DE-MARGINALISATION OF THE NON-REGIONAL OFFICIAL LOCAL ZAMBIAN LANGUAGES: A CASE OF LUNGU, MAMBWE AND NAMWANGA LANGUAGES
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Abstract
The paper endeavours to address the main theme ‘Re-imagining Education and Schooling Grounded in Local Indigenous Knowledge’ by combining three sub-themes, namely; re-envisioning ways education can be transformed to address current challenges, self-reflexivity and decolonising the mind as well as decolonising the education system with regard to local languages education. the marginalisation of the non-regional official languages (ROL) in Zambia is due to the colonial mindset which was planted just after independence in 1964. Lungu, Mambwe and Namwanga (LuMaNa) languages have been used to mirror the current challenges all non-ROL in Zambia are facing. Lungu is classified as M14, Mambwe as M15 and Namwanga as M22. The paper addresses the following objectives: to identify major causes of marginalisation of the non-ROL; to describe the effects of marginalisation of non-ROL; and to suggest ways of de-marginalising the non-ROL in Zambia. The study employs marginal framing which deals with the potential restrictions to participation in education which eventually emerge as challenges. Document analysis, descriptive and qualitative approaches were adopted in a bid to justify the arguments in the study. The findings of the study reveal that potential restrictions to the use of the indigenous local languages have far-reaching consequences such as high illiteracy levels in the country. Among the most valid options to de-marginalise the non-ROL are; the establishment of the national official local language (NOLL), implementation of the 2013 curriculum framework policy or formulation of the unified Zambian languages orthography.
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