The national language issue in Congo-Kinshasa: Some sociolinguistic considerations

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the importance of language in man's life in general and in that of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular. After showing that ‘national language' and ‘nation' are synonymous for many countries/nations in the world, it is noted that the situation is different in Congo where one finds more than one language that qualify as national languages – Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.. There are also more than two hundred ethnic languages and most people in Congo are more attached to their ethnic than to the national languages. This plurilingualism makes it difficult for the Congolese people to communicate as one nation.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol.3 () 2006: pp.159-168