Translanguaging Spaces and Multilingual Public Writing in Zambia: Tracing change in the linguistic landscape of Ndola on the Copperbelt

Zambia is home to a complex set of language practices, which involve languages being used in different ways across social contexts. Historically written communication has typically been associated with English with African languages mainly associated with used spoken contexts. Recently however, there has been a shift in this pattern with African languages being used more frequently in and across the linguistic landscape of Zambia in public writing (Banda and Jimaima 2017, Simungala 2020, Simungala and Jimaima 2020). In this paper we add to the growing body of work within linguistic landscape research that draws on a translanguaging perspective to understand the ways in which language is used as a resource for meaning making in the social world (Li Wei 2011, 2018; García & Kleyn 2016; MacSwan 2017; Jaspers 2018).More specifically, we adopt the concept of translanguaging spaces (Li Wei 2011, 2018; Reilly 2021) to explore the ways in which language is used in billboards and advertising spaces and propose that important shifts in language uses are observable. We discuss the changing status and uses of local African languages and why this is important in understanding language use in post-colonial contexts such as Zambia.