The colonial legacy and language planning in sub-Saharan Africa. The case of Zaire

This paper is concerned with Zaire's perennial issue of choosing an indigenous language for official use. It attempts to determine why Zaire, one of the highly multilingual countries in the African continent, has not succeeded yet in choosing an indigenous language for official use. The factors which have impeded progress on this issue are discussed. Recommendations are made which call for the revalorization of these languages through status re-planning; and for a co-habitation policy whereby both French and indigenous languages function not one at the expense of the others but one in addition to the others. It is argued that should the country pursue efforts to choose an indigenous language for official use, the language targeted for this purpose should become an additional official language rather than a substitute for the incumbent official language, French. It is suggested, for the first time, that such an additional official language should be Swahili rather than any of the other indigenous languages.