Abstract
In both the topics and themes covered and the backgrounds of the contributors, this collection illustrates the diversity and richness of gendered language use in Sub-Saharan African contexts. It addresses social change phenomena vis-a-vis gender and sexuality as reflected in and constructed by language and discourse, and by so doing highlights the nature of feminism(s) in Africa south of the Sahara. It comprises the editors’ introduction, 13 chapters, an epilogue and 140 reference entries.
The book is organized into five parts. Part 1, ‘Gender and Linguistic Description’, highlights gendered language use in traditional settings and depicts traditional language use trends which ‘may also constitute gender construction’ (p. 18). In the opening chapter, Kitetu and Kioko discuss naming conventions used in woman-to-woman marriage between heterosexual women in Kenya. Bagwasi and Sunderland demonstrate the correlation between the use of complimentary and derogatory terms and gender and age representation. Pearce presents the effects of rural and urban women’s social and educational roles on their language use.
Part 2, ‘Public Settings and Gendered Language Use’, illustrates language shift trends from private to public contexts (court, parliament, educational establishments). It explicitly looks at private and public gendered language use. Letsholo discusses gender stereotypes among pre-school pupils in classroom and playground contexts. Mustapha examines varied identity construction for married and unmarried Nigerian women in relation to ‘occupational and marital status’.
Part 3, ‘Mediated Masculinities and Femininities’, explores contemporary mediated gendered language use (TV beer adverts and popular song lyrics) and reveals that representation and construction of gender corroborate different human experiences and their images in the arts. Milani and Shaikjee discuss the concept of the ‘New Man’ (p. 130), a concept of modern power in the context of socio-economic change. Ellece investigates the variability of social meanings in ‘Tswana songs’ (p. 149). Nhlekisana illustrates how the ‘ideological’ nature of music has contributed to changing Botswanan contemporary society (p. 177).
Part 4, ‘Gendered Struggles and Change’, explores this theme through varied protest reactions of the oppressed toward their oppressors who, in turn, cling to and protect their dominant roles. Thetela examines how Basotho women’s access to sex discourses is constrained by cultural taboo-based restriction on women’s traditional sex discourse. Dako reveals that students’ Pidgin, which was predominantly a masculine code, has become a subject of interest to young women in Ghana for identity breaking purposes. Rudwick discusses how isiZulu-speaking females selectively make use of two given linguistic varieties and how this use impacts gender dynamics. Msibi shows the use of language as a key site of struggle among individuals and for strategic resistance within certain communities of practice (those who engage in same-sex relations) and to subvert homophobia and heterosexism. Diabah, through media reports, discusses contexts of sexual misconduct crimes.
In the ‘Epilogue’, Atanga insightfully discusses feminism(s) in Africa and contends that due to the divergent sociolinguistic contexts of language use in Africa, there is generally a mismatch between ‘Western’ and ‘Africanist’ perspectives in the field of feminism. She further reiterates that, even within Africa, ‘African feminism’ is not and does not entail a monolithic view of the continent because of the diverse socio-cultural and sociolinguistic parameters that mediate gendered language use both within and without in terms of the forms it takes in the contexts of activism and academic achievement.
Although the book is about Sub-Saharan Africa and language use, some of the issues discussed, such as derogatory terms (Bagwasi and Sunderland) and variation in address forms (Mustapha), are not limited to the Sub-Saharan African context.
From the title of this volume, ‘Gender … Tradition, Struggle and Change’, one might expect to see these core issues run through all the chapters. This is not the case. The collection is generally about gendered discourse vis-a-vis perception of both female and male language use in translating their world view – translating their challenges and aspirations in different contexts. I see this as a truth about the natural and/or biological role distinction between male and female genders. To claim or insinuate struggle and change in some traditional contexts is therefore problematic. Most of the chapters only paint the status quo of the societal intrinsic male and female traditional role attribution as in the cases of the chapters in Parts 1 and 2. These chapters do not show instances of struggle and change; they rather disclose some traditional gendered language use.
Rather than the five-part division of the text, I would rather suggest a four-part division where Parts 1 and 2 could be discussed under the theme ‘gendered lexicalization and status’, since both parts are about how language choices affect or reflect the speakers and their social ranks. This is seen in female husband dominance (Kitetu and Kioko), derogatory use of language (Bagwasi and Sunderland), urban and rural women’s use of language (Pearce), pupils’ use of language in classroom and playground contexts (Letsholo), and use of language in addressing women in relation to their marital and educational status (Mustapha).
This notwithstanding, the book is generally a good exploratory, descriptive and explanatory presentation of the use of language, particularly African languages, to explain tradition in Parts 1 and 2, and tradition, struggle and change phenomena within the African context in Parts 3 and 4. African sociolinguists, discourse analysts, feminists and research students will find in this book thought-provoking discussions, rich data and a wide range of research openings on gendered language use and change.