'There are no Whites in Africa': Territoriality, language, and identity among Francophone Africans in Cape Town

In this paper, I discuss identity display among Francophone Black Africans in Cape Town. I focus on language practice and attitudes, both approached in relation to space, which is conceived of multidimensionally. I argue that the physical environment, symbolic meaning, and social practice are interrelated in shaping, together and separately, language practice and attitudes. I propose an interactional and dynamic model of analysis based on territoriality which helps us understand the relationship between space and language, and the way speakers give meaning to and appropriate their multilayered space.