African newspapers could be important conduits for debates around language and identity; more than that, newspapers were often the very crucible through which new African languages emerged. This chapter tells the twentieth-century story of the emergence of a codified written form of siSwati, the vernacular language of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Yet the appearance of siSwati was far from straightforward, and it appeared relatively late in the day, only around the 1960s. Earlier Swati intellectuals had largely used the language of neighbouring South Africa – isiZulu – for their print innovations. By the 1950s, a new interest in a written form of siSwati emerged in step with nationalist aspirations. Yet evidence from African-language newspapers shows us that the development of siSwati was fraught, dissent-filled, and uneven. The periodic and decentralized nature of the mid-century African newspaper made these kinds of debates possible, reminding us of the important orthographic work accomplished by print periodicals.

The first part of this chapter provides a brief overview of the developments in the study of language, gender, and sexuality, with a focus on anthropological works and leading ethnographies, while the second part focuses on a particular case study from South Africa. It aims to capture examples of the multiple, flexible, and fluid ways in which linguistic, gender, and sexual identities are entangled and how they are negotiated in relation to power. The case study focuses on Zulu speakers, South Africa’s largest ethnolinguistic group. Ethnographic detail from the province of KwaZulu-Natal provides a nuanced discussion of how gendered and sexual Zulu identities are represented through three selected linguistic styles and how despite important differences in the Zulu ways of speaking and being, there are also remarkable commonalities that expose a matrix of oppression based on patriarchy, sexual and gender(ed) “otherness,” as well as pervasive heteronormativity and racism. The study demonstrates that African spaces provide a multitude of linguistic resources to recalibrate previous thinking around language, gender, and sexualities by theorizing with a “southern” lens.