This volume brings together a range of studies on various aspects of English and its use in Southern Africa. Experts in their field have written chapters on topics including the history and development of English in South Africa, the characteristics of particular pan-ethnic varieties of English which have evolved in South Africa (including black, Indian and colored varieties) as well as the unique features of the English of South Africa’s southern neighbours: Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Other contributions focus on English in relation to issues such as standardisation, lexicography, education, language planning, language attitudes and interaction patterns. The book will be of primary interest to students of linguistics and language, but should also be relevant to educationists, sociologists and historians.

Focus: Music of South Africa provides an in-depth look at the full spectrum of South African music, a musical culture that epitomizes the enormous ethnic, religious, linguistic, class, and gender diversity of the nation itself. Drawing on extensive field and archival research, as well as her own personal experiences, noted ethnomusicologist and South African native Carol A. Muller looks at how South Africans have used music to express a sense of place in South Africa, on the African continent, and around the world. Part One, Creating Connections, provides introductory materials for the study of South African Music. Part Two, Musical Migrations, moves to a more focused overview of significant musical styles in twentieth-century South Africa -- particularly those known through world circuits. Part Three, Focusing In, takes the reader into the heart of two musical cultures with case studies on South African jazz and the music of the Zulu-language followers of Isaiah Shembe. The accompanying CD offers vivid examples of traditional, popular, and classical South African musical styles.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

'Focus on African Films' offers pluralistic perspectives on filmmaking across Africa, highlighting the distinct thematic, stylistic, and socioeconomic circumstances of African film production.

Maringe ought to be commended for putting together an invaluable contribution to our understanding of research into a complex education system in South Africa. This volume provides a useful foundation to the current state of education quality in South Africa including the impact of interventions. It also brings to the fore challenges still facing education transformation. The evidence presented which, taken together, lays out a coherent view of how improvements could be made. Albert Chanee Head of Planning, Gauteng Department of Education For too long the weight of educational scholarship produced in South Africa has been limited to that simple and standard form called the literature review. Now, for the first time, education researchers are provided with an African-based text on the concepts and methods of conducting systematic reviews. In this exceptional work of editorship, Felix Maringe brings together some of the leading researchers on South African education to model and demonstrate how to review a significant body of research on a chosen topic which is adjudicated strictly on the basis of the quality and efficacy of the evidence in hand. I have no doubt that this remarkable book will become a standard reference for educational researchers in and beyond the African continent. It will also lift the quality of educational inquiry by equipping a new generation of scholars with the capacity for doing evidence-based research that compels the attention of policymakers, planners and practitioners alike. Prof Jonathan Jansen Stellenbosch University

Over the last two decades, focus has become a prominent topic in major fields in linguistic research (syntax, semantics, phonology). Focus Strategies in African Languages contributes to the ongoing discussion of focus by investigating focus-related phenomena in a range of African languages, most of which have been under-represented in the theoretical literature on focus. The articles in the volume look at focus strategies in Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic languages from several theoretical and methodological perspectives, ranging from detailed generative analysis to careful typological generalization across languages. Their common aim is to deepen our understanding of whether and how the information-structural category of focus is represented and marked in natural language. Topics investigated are, among others, the relation of focus and prosody, the effects of information structure on word order, ex situ versus in situ strategies of focus marking, the inventory of focus marking devices, focus and related constructions, focus-sensitive particles. The present inquiry into the focus systems of African languages has repercussions on existing theories of focus. It reveals new focus strategies as well as fine-tuned focus distinctions that are not discussed in the theoretical literature, which is almost exclusively based on well-documented intonation languages.

With 342 years of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa, a book of this calibre is essential to contribute to scholarly debates on the decolonisation of the media. After the democratic dispensation in 1994, there was a narrow pursuit of transformation and media freedom while neglecting decolonisation, patriarchal tendencies and the plight of black women journalists who are often vilified while discharging their duties. It was two decades after democracy that the #RhodesMustFall movement which later evolved into #FeesMustFall movement reignited debates on decoloniality in the academia. Moreover, the book is published during the second wave of #FeesMustFall student protests and the demand for decolonised free education is inevitable as no permanent solution to student funding crisis was crafted. In the same vein, the book advocates for decolonised pedagogy in universities, including journalism curriculum. That ownership of the media is still skewed towards white and with only few black companies gradually joining the industry also brings into doubt media freedom, editorial independence, ethics and integrity among media practitioners. Therefore, the decoloniality movement seeks to confront these structural challenges head-on via dialogue to ensure the integrity of the journalism profession. Decolonising journalism in South Africa is published at a time in which journalism serves a watchdog and a critique of a democratic government and needs to follow a bottom-up social justice approach and become a voice to the voiceless. Therefore, this book seeks to revolutionise the media in a way that even the language of reporting of certain issues needs to be changed to a balanced kind of reporting characterised by principles of no fear or favour.

"Religions in Focus" engages with the religious lives of members of some of the most significant religions today. It presents religions as contemporary ways of life that motivate and inspire people. Because religious people refer to sacred texts, honour the founders of their religions, learn from elders, or mould their lives according to authoritative teachings, "Religions in Focus" explains the relationship between tradition and contemporary practice. It offers an introduction to religions that is rooted in the best scholarship of the Study of Religions and provides a secure foundation for further study.A team of Religious Studies scholars from many countries, all skilled communicators about the contemporary religions with which they are thoroughly familiar, introduce what it means to live as a religious person today. They insist that however old or young these religions may be, what is most interesting is the ways in which people express them today. This is not a history of religions but an insightful introduction to living religions. A guide to further study and a companion website will point to ways of building on knowledge gained in studying this book, and applying skills developed in studying people's religious lives.