Published Date

ISBN 10

1853596892

ISBN 13

9781853596896

Swahili in Spaces of War

A Sociolinguistic Odyssey

By: Alamin Mazrui,Kimani Njogu

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Swahili in Spaces of War

A Sociolinguistic Odyssey

By: Alamin Mazrui,Kimani Njogu

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.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

238

Publisher

Springer Nature

Published Date

ISBN 10

3031273389

ISBN 13

9783031273384

English in Africa

After the Cold War

By: Alamin M. Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

English in Africa

After the Cold War

By: Alamin M. Mazrui

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

156

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Published Date

ISBN 10

1853596892

ISBN 13

9781853596896

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Literature, Language, and Identity

By: Alamin Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Literature, Language, and Identity

By: Alamin Mazrui

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

217

Publisher

Ohio University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0896802523

ISBN 13

9780896802520

Cultural Politics of Translation

East Africa in a Global Context

By: Alamin M. Mazrui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Cultural Politics of Translation

East Africa in a Global Context

By: Alamin M. Mazrui

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

200

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317233190

ISBN 13

9781317233190

Book's by Alamin M. Mazrui

The Power of Babel

The Power of Babel

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Swahili State and Society

Swahili State and Society

Cultural Politics of Translation

Cultural Politics of Translation

English in Africa

English in Africa

Swahili in Spaces of War

Swahili in Spaces of War

English in Africa

English in Africa

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Swahili Beyond the Boundaries

Cultural Politics of Translation

Cultural Politics of Translation

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email