Africa is often depicted as the continent with the lowest literacy rates in the world. Moving beyond this essentialising representation, this volume explores African literacies within their complex and diverse multilingual and multiscriptal histories and contexts of use. The chapters examine contexts from the Maghreb to Mozambique and from Senegambia to the Horn of Africa and critically analyse multiple literacy genres and practices - from ancient manuscripts to instant messaging - in relation to questions of language-in-education and policy, livelihoods, Islamic scholarship, colonialism, translocal migration, and writing systems. As a whole, the book serves as an advanced introduction to language and society in Africa seen through the lens of literacy, and marks a unique contribution to scholarship in literacy studies offering a convenient collection of perspectives on and from Africa.