DOI 10.1515/jall-2013-0004 JALL 2013; 34(1): 111 – 181 William J. Samarin Versions of Kituba’s origin: Historiography and theory1 Abstract: Casual explanations and thoughtful ones have been given for the emer- gence of Kituba, one of the African-based lingua francas of West Central Africa, but there is still no scholarly work that is based on political, historical, anthropo- logical, and linguistic research to account for the language’s origin and develop- ment. The present contribution is, frst, an overview of various attempts at ex- plaining its origin and development. Second, argued and arguable explanations are examined from diferent perspectives and with data not available before recent research. Finally, the author adds Kituba to his list of African vehicular languages that emerged in the late 19th century, when a signifcant number of auxiliaries – Africans in the majority, foreign and indigenous ones – solved their communication needs by contriving make-shif idioms that quickly gelled as lan- guages. Still far from the work that will hopefully be accomplished by others, this modest study suggests the kind of historiography and linguistic analysis that will helpfully characterize it. Keywords: Bantu grammar, Catholic schools, Congolese jargon, language and colonization, pidgin historiography, porterage, Scheut missionaries William J. Samarin (imeritus): Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada E-mail:
[email protected] 1 An earlier version of this paper profted greatly from a careful reading by Armin Schwegler, Joseph Salomon, John A. Goldsmith (on tone), and two anonymous readers, to whom I am grateful. Too numerous to list are the individuals and organizations who helped me since the beginning of my study of language and colonization in West Central Africa in 1971, but the most important donor was the Social Sciences and Humanites Research Council of Canada.