D. R. Congo: Language and ‘Authentic Nationalism’

Abstract

Abstract What is known today as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) represents one of the most multilingual nations in Africa with an estimated 214 living indigenous languages or ethnic groupings (Ethnologue 2005). To this number must be added French, the declared official language of DRC, and a few other non-indigenous languages (e.g. Lebanese Arabic, English, Greek, Hindi, Portuguese, and Wolof ) that are spoken by significant communities in urban centres. What the ultimate number of languages spoken in DRC may turn out to be and how accurate such a datum may be remain open questions in the absence of census data that include a linguistic component. What is certain, however, is that DRC is a stable multilingual state with twenty-one wellknown major indigenous languages with an estimated population of at least 500,000 each (Ethnologue 2005). Of these, four languages – Kikongo, Kiswahili, Lingala, and Tshiluba – serve as national languages in selected domains, with French as the official language in most public domains (Bokamba 1976, forthcoming).