Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Colonial Encounters and Discourses of the Vernacular -- 2. African Literature, European Languages and Imaginations of the Local -- 3. Foreign Languages, Local Audiences: The Case of Nigerian Video Film in English -- 4. Romance Without Borders: Narrating Love, Femininity, and the Local in Contemporary Ivory Coast -- 5. Languages of Wider Communication and Alternative Sites of Belonging -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index