Book Review: Africa: Swahili: The Rise of a National Language
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500327 |
| Author | William J. Samarin |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REviEws
657
All
three
books
should prove
useful
to
anyone
interested
in
British
administration
in
northern
Nigeria,
but
attempts
to
apply
their
lessons
to
other
areas
should
be
made
with
care.
They
should
also
provide
ammunition
for
both
the
admirers
and
detractors
of
the
British
empire.
Sir
George
Williams
University
EDWARD
E.
MCCULLOUGH
Swahili:
The
Rise
of
a
National
Language.
By
WILFRED
WHrrELEY.
London:
Toronto:
Methuen
Publications.
1969.
x,
150pp.
$3.00
paper.
In
the
publisher's
view
this
is
a
contribution
to
their
Studies
in
African
History.
In
the author's
view
this
is
a
contribution
to
the
study
of
language
choice.
Both
are
correct.
There
is
no
doubt
that
Swahili
has
played
a
very
important
role
in
the
history
of
East
Africa.
As
a
lingua
franca,
based
on a
Bantu
language
and
therefore
related
to
many
other
languages
of
the
area,
it
figured
importantly
in
commercial
enterprises
that
went
on
for
two
or
more
centuries
before
the
present nations
came
into
existence. The
histories
of
the
Congo,
Uganda,
Kenya,
and
Tanzania
cannot
be
told without
recognizing
the
use
that
the
indigenous
popula-
tions
and foreigners
made
of
this
language.
Problems
of
choice
may
not
have
arisen
early
in
this history.
Everyone
must
have
been
grateful
for
the
contact
language.
But
eventually
the
missionaries
and
colonial
governments had
to
decide
what
languages
to use in
education
and
administration.
And
Tanzania,
which
has
adopted
this
language
as
its
official
language,
is
still
faced
with
all
kinds
of
decisions:
how much
should
Swahili
be
used
in
education,
how
it
should
be
up-dated
for
the
needs of
a
modern
nation,
what
its
relation
to
English
should
be,
and
so
on.
Earlier,
decisions
had
to be
made
about
what
form
of
the
language
to use
as
the
basis
for
standardization.
This
is
not
a
technical
analysis of
language
policies
and nation-
building,
however.
It
is
rather
a
popular
introduction
to
the
history
of
Swahili.
As
such
it
is
perhaps the
best
survey
there
is
for
laymen
(i.e.,
non-linguists
or
non-Africanists).
More
thorough
treatment
of
topics
treated
in
each
of
the
seven
chapters
is
suggested
in
appended
bibli-
ographies.
The popularization
is,
however, uneven.
Some
might
know
what
TANU
is,
but
only
East
African specialists
can
be
expected,
for
example,
to
know
anything
about
the
Rwenzururu movement
(p.
116).
The
discussion
about the
various
dialects
of
Swahili
is
perhaps
more
than
what
a
non-linguist
would
want.
It
would
have
been
helpful,
nevertheless
if
Whiteley
had
given
a
brief
grammatical
sketch
of
the
language,
especially
showing why
speakers
of
other
Bantu
languages
should
be
able
to
learn
it
so
easily,
how
non-Bantu and
non-Africans
have met
the
challenge
of
learning
it,
how
it
has
been
simplified
(if
not
pidginized).
More
serious
is
the
absence
of
an
examination
in
depth
of
some
aspect
of
the
existence
of
one
of
the
East
African
nations,
Tanzania
for
example,
from
a
linguistic point
of
view.
In
fact,
I
find
it
surprising
that
this
old
East
African
hand and
one-time
secretary
of
the East
African
Swahili Committee
(founded
in
1930)
did
not
draw
on
personal
experience
more
than
he
did. One
misses
a
little
of
the
local
colour.
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