This edited volume makes a unique contribution to interdisciplinary dialogues on multilingualism in Southern Africa by bringing together scholars from and within the Global South to explore the overlooked sociolinguistic realities of Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe across education, media, legal institutions, and urban spaces.

Thematically organized, the volume opens with chapters on multilingual education across all levels. Andrew Chimpololo (chapter 1), Lydia Kishindo-Mafuta (chapter 5), and Hambaba Jimaima & Gabriel Simungala (chapter 3) propose alternatives to transitional bilingual education. In Malawi, Chimpololo introduces developmental bilingual education that integrates home and majority languages through coordination among stakeholders, while Kishindo-Mafuta suggests expanding curricula to include three additional local languages. In Zambia, Jimaima & Simungala present a language-in-education policy that treats multilingualism as ‘a socially driven practice’ and centers learners’ semiotic repertoires. Shifting to higher education, Kondwani Kelvin Mkandawire (chapter 2) illuminates how an EAP instructor’s monolingual policies in Malawi overlook classrooms’ multilingual realities, reinforcing deficit views of students with various language learning histories. In Tanzania, Nichodamus Robinson (chapter 4) finds strong preference for English neologisms over Swahili due to the perceived higher status of English and translation practices.

Part 2 addresses disjunctures between multilingual realities and institutional policies beyond schools, proposing structural changes for linguistic equity. Yusuph Nyandai Masinde (chapter 6) contends that Tanzania’s symbolic multilingualism obscures Swahili’s dominance and the marginalization of ethnic languages across most domains. Evans Lwara, Wellman Kondowe, & Deborah Ndalama-Mtawali (chapter 7) show how bilingual court interpreters in Malawi navigate structural challenges using several communicative strategies, yet face translation difficulties that impede comprehension. Similarly, Paul Svongoro & Wellman Kondowe (chapter 8) highlight persistent issues in Zimbabwe’s multilingual courts, such as inadequate interpreter training. Eventhough Ndlovu & Pedzisai Mashiri (chapter 9) reveal the minimal use of sign language on Zimbabwean state-owned television, calling for a clear multilingual broadcasting policy.

Part 3 turns to youth language evolution among hearing and deaf individuals. Chimwemwe M. M. Kamanga & Precious Madula (chapter 10) describe seven common features among Chibrazi and other African urban contact languages, arguing existing terminology fails to capture their dynamism. The following chapters illustrate this further: Svongoro, Monwabisi Knowledge Ralarala, & Tawanda Matende (chapter 11) demonstrate how Shona slang in Zimbabwe’s townships transcends humor to create sociopolitical resistance; Simungala & Ndalama-Mtawali (chapter 13) show how Zambian and Malawian youth agentively use indigenous languages in translingual Facebook posts, ‘globalizing the local’; Agness Chimangeni Chaliwa Hara & Immaculee Harushimana (chapter 14) reveal that non-Chichewa university students in Malawi shuttle across Chichewa, English, and home languages without compromising ethnic identities. Finally, Matende, Lovemore Chidemo, & Svongoro (chapter 12) discuss how multimedia communication tools present opportunities and challenges for Zimbabwe’s deaf community, proposing lower data costs and greater investment in Zimbabwean Sign Language and digital literacy.

Part 4 explores multilingualism in urban spaces: Eunice Mukonde-Mulenga (chapter 15) illustrates how youth in metropolitan Zambia creatively reshape idioms through ‘Kopala lingo’, while Hara & Amani Lusekelo (chapter 16) examine public signage in northern Malawi, where English and Chichewa dominate, yet local languages remain visible through business names and explanations.

Overall, the volume foregrounds the dynamism of multilingual practices in Southern Africa and supports locally grounded language policies, recognizing that the local is not monolithic.