The Politics of Language and the Decolonisation Agenda

In this talk, I examine the intrinsic connection between power, ideology and language. The protracted debate on the extent to which language is impacted by politics has often resulted in apolitical and political perspectives. According to the former, language, meaning and interpretation are not influenced by political power and objectivity of meaning is possible. According to the latter, language, meaning and understanding are often shaped by political ideologies and power relations in a given period of time and within a particular context. I argue that the latter perspective, the political influence on language and meaning, is a more defensible view and I draw evidence from what I would call a linguistic turn in the decolonisation discourse. Paying attention specifically to African languages, I show how the languages of colonised peoples suffer epistemic injustice due to a carefully orchestrated politics of language. A linguistic turn in decolonisation discourses would consist of an ethics of linguistic care that restores power and access to indigenous knowledge systems.

Dr Elvis Imafidon is the Director of the Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS University of London. He is also a Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg. His areas of research include African Philosophy, the philosophy of difference, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of corporeality, the philosophy of healthcare, ethics, and ontology, primarily from African philosophical perspectives. He is the author and editor of several books including African Philosophy and the Otherness of Albinism: White Skin, Black Race (Routledge 2019), Handbook of African Philosophy of Difference (Springer 2020) and Handbook of African Philosophy (Springer 2023).