Rethinking Applied Linguistics in the Global South: A Conversation with Sinfree Makoni

Waqar Ali Shah conducted an interview with Sinfree Makoni on May 21, 2024. In this interview, Professor Makoni discusses how to rethink applied linguistics in relation to southern epistemologies, decolonization, and globalectics. He also discusses his views on disinvention and reconstitution of languages, ethnolinguistic response to linguistic boundaries and identity politics, language purity, Black linguistics, integrationism, and epistemological racism. He further discusses how ideas are articulated from a specific geopolitical setting; for example, those in the Global North are privileged within the field of applied linguistics while silencing those from the Global South. Makoni further argues that scholars from the Global South can enrich the field of applied linguistics because of their local experiences, knowledge of the local intellectual traditions, and familiarity with Northern theories and contexts.