Abstract:
In the quest to do away with every influence of colonialism including
language imperialism, following the independence of several African
countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, debates arose about the
possibility of the adoption of Swahili as a common language for Africa
since it was the most widely-spoken African language at the time.
However, even though this discourse continued for some time, it did not
go beyond this stage. In contemporary times, discourse on the Swahili
language has emerged again, but this time it centres on the question
of globalization of the Swahili language. This recent development
therefore is the motivation for this paper. We seek to bring to light
paradoxes that emanate from the debate and quest for the globalization
of the Swahili language against the background of challenges that facethe language at the national, regional and continental levels and to
make submissions as to whether the quest for the globalization of the
Swahili language is not just an illusion.
