Neville Alexander: champion of multilingualism

Abstract

Neville Edward Alexander was a prominent revolutionary, Robben Island prisoner, linguistic activist, theorist and educationalist who strongly advocated multilingualism in post-apartheid South Africa. In his many publications, he explored the multiplicity of concepts related to nation building, such as 'race', 'nation', 'national group', 'ethnicity' and 'separatism,' because "it should be stressed that my approach has been motivated throughout by the desire to facilitate the unification of the national liberation movement by fomenting a discussion on the basis of national unity and on the political-strategic implications of ideas about who constitutes the South African nation"(emphasis in the original).