Language Policy and Kenyan Immigrant Families' Heritage Language Maintenance: A Historical Study

• In Event: Language and Education

Abstract

The paper traces and explains the historical development of language policy in Kenya since inception of British colonial rule in 1895. We interrogate colonialism and how British colonists used language in a bid to control Africans. The promulgation of English as the official language of communication and colonial administration in British East Africa (thereafter Kenya) set the colony on a path of: (a) unequal hegemonic relations with Britain; (b) English becoming the language of the powerful and those with privileged status in Kenya; (c) colonization of the minds of the locals hence indigenous Africans’ appetites craving English; and (d) massive loss and silencing of the indigenous languages, cultures and practices of Kenyans.

Authors

• Sylvia Nabwire Nyegenye, The University of Kansas

• Hannington Ochwada, University of Kansas