Description

An extended case study on Tanzania highlighting the latest theoretical and methodological approaches in sociolinguistics

This study focusses on the politicization and incorporation of Swahili in the nation-building efforts associated with the introduction of the socialist Ujamaa ideology in 1967. It concentrates on the influence of Ujamaa ideology on the formation, treatment, and implementation of Swahili. It merges macro- and micro-sociolinguistic approaches, as well as historiographic and political-analytic research, contributing to the study of African political ideologies and to research on the continuity between colonial and postcolonial language policies. It makes substantial points about the study of African political ideologies, on the continuity between colonial and postcolonial language policies and on the dispersed nature of language policies over a number of critical actors in society – destereotyping language policy as purely the study of policy makers’ decisions.