ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to outline the theory of intercultural communication and apply it to the African context. It highlights the link between the application of sociolinguistic theory and analysis in creating intercultural awareness and understanding in Africa. Intercultural communication in Africa is a complex undertaking, even between people who speak dialects of the same language – for example, isiZulu and isiXhosa. In the communication event, the doctor not only occupies a high rank in the hierarchy of communication because of their profession and maybe also race, but they are also probing the patient’s body in a language that is inaccessible to the patient. However, individual context and thought may inform language and communication, and thus have relevance to the final outcomes through evaluation of the evidence. N. Wolfsen points out that in cross-cultural communication there is a tendency to judge the speech behaviour of others by one’s own standards.
