Book excerpt: Hegemony and Language Policies in Southern Africa argues that language policy - whether formal or informal, micro or macro - has always been the centrepiece of identity imaginings, struggles for political emancipation, and quests for cultural affirmation and economic advancement in the colonial and postcolonial histories of African nations. This book addresses questions on the social and political history of language policies, focusing on their significance for ethnic, immigrant and social groups, as well as for various political projects in southern Africa, as they have unfolded from the late.