What is it about?
This book review reminds us about some of the reasons why indigenous language media is still invisible in the online media landscape in African contexts today. First is that there is very little use of indigenous languages in the media today as these languages are viewed by media owners and users as inferior and are ditched in favour of the inherited languages from the colonial masters.
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Why is it important?
The review explores the edited volume which is divided into four main sections, each focusing on a theme in which authors attempt to bring contextual evidence to bear on the state of African indigenous language media, its online visibility, audience and use, challenges and what can be done to change the status quo. The book also sheds light on audience participation in online spaces using indigenous languages. This book reminds us to decentre the dominance of western knowledge production and rethink our over-reliance on the same.
Perspectives
While the book engages with various forms of media such as print media, broadcast media, grassroots media and social media, I thought it would have been appealing to also account for the online visibility of popular culture or entertainment media like films. Although I see the absence of this not as a deficiency, my sense is that when discussions and debates on how to make African indigenous languages viable and visible come up, the tremendous work by Africa-based entertainment media, for instance, operating out of countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, etc., cannot be left behind.
Dr Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam
Rhodes University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: African Language Digital Media and Communication, Abiodun Salawu (ed.) (2019), Journal of African Media Studies, March 2021, Intellect,
DOI: 10.1386/jams_00037_5.
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