Towards centring African languages in media and communication courses in postsecondary institutions in Africa

In many sub-Saharan African countries, European languages continue to occupy a place of privilege in media and communication studies courses. Despite the fundamental challenges associated with decentring European languages and centring African languages in countries with many ethnic groups that speak different languages and in institutions with international students and instructors, the process is critical to undertake. In moving towards centring African languages in media and communication courses in postsecondary institutions in Africa, instructors need to have an appreciation of the language competencies of their students. Further, care and thoughtfulness should inform selections of African languages to use in courses, especially in countries like Rwanda and Zimbabwe, with histories of people from minority ethnic groups being murdered by those representing dominant ethnic groups. Moving away from course outlines that are only in European languages, instructors could be creative in incorporating local language readings in courses. Guest instructors could also be invited to discuss various topics in African languages. Students could also be asked to do assignments like content analyses of newspapers published in vernacular languages.