Today marks a significant milestone in South Africa’s linguistic history—100 years since Afrikaans was officially recognised as a state language. While many celebrate this centenary, it also prompts a ...

The three new volumes in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) General History of Africa series mark a deliberate shift toward an Afrocentric reading of the ...

Wilmot James is a professor and senior adviser to the Pandemic Center at the School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. He is a former South African member of Parliament. My ...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Afrikaans, the guttural, gruff language that originated with the Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in 1652, has symbolized many things. At first a patois spoken ...

Hausa is the most widely known Chadic language, spoken by some 80 million people or more. It’s harder to grasp the history of other, unwritten Chadic languages. Irene Becker/Contributor/Getty Images ...