A critical evaluation of the development of Rumanyo as a national language in Namibia

Abstract

Among others, the current study had been conceived due to the fact that, although Namibia is endowed with multiple languages, their development throughout the long colonial history, had been unequal. That is, some languages received more attention than others and some were hardly developed at all. After independence, Namibians had legitimate expectations that all their (different) languages would be developed equitably throughout all the regions, and among all ethnic groups or speech communities. In the post-apartheid era, however, Namibians have been subjected to a limited and unequal language and literacy development which encouraged me to conduct a research to critically evaluate the development of Rumanyo or lack of thereof. The focus of this study is on understanding the disparities in language and literacy development in Namibia with particular emphasis on ethno-regional disparities and what precipitates these inequalities. The reason for the emphasis on region and ethnicity in researching language and literacy development was due to Namibia's multi-ethnicity and the over-lapping of regions and ethnic groups.