Monuments in linguistic landscapes and the semiotics of public memory in northern Zambia

Abstract

This study interrogates the Mbala War Memorial, a monument erected to commemorate the role of Africans in the First World War in northern Zambia. It explores how visible language, space, location, and monument design communicate deeper and often unspoken meanings about spaces of public memory. From this vantage point, monuments in linguistic landscapes can be examined to uncover underlying power dynamics that influence public memory. Thus, the study argues that while the monument is centrally located, its placement does very little to amplify the voices of the actors it commemorates. The neglected and unattended spaces of the memorial significantly diminish its potential to effectively represent public memory, symbolising the broader erasure and downscaling of local historical voices and narratives. The monument’s unappealing design and finish contribute to the downscaling and silencing of the local Indigenous voices it intended to honour. The study observes that the language (text) on the memorial gives rise to onomastic erasure and numerical downscaling and that the use of English, compounded by the absence of linguistic inclusivity, alienates the very actors whose history the monument seeks to honour.