Reconstructing the sociolinguistic image of Africa: Grassroots writing in Shaba (Congo)

This paper starts from the observation that the sociolinguistic image of Africa is still burdened by a colonial heritage emphasizing clear ethnolinguistic units, language structure rather than language practice, and static images oflinguistic situations. Consequently, coming to terms with linguistic practice requires a crictical inspection of crucial and basic concepts such as language'. In this paper, samples of grassroots writing from Shaba (Congo) are used to demonstrate the fluidity of some of these concepts. The handwritings discussed here display a variety of features, material, stylistic and generic, that all point towards the presence and importance of a communicative economy and sociology, an understanding of which preconditions an understanding language practices. On the basis of such findings, a praxis-based reconstruction of the sociolinguistic image of Africa can be attempted.