Importing English: Inventing Namibia in Language Policy and Literature (2010)

Undergraduate: Charlotte Lloyd

Faculty Advisor: Gregory Flaxman
Department: Comparative Literature

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The purpose of this presentation, which is adapted from my Honors Thesis in Comparative Literature, is to deliver a paper the implications of Namibia’s post-independence English language policy as it pertains to the consolidation of Namibian nationalism and especially, the formation of national literature.
Namibia’s first prime minister and language policy architect Hage G. Geingob framed his nation’s sole official language of English as a choice following in the footsteps of literally dozens of other post-colonial nations, explaining, “English is a National Language of 29 countries and Official language of 44 countries – many of them in Africa.” Yet, even among African nations, Namibia’s language policy was without precedent. The presence of English in Namibia was not a matter of colonial inheritance; rather, it was a carefully selected and deliberately imported product. Fully aware that English was spoken by less than 1% of the population at the time of independence, national leaders nevertheless undertook an ambitious project to install the language in all government and education activities. Whereas language is so often regarded as an essential, organic component of the modern nation-state, the choice of English in Namibia represents a remarkable decision to graft a foreign language onto the most fundamental functions of the Namibian nation and weave it into the very fabric of Namibian nationhood.