Gender and language in sub-Saharan African contexts

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link Issues and ChallengesLilian Atanga, Sibonile Ellece, Lia Litosseliti, and Jane Sunderland Abstract In this first paper, we examine a range of issues associated with the study of gender and language in sub-Saharan African contexts. These include whether (and in what sense) such contexts may constitute a 'special case', the relevance of feminism, and what might be encompassed by 'context', 'African contexts' and 'African topics'. While a substantial amount of what we write is relevant to Applied Linguistics in Africa more broadly (see Makoni and Meinhof 2004, for a discussion), we argue that there are also specific gender issues which are of interest and importance to language and gender study specifically, and indeed that it is possible to see some of these issues as 'characteristic' of African contexts. It will be evident from this first paper, and the others, that along with taking on board the commonalities in terms of the theoretical notions used in our field in African and non-African contexts, there is also a need to recognise a range of situated understandings of gender and feminism.

Sexist Expressions in Nyakyusa

“…Overall, it was found that sexism in Nyakyusa is expressed through agreement whereby the verb "ega" (to marry) agrees with masculine subject only. This finding is similar to what Atanga et al (2012) observed in Kinyarwanda and Setswana and what Ndimande-Hlongwa and Rushubirwa (2014) observed in Swahili. The fact that the verb to marry agrees only with masculine subject implies that marriage relationship in Nyakyusa is perceived to be one sided as men are regarded to be more active than women to make the union, thus women losing their power.…”

“…Social gender is among forms of sexist expressions observed in Nyakyusa. This finding is similar to what UMWA (2016), Atanga et al (2012), and Ndimande-Hlongwa and Rushubirwa (2014) observed in English, Isizulu and Isizulu and Kiswahili respectively in there is asymmetry association of certain social status between men and women. In Nyakyusa language, there are words that refer to women who are found to be a virgin during marriage time and for women who do not bear children.…”

“…IsiZulu, Kinyarwanda and Setswana of South Africa, Rwanda and Botswana respectively are among sexist Bantu languages. Atanga, Ellece, Litosseliti, and Sunderland (2012) observed that the naming system in isiZulu is based on gender bias since men and women of the same statuses are named with words whose connotations do not have similar implications. For instance, the name given for men who have an affair with many girls is "amasoka" (men highly favored by girls) while the name for women with many sexual partners is "isifebe" (loose woman) or "isichebeleshe" (useless woman).…”

“Mama Zimbi, pls help me!” – Gender differences in (im)politeness in Ghanaian English advice-giving on Facebook

“…Mills (2003), for instance, stresses the performative nature of gender (see also , Butler 1993) and the importance of a more contextualized analysis of gender and politeness, taking into account the interplay of different variables such as gender, social class and context. The majority of research in this field has examined the relationship between language and gender in Western cultures, but more recent work also increasingly focuses on African contexts (e.g., Atanga et al 2012Atanga et al , 2013a.…”

Globalisation, Geopolitics, and Gender in Professional Communication

“…The intersections of identity are examined through age, family background, tribe and culture, all emerging as relevant categories from participants themselves, alongside gender. This chapter adds to a growing number of studies focusing on language and gender in the Global South (see Ostermann 2021; Schnurr this volume, Holmes and Marra this volume) and African settings in particular (see Atanga et al 2012Atanga et al , 2013, including the field of gender and professional communication, for example, Chimbwete-Phiri and Schnurr's (2021) health communication work in Malawi, Lumala and Mullany's (2020) analysis of the narratives of women farmers, co-operative leaders, entrepreneurs and NGO leaders in Uganda and Kenya, Jones' (2015) study of women politicians in Ghana, and Kammoun's (2015) analysis of gender and political leadership in Tunisia.…”