sign in sign up
<<
Home , Asa language, East Africa, Government of Kenya, Kenya, Religion in Uganda, Tanzania

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 276 268 FL 016 234 AUTHOR Merritt, Marilyn; Abdulaziz, Mohamed H. TITLE Swahili as a in East . PUB DATE 17 Jul 85 NOTE 33p.; In: What Are National Languages Good For? Florian Coulmas, Ed.; see FL 016 231. PUB TYPE Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142)-- Historical Materials (060) -- Speeches/Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cultural Pluralism; Developing Nations; Diachronic Linguistics; Foreign ; Geographic Distribution; *Language Role; Language Usage; Language Variation; Multilingualism; *Official Languages; *Political Influences; Public Policy; *Sociocultural Patterns; *Swahili; Uncommonly Taught Languages IDENTIFIERS *Africa (East); ; ; ABSTRACT The historical background and the current status of Swahili in Kenya and Tanzania, where it is designatedas the national language, and in Uganda, where it has assumed a less prominent role, are described. Major factors contributing to the selection of national languages in the are presented. Theways both linguistic and sociopolitical features influencea language's viability as the national language, especially ina heavily multilingual, multicultural setting are analyzed. The discussion focuses on the ongoing competition between languages in different domains and the complexity of language choice for individual speakers. Changes occurring in Swahili's internal development and patterns of use are also examined in this context. (MSE)

*********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** $wahili as a NationalLanguage in East AfrigA

Marilyn Merritt and MohamedH. Abdulaziz

short title: Swahilias a National Language

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ORice of Educational Research andImprovement "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) Ot This document has beenreproduced as / received from the personor organization originating IL a 0 Minor changes have beenmade to improve reproduction quality.

Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- ment do not necessarily representofficial OERI position or policy. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

BEST COPY AVAILABLE Swahili asANational Lancivacie in_East Africa

Marilyn Merritt andMohamed H. Abdulaziz

In this paper'we will describe some of thehistorical background and the current state of affairsregarding the status of Swahili, or perhaps more properlyKiswahili (using the prefixed form that is used when speakingthe ), in . The geographicalspread of Swahilias a ).ingua =UM extends beyondEast Africa and withinAfrica is second only to interms of its range. However, as this isa book about national languages our mainfocus will beon Kenya and Tanzania, where Swahili is politicallydesignated as the national language with a contrasting discussionof Uganda, where Swahili has assumed a somewhatless prominent role.

In describing the situation here, andnoting contrasts within the region, we hope to providesome sense of the major factors that have contributed to theselection of national languages in this region whichmay be of general interest.We also hope to sharpen the concept of nationallanguage by illus- trating both the linguistic and socio-politicalfeatures that must obtain for a language variety in orderfor it to be viable as a national language, especially in a heavilymultilingual and multi-cultural setting such as East Africa. Further, we hope to give some sense of the ongoing "competition"between languages in different domains and the concomitantcomplexity of language choice for individual speakers, althoughwe can only hint at this

3 within the scope of this paper (see,e.g. Abdulaziz 1972, Parkin 1974). Finally, throughoutour discussion we hope toconvey some sense of the changes that have occurred with Swahili--notonly in the patterns of its use, but also in its internaldevelopment as a dynamic language.

Historical Overview ofEast African Nationhood

The modern nation states of Kenya, Tanzaniaand Uganda all emerged in the 19601s, having gained independencefrom the colonial government ofthe .The land of Kenya covers 224,960 square mileswhile Tanzaniacovers 363,708 square miles and Uganda 91,076 square miles. According to the U.N. Population Chart of 1984 inhabitantsnumber 19,761,000 in Kenya; 21,710,000 in Tanzania, and 15,150,000in Uganda. All three countries access Victoria, butwhile Uganda lies inland, both Kenya andTanzania theIndian Ocean.

The coastal area ofEast Africa had been forcenturies in contact with successive waves of foreigners notablythe , .the Indians, and thePortuguese --but itwas not until the late 19th century that outside political influences beganto seriously penetrate the interior of this region, whichwas comprised of geographically diverse aridand lush areas, and inhabitedby a number of culturally distinctgroups. As in the past, and

2

4 were the mainpursuits. By the turn of the century,

however, both andGreat Britain had establishedwell-

developed political interestsand claims to the region; andplans

were well underway for a modernrailway system that wouldtravel from the ancient city ofMombasa, on the ,to the shores of and the wealthy African kingdomof .

Germany claimed the area southof a line just north of Mt. Kilimanjaro, whichwas called . Great Britain claimed the area just adjacent,stretching as far northas (then colonized by ). The need to build andadminister the railroad led to the building of the city of (conveniently located at a halfway point, and at the junction ofthe flat plains, where itwas easy to build the roadbed,and the rich green highlands that could supplyfood) as well as the establish- ment of a colonial government.

After the First World WarTanganyika was ceded to Great

Britain, and the wholeterritory under colocialgovernment was often referred toas British Eas-. Africa (BEA). At the time of independence Tanganyika andthe island of Zanzibarwere consoli- dated to form thenew nation of Tanzania. The boundary between Uganda and Kenya had been earlierdrawn to facilitate Kenya's viability asan agriculturally based British (with

3

5 significant numbers of permanent Britishsettlers who planned to

make their homes there) Resident aliens at the time ofindepen- dence were given the opportunity to becomeKenyan citizens (?for

Tanzania, Uganda). All three new nation states remainedpart of the British Commonwealth.

For some ten years following Independencein the early 1960's the three nations maintaineda useful loose known as the East Africa Community.They shared administration of parts of the railroad, travelon Lake Victorialcommon postal services, sharingof*ducational facilities at the University level and other features thatwere deemed to be of mutual

economic interest. Political pressures caused thisfederation to break down in the mid-1970's, makingnational boundaries more salient than at any time inthe past; since 1984, however,

restrictions have decreased andit appears that a period of renewed cooperation is developing.

Overview of.Linquistic Diversityas the Context for Swahili As

Linguistically the boundaries dividingthe three countries can be seen to be somewhat arbitrary. Along the there are often groups that share the same language and basicculture who are divided simply by a politicalboundary. This is especially true of the pastoral Maasai whooccupy both sides of the Kenya-Tanzania border in the Serengetiplain. A similar

4

6 situation exists along thenorthern part of the Kenya-Uganda border. At the time that boundarywas drawn, najor considera-

tion was given to the importantkingdom of whichwas located entirely withinUganda.

In all three countries the internal linguisticdiversity is great. Though precise figuresfor the number of languagesin each are not available, there are approximatelyforty in Kenya, more than one hundred inTanzania, and over thirty in Uganda. Four major African languagefamilies--Bantu, Nilo-

Saharan, Cushitic, andKhoison--are represented inthe overall . Tanzania'slanguages come from all four language

families, but more than90% are from the Bantufamily. In Kenya there are (including Kikuyu, Kamba, Luyia, Swahili), Nilo-Saharan languages (all from the Niloticgroup, including Oholuo, Maa,and Kalenjin), and Cushiticlanguages (occurring mostly in thenortheastern part of the countryand including Somali and Rendille).Among the inhabitants about

two-thirds speak Bantumother-tongues, whila nearlyone third speak Nilotic mother-tongues. Two major language familiesare represented in Uganda.Bantu languages (includingmost prominently )occur mostly in the southern partof the country, while Nilo-Saharanlanguages (mostly Nilotic suchas Acholi and Lango, but includingalso Sudanic ones) nre spoken in the north. This does notinclude, of course, the smallpockets of languages imported from the Indiansub- with small

5

7 groups of traders who began to settle in East Africaover the past hundredyears.

Historically, none ofthese languages hasassumed dominance in terms of numbers of speakers. Today, with more thanfifty million people inhabiting this entire regionof East Africa,no single language has more than five millionmother-tongue spdakers.

In this context there are a number of obviousfeatures about Swahili that have played a role inits developmentas an historically important withinthe region. First, it is a Bantulanguage. Most inhabitants ofthe region speaka Bantu language as mother tongue; anotherBantu language is easier for them to learn than a language fromanother group. Secondly, Swahili is spclken fadigenously along thecoast. For centuries this has been the East African languageof contact for traders approaching from the Indian Ocean. Thirdly, long beforethe 19th century the culture of the people whofirst spoke thislanguage (also called the Swahili) was urban and literate, andhad incorporated the Islamic . This effectivelymeant that Swahili was 2ore "developed" , and more "open"to change and accommodation to cultural differencesand innovations.

6 Brief of the SwahiliLanaum

The exact origin of the Swahililanguage is uncertain, but there are reports as earlyas the second century A.D. that there

were indigenous urban tradingsettlements along the coast ofthe Indian Ocean, south ofthe . According to Whiteley (1969, p.31) "On present linguisticevidence...some form of

Proto-Standard Swahiliwas being spoken on the coast beforethe tenth century." It seems likely that Swahilideveloped first in the north, in what is now Somalia, south of ,near the archipelago and theTana river estuary, and thenspread south along the coast andoff-shore islands.

When the island of Eilwawas visited by the Arabic

traveller Ibn Batutu in13328 he reported that therewere rative poets, who wrote lyric and epic poems in the Swahililanguage, using the Arabic script(Heine 1970). At that timeKilwa was the

cultural center of the Zenjempire, which governed thecoastal territory as far south as the Zambezi River and used Swahilias

the lingma_tranal. Asa major part of Arab and Persianinfluence, seems to have becomea part of the Swahili:culture during

the Zenji period, which spannedseveral centuries (from before the 10th century up to thelate 15th century when Vasco daGana appeared with his Portuguese fleet). This was a per!nd of brLsk competitive maritime tradeamong countries that accessed the

Indian Ocean, particularlythose that could use themonsoon trade to advantage. The Zenj "" itselfseems to have

7

9 consisted largely ofa set of city-states like Lamu_andMombasa that were situatedon small islands or along the coast where

there were heavy mangroveswamps that could provide a deterrent to swift invasion from thesea. Very maneuverable single-masted

sailing ships called dhowswere built from wood and used

for most maritime transportationin the region. Together with more modern vessels dhows continue tobe used today.

Exactly when and how the Swahililanguage and culture emerged is not clear. Western scholars in the early 20thcentury, citing the heavy influenceof Arabic on the languageand the evidence of settlement, intermarriage, and the spreadof Islam from Arabia, put forwardthe idea that Swahiliwas a ',mixed language, based on Arabicand Bantu, possiblya creolized trade language of the Indian Ocean.

This hypothesis is no longerconsidered valid. The Arabs came as traders rather thansettlers. When they have stayedon the tendency has been tointermarry and to becomequickly Swahilized. More importantly, there is no evidence within the language itself of creolizationor reduced form. Swahili grammatical structure retainsa fully elaborate Bantu morphology

(including, for example, at leastseven noun classes that are indicated by morphological prefixes,and that require concord with adjectives and subjectand object markers within theverb), and its core vocabularyas well as its phonology is clearly

8

10 Bantu. The only possible reduction is the lack of phonemictone, which most other Bantu languages in East Africado have. Moreover, even if this is a "loss" there is no need topostulate Arabic or foreign influence, as the surroundingnon-Bantu languages from the region,such as Somali,are also non-tonal.

Arabic influenceon the Swahili languageseems limited almost entirely to theaddition of literarygenres and additions to the lexicon. Although some studiessuggest that as muchas 35% of the lexicon may be borrowed from otherlanguages, mostly from Arabic, estimates go as high as 70% for theproportion of these borrowings that are related to Islamor Islamic education. Arabic is still taught in padrassas (Islamicprimary schools) along the coast, though it is used now almostexclusively to study the Koran andreligious documents.

It seems likely thatin earlier times,among some of the population there existed a Swahili-Arabic bilingualismof a diglossic , withArabic being used todiscuss semantic domains such as theology, jurisprudence, rhetoric,and medieval science. This facilitated lexicalborrowing for exactlythose areas that were not part of the indigenous culture. Traditional semantic domains and genres were less likely to borrownew words. For example, the indigenous society has strong associationswith the sea. As we might thus expect,vocabulary dealing with the sea is largely Bantu and comprisesa significant portion of the

9

11 Swahili lexicon; further, some of the bestproverbs (a tradition- al genre) are associatedwith the sea.

Swahili was used as a language of trade not onlyalong the coast, but also when caravans were formedto go into the interior in search of ivory, animal skins,and, for a time, slaves. Most of these caravans went through thearea that is now Tanzania, through land occupied by otherBantu-speakinggroups. In Kenya the caravans had to traversethrough territory occupied by the Maasai, who were Nilotic-speaking, andwho were known for their fierce warriors. Swahili was lessusefulin negotiating with this group.

As a lingua franca over a period of severalcenturies Swahili has often been in a situationof diglossia, spokenby individuals who spoke Swahili in particularsemantic or social domains, and who spoke at leastone other language in other domains. This has led to continued borrowing intoSwahili where new areas were introduced. A portion of thevocabulary for card playing, for example, is borrowed fromPortuguese, reflecting the period of introduction. In recent years,many new words have been borrowed from English. Many terms for plantsand animals have been taken from other African languages. All this has given the language a property of adaptability andelasticity whichmore culturally isolatedlanguages do not have.

10

12 eik ilmelausom af MIMS aall Onimansasps la las leo itaratio. nti "Wit 111111m111 Weis ompropalail mplantles tog Um flia OP lamea, I laglas a, ;Mayarter. t. 0.111410 40/ Weer elamlaissoll loamme oft 0011,111 slamsOwl WPM

Um mese eas, asiseartart asillosa tassumpiest NOW 41888.10 81011111or er a tilaa asseas valor lofts a. 111111a NNWUM VIM lIMPISoramlal eel boom Wm MON Um. 011011.11111moss ilare loospdbm Samlam 116601 Us Ma alifillom 411110lieSPINOlail6,014, a, auppesil ofIlmbial *Me ailp wise was Ilk Slodelassa la IlamprelLas IMP ON. 9.001113tios flosio baasse aftIlia emonalor Os earases firs all 011111.1641811111411110 a.s Ina mewows waft OM WNW isenposimeoho MEW spew noMaur Um rely 4111

esm ad agessoleaselm smog a, asslosla faisamatio ale ow Is lawImam So email Ilmrleglirler. NS MI 11111011111 at SwellNam am swig aftwompola. ealfariff. 11111ms* w a. oressamo or 0.111111 1.11111Mar a, aim asolla.Ile IMMO Ilimpal erpillielall/11.1.111Po Ina* Owerli OW, me Salem at Meal, Orr Us 11Ip iis sortiogOm or slam Ur oft Milev.

Is

13 Though the languagepolicies of the Britishand the Germans differed, atfirst neithergroup made much effort to introduce Englishor German, or to inanyway change local patterns et language use. Much as they had done inIndia, the British administratorsand taachersset about learning the local languages as needed. In Tanganyika, underGerman sentrel, interest in learningthe indigenous languageswas par- ticularly strong. As theChristian missionspenetrated into areas away from the trade routes (whichwas more likely in the British

sentrelled territory)they found that Swahiliwas less well known. NOwever, as colonial interests andinvolvements became stronger it became clearthat there was a needto provide organisation and administration across tribal boundaries andthat policies would have to be set that woulddictate the usage of local languages andUnguLltanrsaa.

Thee* language policies,based largely on the simpleneed to facilitate communication, had the most directinfluence on °banging regionalpatterns of languageuse. They involved basically twe realms:organisation and administration,and education.

Education in British territorywas almost exclusively the province ot the . Most of them favored theUS9 of the local mother-tongues for teaching and translating theBible. Their feeling was that themother-tongue would be most likely to

12

14 capture the spirituality of the Biblical teachings.Though this was to some extent an impractical decisionbecause of the number of different languages involved, they feltthat Swahili was nota viable solution because of its longassociation with theIslamic religion. In Uganda and the western part of theterritory there was also some negative associationof Swahili with slave-trading.

In fact, when the United Missionary Conferencewas held in Nairobi in 1909 there was a debate over whether Swahilior English should become the lingua franca inwhich it was decided that English should become the lingua franca. The vernacular or mother-tongue was to be usedfor the first fouryears of school, with English being used after that. Swahili was still tobe taught as a subject and used as a medium ofinstruction in some schools such as those inNairobi. Educational policy thus did not assign much prestige or utility to Swahili inparts of the territory where itwas not already widely used.

In Tanganyika, underGerman control, educationalpolicy took a different turn. At first some schools triedto provide primary instruction inGerman, but when this producedalmost uniform failure itwas quickly given up. Because there were so many different languagegroups in Tanganyika, and perhaps also because the major urbanconcentration was along thecoast in or around whereSwahili was the mother-tongue,the decision was made touse Swahili in educational institutions.

13

15 This decision meantthat books and teaching materialshad to be prepared. Since the late 19th century,missionaries and other interested foreigners had begun to transliterateSwahili into Roman script andto systematize their knowledgeof the language so that it could be taught to others. Thoughthe indige- nous was a literate one, this .wasbased exclusively on Swahili writtenin Arabic script.Roman scripted Swahili was being newly introduced, and met withconsiderable success. In 1914 the German ProtestantMission published its newspaper rwani-na-Bara in Swahiliwith a circulation ofabout 2000.

Language policy with respectto organization and adminstra- tion was less dissimilar between the two colonialpowers. In building the railroads, both quickly adopted Swahilias the lin- gua franca. As administrative needs increased, Swahili continued to be used more andmore.

However, in British controlledterritory there were several

large ethnolinguisticgroups--notably the Ganda, theLuo, the Luyia, the Kikuyu, andthe Kamba--whose languageswere used at the level. Incontrast, in Tanganyika administrative political boundarieswere such that a single local languagewas rarely available to be used. Further, the Germans tooka greater interest in training local peopleto do administration and set

14

16 their educational policy in accordance with thisneed. Thus in Tanganyika Swahili quickly became known as both thelanguage of learning and government employment, and acquiredconsiderable prestige.

Another factor whichno doubt played a role in the

differing evolving rolesfor Swahili was that whilethe Germans maintained their administrative center in Dar es Salaamon the , the British soon moved their administrativecenter from coastal to the more centrally locatedNairobi, amongst the Kikuyu, the Maasai, and the 'Cambia. Swahili continued to develop as an important lingua franca,but in the absence ofa local group who spoke it as a it beganto assume the character of a sub-standard dialect,"up-country" Swahili.

In 1920 Kenya and Uganda became crown ofGreat Britain and Tanganyika came under British controlas well. During the 1920's there was a temporary convergenceof educational policies in Kenya, Tanzania,and Uganda, in which theBritish accorded Swahili more prominence than in the past,but this did not last.

In Tanganyika the British builton the German administra- tive and educational structure, but after they tookover English was introduced in key domains andthere was a resulting lossof prestige by Swahili. In primary schools Swahiliwas still used

15

17 as the , but for secondaryschools it was English. Though the language of the lower courtswas Swahili, the language ofthe higher courts was English. Newspaperscon- tinued to be published in Swahili, butthe new, and therefore prestigious, mediaof glossy magazines and films were inEnglish (or occasionallyother foreignlanguageW.

In Kenya, after the British takeoverof Tanganyika,an effort was made to use more Swahili incertain areas, especially administratively. However, schools continuedto be left largely in the hands ofthe missionaries, and the medium ofinstruction continued to be either mother-tongue or English.English was becoming more important in Kenya as GreatBritain had madea decision to colonize there and had offeredtracts of to Europeansettlers, especially British veteransof the First WbrldWar. Important political andadministrat!ve postswere thus held by theBritish, and it was not foreseen that thiswould change significantlyin futureyears.

Swahili made inroads in particularareas. For example, it was made the language of the East Africanterritorial army called the King's African Rifles and of thesecurity forces.Further, trainees were sent from all parts of BritishEast Africa to work in otherareas. This promoted a tremendous regionalidentifica- tion, especially among the classes who contributedto these forces.

16

18 Also important was the factthat after World War /Tan- ganyika and the Swahili-speaking island of just offits coast had come under control of the same colonialpower. With Great Britain governing of all of East Africa the ideaof stan- dardizing Swahili becamepracticable. In 1925 an education conference held in Dar es Salaam led to proposals forstandard- ized spelling and theestablishment of a CentralPublishing Committee. In 19271 following therecommendation of the British Governor, Swahili was designatedone of Uganda's official lan- guages, giving it equal status with Luganda. Early thefollowing year, 1928, the dialect of Zanzibarwas officially adopted as dialect of EastAfrica at an inter-- territorial conference held in Mombasa.

Regional convergenceon the use of Swahili proved tobe short-lived, however. Swahili's status as an official languagein Uganda lasted only a year. The politically powerfulGanda mis- trusted its rivalry with Luganda, the missionariesworried that it was Islamic in character, and some educatorsfelt that it would retard modernization.

In Kenya Swahili speakersall used a dialect somewhat different from the Zanzibardialect that had becomethe selected standard. The coastal speakers didnot fully accept the Zanzibar standard (seele.g., Xhalid 1977),and disapproved of theup- country dialect thatwas growing in proportion to the

17

1 9 urbanization that was taking place in the centerof.the country. At some distance from the coastal mother-tonguespeakers, this growth sector for Swahili was little influenced by theSwahili people and was used infoxmal contexts suchas programs by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporationas well as for informal everyday encounters.

All this gave theuse of Swahili in Kenyaa different character and a different base than that in Tanganyikaand Zanzibar. Whiteley's (1969) observation was that "ifSwahili was the language of the country in Tanganyika, inKenya it was the language of the towns, especially Nairobi,where people from all parts of the country found it a convenientbulwark against the loneliness of city life as well as a ready tool toexploit the attractions the cityoffered" (p. 67).

In the 1950's there were more Swahilinewspapers published in Nairobi than inDar es Salaam, buta sense of competition with mother-tongue languages was more keenly felt in somewhatthe same way it was in Uganda. In Tanganyika,for example, the political party TANU adopted theuse of Swahili withno problem. In Kenya, shortly before independence,the political partyKANU initially proposed using Swahili allover the country and produced their party newspaper in it; at a later date, however, Luo,Kikuyu, and Kamba were al= used.

18

20 By tbe close of the colonialera, English as..well as Swahili had grown in stature.There wasfirst of all its continued importarce in internationaltrade and in negotiating (notwithstanding the violenceof the "" period) politic-

al independence with GreatBritain. In addition, univ(arsities had been set up where Englishwas (and still is) the exclusive medium of instruction: Makarere University in ,Uganda, the University of Dares Salaam in Tanganyika, and theUniversity of Nairobi in Kenya. The newly emerging Africanintellectuals were anxious to communicate with Africansoutside the East African region and with theinternational intellectual community. East African authors suchas James Ngugi (later to write under

the name Ngugi wa Thionglo)began to use the literarygenre of the novel, written in English.

Vational Policies on LanguageUse

As with language policies duringthe colonial period the major two areas in whichpolicy has been legislatedconcern political administrationand education. As mass media hes become more and more important, policy regardingdissemination of infor- mation through these channelshas become another importantarea of language policy as well.

The first , JuliusNyerere, actively encouraged the use of Swahili inall walks of life, including all spheres of government and politics.It is thus the "official"

19

21 language as wall as the nationallanguage. In education Swahili

is used as the mediumof instruction all throughelementary

school, and English mediumschools are not introduced untilthe secondary and tertiary levels.English maintainssome status as

co-,as it is also used at higher levelsof government, espeCially in thejudiciary and in dealing with internationalaffairs. The print mediaof newspapers and magazines utilizes bothSwahili and English,as does radio

broadcasting. However,more Swahili is used, especiallyin

broadcasting and other oralmedia.Another importantgovernment policy has been to set up a National SwahiliCouncil which acts much like an academyof language, passingon any new publications and working to standardize the modernization of thelanguage through the borrowingof needed terms andexpressions.

In Kenya Swahili was proclaimed the nationallanguage as well, but this did not mean that it was to displaceother lan- guages in all affairs of nationalinterest. A small committee of musicians, some Britishand some African,were commissioned to compose a national with Swahililyrics and an indigenous

East African tune (whichturned out to be a lullaby).Swahili continued as the language ofthe . Swear-inceremonies of government officialswere to be carried out in Swahilionly. But

English was to be the "official"language, making it thelanguage of Parliament and officesof national government. In 1974 Kenya's first president JomoKenyatta proclaimed that Swahili

20

22 should also be used in the Parliament. Since that timeMembers of Parliament have been required to know both Swahili and Englishin order to participate fully indebate. Monetary currency ismarked in both Swahili and English.

With regard to educationa Kenya Education Commissionwas set up in 1964 to study the situation and makerecommendations for carrying out the educationalneeds of the country. The resulting report, oftenreferred to as the Omindereport (so-- called for the Chafxman of the Commission)recommended that mother-tongues (and in linguisticallymixed areas occasionally

Swahili) be used for thefirst three standards,with Swahili and English taught as subjects, and that schools beEnglish medium from standard four onwards, with Swahili continuingthroughout the seven year curriculum as a required subject. Secondary and tertiatary education was to continue as English medium. In 1984 significant changes were made, introducing the "8-4-4"system. Elementary educationwas extended to eight standardswith a shift

in emphasis in curriculum,and with Swahili being testedat the end of this period, which was not previously emphasized.Additio- nally, though the secondaryschools continue touse English as medium, Swahili hasnow been made a c:Alpulsory subject.

Print media is largely in Englishand Swahili. Television broadcasting is done only inEnglish and Swahili, with thenews being delivered in bothlanguages at different times ofday. On

21

23 the radio there are localbroadcasts in some of the mother

tongues, including Kikuyu,KaMba, Luyia, Luo, and Somali. Among some of the pastoral groups radio isa far more effective media

than television orany of the print media. Broadcastingmedia are government controlled, whereasprint media is not.

National efforts to researdhand develop the Swahili language have been undertaken, though they do not match thelevel of investment made bythe Tanzanian government./n 1971 the laundhed a Department ofLinguistics and African Languages in whichSwahili is taught. The National

Council for Science andTedhnology has requested thepreparation of an English-Swahili medical dictionary, whichshould be available by 1987. However, so far nothing approximatingthe institute of Swahili research discussed in the1979-1983 National Five Year Plan hascome about.

In Uganda it hasnever been possible toagree to the use of a single African language as ups nationallanguage. Luganda, language of the historicallypolitically powerful Gandagroup, has long been usedas a regional 2ingua franca andwas designated one of six nationally recognizedlanguages to be used in public education (along with Ateso/Akarimojong, Lugbara, Lwo(sometimes referred to as ),Runyankore/Rukiga, and Runyoro/Ruturo).

Since the introductionof Swahili through traders andby the British organizationof the King's African Rifles andthe

22

24 territorial securityforces, it has servedas an important lingua franca in other areas. However, its association withthe

military--in particularwith the generally lesseducated classes from which these forces were drawn--and the fact that Swahiliis not a mother-tongue for any Ugandan group, has meantthat it does not connote positive national identity. English hascontinued to play an important role both in government and ineducation. Eng- lish probably enjoys a more secure statusas lingua franca in Uganda than in eitherKenya or Tanzania.

The Current status ofSwahili in East Africa Swahili is widely spoken today throughout East Africa. In addition to having been designated thenational language of both Kenya and Tanzania, and being promulgatedas a in Uganda, it is also used inparts of Zaire and and . As the political situationin Uganda has beenextre- mely unstable and isonly now (1986)beginning to be resolved, the policies theremay change.

Swahili spread from the coastal area intothe interior of East Africa through its use an a 2inguafranca in trade. It has continued to te the language of tradeand commerce, especially in urban areas between people from differenttribal backgrounds. Additionally, itvas used early on to facilitate administrative undertakings, such as the buildingof railroads, and the organization of services ata non-local level. These

23

, 25 are instances of what Mazrui (1975) has called theorganizational impetus for thespread of a 2ingua frpma. This wouldseem to account for most of the initial spread of Swahiliin the region. Once a language has been spread toa certain level, however.,it becomes available for purposes otherthan those whichmay have initiated the spread. For example, theorganizational potential of Swahili wasexercised by the indigenous populationin the Maji Rebellion of 1909, in which Tanganyikansrallied in a last military effort tooust the Germans.

Further, the fact of there being a languagethat is spoken beyond the boundsof one's mother tongue can giveindividuals a sense of belonging to a unit larger than thelocal political unit. This can lead to what Mazrui hascalled the inspirational thrust of a linguafranca, whereby people are motivatedto learn and use a languagein order to identify with what itstands for.

This inspirational thrust in the spreadof Swahili did not take place until this century,and it occurredfirst in Tanzania where it was spoken longer by a more widelyspread populace who had quickly grasped its organizationalvalue. Often cited is the example of the five Chagga tribes, eachwith theirown distinct dialect, who decided, in order to communicateequitably amongst themselves, to adoptSwahili as their lingua franca(Scotton 1978). Because of the German language policies(to use Swahilias the medium ofinstruction as much as possible) Swahili hadbecome

24

26 awsSOWO sift lessiesaiass silassuase sal Nibassassia Ofipiteratig Ow*isigessmis amplaposalea wait as wale. OWNOS * IssaSONNW eissilesaortas OW IMMO astastai MIMS, IOW SmOspealaamaril Ikea Wovi iveraseei'Way at WOO *WWI WINSOWMIWe geseaamok as wailas Is saber 1.1.146 it MI IS Imoeagaliall sob at Ws prodavaLaval el OSSOISpb

011aps OwUII Soow Wise alma as apheliaet . Me ft MIMS% u. 11114UW,IWO sammass lasaw sae mob et 111011.1111 MONOISIMOINSIOU SW allsaisi paital.M Ilba sump Usk UMW OWOw SISkama, wslAp emswaelleals grampa 41.11011 alW 811.1gonslis et Swam itraler sit eallesie sr impindiltrileir, Um S. eisteemse eWay ertaragt, assiNdisees. sallaiss, ess111. esseloril agresillluell efts atSOSO Oar Wpm ellosasasseasSaaa Issinftwo OWIWallari Was esmsallasSlaa. As limas 01111811 W INGsma,as poossaapelsUatio as vaUas ISWISSIMIO pagrai Oarwilkarli Eivalagratip Welast palm Ma sillars Ilampsft aft asmOsir eisaar F blanald ars anow garaullies.Oar anipis, Wag Ionassalay ea Oa IMO Misr ammest saw lima OatGam all et ease WO OMNI=

II Ow& 41001111 asolimala la ow as avesataastaaally WNW. Oa dow OW am le Imoam salsa pa Oar ilsvgiag national identity. In tact its potentiafor regional unifica- tion within lastAfrica is sometimesseen as antithetical Ugandan nationalinterests.

ft is possible to see these contrastsas a kind of progres- sive development, with the continuinggrowth of Swahili being driven by both organisational and inspirationalassociations in lansania, by some organisational andsome inspirational associa- tions in Minya,and by primarily organisational associationsin Uganda.

ln all three countries there is unstablenultilingualism based OD rapid social changereflecting both thechanging needs of tbs societies and the changing linguisticrepertoires of individuals (including here, especially, educationend literacy levels, end exposure to other languages).As Swahili acquires more speakers, and urbanisation increases (asa result of both and population pressures),certain interper- sonal domains of usage are opened to Swthilimother-tongue(and occasionally ingliah) bilingualism, while othermore formal and official domains of usage are opened to Swahili-Englishbilin- gualism. Zn association with this there isa certain amount of 'language mixings or code-switching within thesentence unit. ?here does not seem any likelihood of Swahiliand English forming anything like a new pidgin or creole, although,among certain age cohorts (around theteenage years of secondary schoolend early

26

28 univarsity education)in Nairobi, there isa fairly-well .deve- loped kind of slangcalled Peng, which is usedas a kind of

age-specific "secret"language, and which clearlyinvolves a mixing of English and occasionally other foreign wordsinto the basic Swahili syntax.

In Kenya especially, whereeconomic development istaking place most rapidly, bothSwahili and Englishseem to be acquiring speakers. Impressionistically, thereseems to be a tendency for

what might be thoughtof as "dimodal diglossia"for many speakers in some domains, whereby English is more preferredfor reading and especially writing,while Swahili ismore preferred for oral communication. This does notseem to be a straightforward

official-unofficialor formal-informal splitting. For example, broadcasts and publicspeeches are increasinglypresented in Swahili, while bilinguals often seem to prefer Englishlanguage newspapers.

The aesthetic and formallyexpressive uses of languages

present a more complex situation,especially since mother-tongue literacy is fairly recentand since many of the traditional

Swahili literary genres--thosethat were associated with the

Arabic script and the Islamicreligion--were not adopted withthe general spread of Swahilias a 2ingua franca. Nany creative

literary genres were basicallyadopted along with the acquisition of English but since independencethese are often questioned,

27 altered, and even abandoned(see p'Bitek 1973, Gachukia 1986,

Wanjala 1981). For example,intellectual concern over producing

Kenyan literature in Englishand western European languagegenres has led to the importantinclusion of oral literature inthe university curriculum andthe writing ofsome works in mother- tongues. In Kenya, following the lead of Tanzania, literaturein the creative genres of novels,stories, and poetry isnow being written by both native andnon-native speakers.

It is now scarcely a generation since Kenya, Tanzania,and Uganda became independentnations. The situation ishighly complex and changing. Nevertheless, we speculate inconcurrence with the recent statement by Abdulaziz (1985): ',Forthe foresee- able future, Swahili is likelyto gain ground all the timeas it emerges as a true national linguafranca of the three East

African countries. English, for a long time,will have a secure established place as thelanguage of education and international

communication. In Uganda and Kenya themother tongues may receive more attention but they are unlikely to developfunctions outside intra-ethniccommunication."

NOTE: (1) For much of the historicaldiscussion a synthesis has been drawn from several of theworks listed in the bibliography that are not individually cited.

(2) Since this paperwas written (February 1986) both the authors have attendeda conference on English in East Africa, and Abdulaziz has also attendeda conference on Standardization of African languages andon scientific and technical terminology 28

30 within the region. Theserecent discussions with othercolleagues have corroborated the basic ideaspresented in this paper, and also have indicated that, perhapsbecause Swahili is an indigenously African language,there is an increasingly lively interest in its spread anddevelopment.

References

Abdulaziz, M.H. 1971. Tanzania'sNational Language Policy andthe Rise of a Swahili PoliticalCulture. In: W.H. Whiteley, ed. Language Use and Social Chanae.London: Oxford University Press, 160-178.

Abdulaziz Mikilifi, M.H.1972. Triglossia and Swahili-English Bilingualism in Tanzania./anguaae in Society 1, 197-213.

Abdulaziz, Mohamed H. 1979. gete_121h_g_gntuct_Scithill_p_opAlarli Paetry. Nairobi: Kenya LiteratureBureau.

Abdulaziz, Mohamed H. InPress (1986a) A SociolinguisticProfile of East Africa. In: U.Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier,eds. Handbook "Sociolinguistics", Berlin,New York: De Gruyter. Abdulaziz, Mohammad H. InPress (1986b) Language and Social Change. In: A General Historyof Africa: Val. VIM Africa gince 1935. UNESCO.

p'Bitek, Okot. 1973. Africa'sCultural Revolution. Nairobi: MadMillan Books for Africa.

Chilipaine, P.A. and J.A.C. Mapanji1985. Report of the Organizing Conference of the LinguisticAssociation for Development CoordinatingConference Universities. Zomba: University ofMalawi.

Eastman, Carol M. 1983. LanguagePlanning, An Introduction. San Francisco: Chandler and SharpPublishers, Inc.

Fishman, Joshua A. 1969. NationalLanguages and Languages of Wider Communication in the DevelopingNations. Anthroological Linguistics111-135.

Gachukia, Eddah. 1986. Languageand the African Writer. Faculty Seminar paper for Dept. of Literature,University of Nairobi.

29

31 Gorman, T.P. ed. 1970. /anauage in Education in EasiernAfrica. Nairobi: Oxford UniversityPress.

Heine, Bernd. 1970. Statusand Use of African LinguaFrancas. Munchen: Weltforum Verlag.

Xhalid, Abdallah. 1977.The Liberation of Swahili.Nairobi: East African LiteratureBureau.

Ladefoged, Peter, Ruth Glick,Clive Criper, eds. 1971.Language ln Uganda. Nairobi:Oxford University Press.

Mazrui, Ali A. 1967. TheNational Language Questionin East Africa. east Africa Journal,.

Mazrui, Ali A. 1975. ThePolitical Sociology of theEnglish languaaei An African Perspective.The Hague: Mouton. Miller, Charles. 1971. TheLunatic Express. New York: Press. Ballantine

Mosha, M. 1971. The NationalLanguageQuestion in Uganda. journal of East African Languages.

Parkin, D.J. 1974.Language Switchingin Nairobi. In: W.H. Whiteley, ed. Language inKenya.Nairobi: Oxford University Press.

Polome, E.C. and C.P. Hilleds. 1980.Languaae in Tanzania. London: Oxford UniversityPress.

Republic of Kenya.2979-1983 Development Plan.Part I. Nairobi: .

Scotton,,Carol Meyrs. 1971. Choosinga Linaua Franca in an African Capital. Edmonton,Alberta: Linguistic ResearchInc. Scotton, Carol Myers. 1978.Language in East Africa: Linguistic Patterns and Political Ideologies.In: J.A. Fishman ed. Advances in the Study of SocietalMultilingualism. The Hague: Mouton.

Spear, Thomas and Derek Nurse.1985. The Swahili. Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress.

Wanjala, C. 1981. The Growthof a Literary Tradition inEast Africa. ;ournal of Eastern AfricanResearch and Development

Whiteley, Wilfred. 1969. Swahili:The Rise of a National languaae. London: Methuen.

30

32 Whiteley, Wilfred. ed.1971. Un.vassiaLSIbilSo-ngra Problers of Multilingualismwith Special Reference to Eastern Africa. London:Oxford University Press.

Whiteley, Wilfred. ed.1974. Lanauame in Kenya. London:Oxford University Press.

31

33