ABSTRACT
Like the previous chapter, this chapter is concerned with a less formal institution of regime change in Africa—language. It argues that the language question in Africa is a sociopolitical issue that deserves a little more attention as it relates to African development in general and regime change in particular. Exploring it as an overlooked factor in regime change, the chapter demonstrates that if one were to fully account for the creation and maintenance of a majority of nation-states in Africa, then language is an important aspect of the whole experiment on the continent. Conscious of the sociopolitical and economic power behind language, the chapter demonstrates that language can and has been deliberately manipulated to bring about regime change and therefore is an increasingly relevant consideration in the very volatile and dynamic concept of the state in Africa.
