Youth language data provides interesting perspectives on gender dynamics and gendered usage in
society. However the gender perspective has not received the deserved focus in youth language
studies in Africa. This is partly due to the general perception that youth languages and
classic youth language practices such as slang and anti-language are male-oriented. This
collected volume focuses on gender dynamics and gendered usage in African youth languages and
youth language practices against the backdrop of urbanity as well as rurality. With
representations from different parts of Africa the volume examines sundry youth usage in
different contexts and domains. While avoiding strict binarizations and potentially flawed
dichotomies the contributing scholars observe some of the motivations for different gender
performatives and how these manifest in a variety of language forms and through predominated
categories of use. Data samples were obtained through sociolinguistic and anthropological
instruments ranging from questionnaires and structured interviews to street-based observations
and corpus analyses. On the whole the volume engages the literature and debate on language
youth and especially on gendering dynamics in African youth language practices.
