Language Use and Social Change

Problems of Multilingualism with Special Reference to Eastern Africa

Wilfred Whiteley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351597999
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Syntaxe en linguistique

The social implications of multilingualism is a field of study on whcih systematic research began only in the second half of the 20th century in Africa. This book, originally published in 1971, contains papers which concentrate on East Africa but it also discusses theoretical problems and methods arising from socio-linguistic studies outside the African field. These include studies on national languages and languages of wider communication in developing nations; the communication role of languages in multilingual societies; and social and cognitive aspects of bilingualism.

B. EMPIRICAL STUDIES WITHIN AFRICA

VII. Linguistic Complexity in Uganda¹

CLIVE CRIPER and PETER LADEFOGED

It is often assumed that there are obvious and inherent disadvantages suffered by states which are linguistically heterogeneous. Linguistic heterogeneity thus becomes a ‘problem’ to which an answer must be found, whereas linguistically homogeneous states do not share this problem. How far is this in practice true? The title of this seminar ‘Social Implications of Multilingualism in East Africa’ would seem to be asking precisely this question. The intention of this paper is to examine how we may describe the extent and degree of multilingualism in a nation and the problems arising from it, taking Uganda as an example. The point made is that it is necessary to examine different levels of political and administrative organization in order to define the type and degree of multilingualism that is operating at each level. No overall statements concerning the social implications of multilingualism in a nation are possible without considering the level at which they apply. What is a problem at county or district level may cease to be one at national level, and vice versa.

BACKGROUND TO UGANDA

The past history of the establishment of Uganda as an independent nation plays an important part in understanding the present situation of language use and policy. The first European influence in Uganda came with the advent of the missionaries in 1877. In 1894 the British Government took over rule of the area from the chartered East African Company and proclaimed a British Protectorate. An agreement was signed with the kingdom of Buganda six years later, in which special status was accorded to Baganda practices and political institutions, thus setting them apart from the three kingdoms in the West and all the other administrative areas in the East and North of the Protectorate. Initially all contact of the Europeans was with the Baganda, and to a lesser (and more hostile) extent with the other Kingdoms. The economic and educational advantages of this contact were largely the monopoly of the Baganda. In the early part of the century they were used as colonial agents to establish a similar hierarchy of chiefs and bureaucracy to their own in the Nilotic and Sudanic areas to the north and in the non-centralized Bantu areas of the East. They established a hierarchy of administrative units paralleling their own system, which continues today.

The power and influence of the Baganda under the patronage of the British ensured the high status of their language and its position as a language of administration. Though the influence of Luganda in the Nilotic and Sudanic areas of the North has not lasted after the replacement of the Baganda agents by locally appointed chiefs, in certain districts of the East, e.g. Busoga, Bugisu, it has remained the official language taught in schools and used for public notices and meetings. Nevertheless, even among speakers of the closely related Bantu languages of Lusoga and Lugisu it has remained an alien language whose use and practice has depended upon the continuing high status, power, and achievement of the Baganda themselves.

When independence was achieved in 1962 the Kingdom of Buganda was granted federal status, with exclusive powers over its public services as well as powers over hereditary and ceremonial offices and other customary matters. Only the latter powers were given to the other Kingdoms of Toro, Ankole, and Bunyoro, and to Busoga. The remainder of the country was divided into a number of District Administrations. In 1966 the Kabaka of Buganda was deposed and the federal and quasi- federal status of the Kingdoms abolished. Though many Baganda remain in high positions in the civil service and elsewhere, this action has hastened the decline in their political power and prestige. Much of the latent hostility felt towards them on account of their previous position as agents of the colonial power and as a group having greater access to educational and economic opportunities is now expressed more openly.

One feature of this is the rejection of Luganda as either a national language or even as a lingua franca or official language to be used throughout the Bantu-speaking areas. Northern areas have always feared the privileged position of the Baganda and refused to countenance the use of Luganda, even though it is the sole indigenous language with a wide enough base in terms of first- and second-language speakers and of a published literature to become the national language. The possibility of this occurring has been finally removed by the political necessity of the Government having to break the power of the Baganda as an entity both separate and independent from the remainder of the country.

English was inevitably introduced as the major language of administration and law from an early stage, though Swahili held a rival official position for a brief period. There has never been any substantial number of non-Africans living and working in Uganda. In 1966 there were estimated to be only 110,000 non-Africans, of whom approximately 8 per cent were European and 80 per cent Asian. In 1948 only about a third of these numbers were present. Consequently a situation has never existed in which there has been a foreign (non-African) settler population. Europeans have primarily been employed in missionary work, in administration, and in the provision of services, while the Asian population has been restricted to commercial activity within the towns and trading centres. This perhaps explains to some extent the position of the two foreign languages which play such an important role in the country as a whole.

The various regions of Uganda differ from one another geographically, climatically, demographically, and economically. This widespread variation is paralleled by the ethnic and linguistic composition of the country’s population. Broadly speaking, the Bantu-speaking groups occupy the southern half of the country, the majority of which were traditionally organized through the institution of a centralized state, e.g. such as in the Kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro. By contrast, the Nilotic groups were not so organized. Their movement southwards and westwards was carried out by smaller groups and chiefdoms. Successive waves of invaders have left a confused pattern of settlement, with no clear-cut boundaries between one ethnic group and another, though in general it is possible to associate the North-East with Eastern Nilotic groups (Karamojong, Ateso, etc.); the North with the Western Nilotic groups (Lango, Acholi, Alur, etc.); and the extreme Northwest with the Central Sudanic groups of Lugbara and Madi. None of these conglomerations of ethnic groups form exclusive territorial groups. Thus in the North-west, Kakwa, an Eastern Nilotic language, is spoken in what is predominantly a Central Sudanic area. Similarly in the East, groups of Western Nilotic Dhopadhola speakers and Eastern Nilotic Ateso speakers are interspersed within the Bantu-speaking group.

Table 1
The Official Status of the Major Languages Spoken in Uganda

A picture of the distribution of the various languages shows the lack of any single dominant language. Luganda, the most important of the Bantu languages, is spoken as a first language by only 16 per cent of the total population. Yet it is by far the largest language, no other single language being spoken by more than 8 per cent of the population. There are only seven other languages spoken by more than 5 per cent of the population. The Bantu languages are quite closely related, and taken together, the Eastern Bantu languages are spoken by a third of the country’s population, while the Western Bantu languages are spoken by almost an equal proportion (see Table 1). Thus nearly two-thirds of the population speak one of the closely related Bantu languages. Of the remaining third, 15 per cent speak one of the Western Nilotic languages (Ateso, Karamo- jong, etc.). The Central Sudanic languages, Lugbara and Madi, are spoken by a combined total of only 5 per cent.

In looking at the country as a whole the important features to notice are that the largest language is spoken (as a first language) by only 16 per cent of the population, that no other language is spoken by more than half this number, that there are a large number of languages spoken by small but approximately equal numbers of people, and that there are at least three (if not four) language subgroups.

CLASSIFICATION OF LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY

These figures, on their own, hide rather than illuminate the degree of multilingual complexity to be found in Uganda, I shall go on to consider the type and extent of multilingualism found at national, district, county, and sub-county levels, and the problems associated with it at each level. But before we can do this we need a way of classifying the degree of linguistic complexity at each of these levels.

One way of classifying administrative units is by examining whether there is a language which can be considered dominant, using the arbitrary criterion that the number of its speakers must be at least double that of any other language spoken in the unit. When there is no such language the unit can be classified as mixed. If there is a major language of this kind a further sub-division can be made into simple units, in which there are no substantial monority languages, and predominant units, in which there is a major language, but in which there are also one or more other languages, spoken by substantial minorities (here taken arbitrarily to be more that 10 per cent of the population of the unit). In this terminology Uganda as a whole is a mixed unit, Britain is an example of a simple unit, and Canada of a predominant unit. The reason for making these divisions is to show up the very different political and administrative problems that arise. Mixed units clearly have their own problems, and predominant units differ from simple units in that it is only if there is a substantial linguistic minority that any political pressures may be exerted to have a language other than that of the majority given official recognition in some way.

NATIONAL LEVEL

The figures that have been cited above reveal the linguistic complexity of Uganda as a whole. In terms of numbers, Luganda, alone of the indigenous languages, has any possible claim to primacy. But, as we have seen, politically it is not in favour. English remains the national language of Uganda, the language of all administration from the District level up; officially the language of all processes of law from the lowest court up; the language of all education from the senior levels of primary school through secondary school to University, of most technical or vocational training, e.g. nursing, secretarial, agricultural; the language of parliament; the language of public address by m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD by Professor Daryll Forde. Director, International African Institute
• INTRODUCTION by W. H. Whiteley. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
• A. GENERAL AND THEORETICAL STUDIES
• B. EMPIRICAL STUDIES WITHIN AFRICA
• INDEX