ABSTRACT
The British, French, and Portuguese regimes colonized most African countries. This colonization took away African languages, cultures, religions, and practices, only to replace them with colonial traditions. Decolonization debates are now rife in South Africa: decolonizing higher education, the economy, the law, and the justice system. All these debates and attempts are made to achieve equity and justice in the country. To contribute to these debates, this chapter examines how journalism education can be decolonized in South Africa from a sociolinguistic perspective. To achieve its aim, the chapter will review course descriptions of journalism curriculums at three universities in South Africa that offer journalism education and possible ways to decolonize the curriculums from the sociolinguistics perspectives. The chapter has concluded that sociolinguistics is critical in decolonizing journalism education. Journalism is a verbal medium; it uses language to communicate. Hence, it is essential for journalism curriculums in South Africa to teach students that language and identity can influence journalism practice to reflect its context and speak to its people in a language and forms that they understand.
