Critical Insights into Language Policy and Planning in Zambia

This chapter discusses Zambia’s language policy and planning across the timelines. It firstly traces this subject from the contact with Christian missionaries who regulated the form, teaching, and use of languages, starting with one of the first ‘formal schools.’ When Zambia became a British protectorate, the missionaries’ legacy of language policy and planning continued. Under colonial rule, language policy and planning became more vivid and pronounced through the Phelps-Stokes Commission who formulated recommendations for effective African education. In newly independent Zambia, the country run with ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ after which the famous language zoning took effect. Presently, apart from the education sector, language policies in domains such as media, churches, hospitals, etc. are largely unwritten as they are predicated on the ‘do nothing’ principle.