INTRODUCTION

Herbert and Robinson describe a complex mix of languages and religionsfrom recitation of Quranic verses by heart in the north (see Wright’s chapter on Eritrea for a further analysis of the meanings of such recitation) to Catholic practices among the Deg where a Paramount Chief used the Bible to make judgements about people suspected of sheep stealing. The authors suggest that a range of meanings may be attached to such practices, from the surface appearance of mysticism to which most Westerners are likely to respond to the deeper epistemological frameworks regarding problem-solving and explanation, akin to anthropologists’ accounts of witchcraft. At the same time local literacies may be used for funeral records and for economic purposes, such as the traditional letter writer composing and typing letters for customers in a number of languages and frequently translating a message delivered in one language to one written in another. ‘Meetings literacies’ are already familiar to literacy students from the work of Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic (1999) among others and Herbert and Robinson document further examples among Deg and Dagomba peoples in Ghana, where again languages are mixed between what is said at meetings and what is recorded.