The Ideological Underpinnings of Language Policy in D.R. Congo

This chapter presents a comprehensive discussion and critical analysis of the language policy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It does so by tracing the language policy to its colonial era roots under the church missions’ dominated education for Congolese, and colonial neglect by King Leopold II (1879–1908) and the Belgian administration (1908–1960). The discussion of this language policy trajectory shows the continuities and discontinuities of the policy over the decades and points out of the underlying ideologies that informed these developments. It is argued overall that the country’s policy was and continues to be informed by multilingual pragmatism and national ideologies, and that in these regards its failures in post-colonial times are attributable to poor implementation rather than conceptualization. The chapter offers plausible new language policy proposals that address failures in previous policy implementations and take into consideration recent demographics on the national languages: Kikongo, Kiswahili, Lingala, and Tshiluba.