Makoni, Sinfree

Abstract This entry on Sinfree Makoni traces the historical, political, and social conditions that shaped his intellectual trajectory and theoretical orientations. It reviews the academic and administrative roles he played in various institutions whether in Africa, Europe, and America. With respect to his scholarly works, the entry classified the works into a nexus of thematic categories in order to detect how his thinking developed over time in a complex way. For example, we discuss his contributions to colonial linguistics, southern epistemologies, and decolonial sociolinguistics. The influence of the African ubuntu philosophy and Pan‐Africanism on his thinking is also discussed. The common element in these research orientations and work is his problematization of “language” as a colonial invention, and the attempt to reconstitute it outside of the logic of modernity. The entry also addresses the other nonacademic aspects of his social relationship within or outside the academia.