Forensic Linguistics for Capacity Building in Southern Africa

This book examines how language shapes access to justice across multilingual courts, police stations and immigration settings. Bringing together studies from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Namibia, the volume demonstrates that interpretation and translation are not auxiliary services but essential safeguards of procedural fairness. Issues discussed include court-interpreting systems, pioneering interpreter training, the right to language assistance, specialised language training for the police, and investigation of statement-taking involving migrants and asylum seekers. Across these settings, the authors identify recurring weaknesses in training, recruitment, accreditation, professional recognition, terminology development, interpreter independence and institutional support. Drawing on forensic linguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, linguistic human rights and transformative justice, the book shows how apparently minor choices in wording, modality, questioning and reformulation can affect evidence, participation and legal outcomes. The work concludes by advancing an integrated regional framework for professional training, ethical practice, quality assurance and institutional reform. Combining empirical research, document analysis and practical models, the volume offers an important resource for scholars, trainers, interpreters, translators, police services, judicial institutions and policymakers seeking fairer multilingual justice systems in Southern Africa and beyond.