Multilingualism in Africa

Abstract Despite often multilingual local and national contexts, many African countries have chosen monolingual language-in-education policies which privilege the use of a single language at a given stage in education. In many instances, the language policy reflects the country’s colonial history, as well as monolingual, often colonial, conceptualisations of language practices. This chapter examines some of the issues involved in the question of language-in-education policies in Africa, highlighting several approaches that have been adopted across the continent. Monolingual policies which do not accurately reflect people’s lived experiences may restrict access to services and resources, including education, and perpetuate or further embed inequalities. However, these are not the only options. The authors highlight different approaches that have been taken to support multilingual learning, such as language-supportive pedagogy and translanguaging practices. The chapter also outlines recommendations that have been made to improve language-in-education policies and bring these more in line with individuals’ lived multilingual realities.