Language in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region: Linguistics, Politics and Identity

Sone & Solche – Wie Menschen einander unterscheiden

Kinyarwanda is a complex language, not only because of its structure but also due to its history and variation across borders. Spoken by at least 20 million people, it is the second-most widely spoken language in the Bantu family. Linguists Nico Nassenstein and John Doldo IV are interested in this language, which serves as a good illustration of how linguistic variation is connected to history, politics and identity.

00:00:00 – Intro
00:01:02 – Kinyarwanda
00:08:01 – Language, Variety, and Dialect
00:16:04 – Language as a tool of intimidation
00:19:24 – Language and Identity
00:27:48 – National borders and language boundaries
00:35:13 – Methods: Interviews
00:37:15 – Research Ethics
00:49:31 – Rwanda: From French to English
00:54:16 – How do Languages influence each other
01:02:58 – How did the genocide shape the language?

During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, language was instrumentalized—a tendency that is being repeated in current conflicts in the Great Lakes Region as well. Language can be used as a tool of intimidation and Othering, and in these contexts linguistic discrimination and stigmatization of the Kinyarwanda language are recurrent, for instance in hate speech.

But people also use the ways they speak to express their identity, e.g., fine-grained differences are emphasized to show exactly on which side of a border one lives. Some Congolese speakers of Kinyarwanda even tend not to speak their language in public in order not to have their Congolese citizenship or autochthony questioned.

We also discuss the questions: Why is it so important to cooperate with colleagues from the regions where the research takes place? And how is it possible to grant access to scholars from the Global South in terms of publications in and about their own language(s)?

Nico Nassenstein is a professor of African languages and linguistics and has spent two years in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, respectively, and works mainly on languages from East and Central Africa, especially Lingala, Swahili and Kinyarwanda/Kirundi.

John Doldo IV is a Master's student in African Studies and has been involved in Kinyarwanda lexicographical work. He has visited Rwanda many times over the past 14 years and is a research partner in the project.

The episode was recorded on April 12th, 2024.

Über uns und unsere Arbeit bleibt ihr auf unserer Website sowie bei Instagram, Threads und Mastodon auf dem Laufenden.

Host: Friederike Brinker (Sonderforschungsbereich 1482 Humandifferenzierung)
Producer: Marco Mazur (Zentrum für audiovisuelle Produktion)
Studentische Hilfskraft: Tamara Vitzthum (Sonderforschungsbereich 1482 Humandifferenzierung)

Der SFB 1482 Humandifferenzierung ist an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität und dem Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz angesiedelt. Finanziert wird er von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Für Feedback, Fragen und Vorschläge schreibt gern eine Mail: [e-mail]