THE INTERFACE BETWEEN LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AND LANGUA GE USE IN A POST-CONFLICT CONTEXT: THE CASE OF RWANDA

Abstract

The study investigates the interface between the variables - language attitude and \nlanguage use in a development context, and attempts to determine the contribution of \nlanguage to Rwanda's post-conflict development, reconstruction and reconciliation. It \nexamines the language attitudes and language use patterns of 53 students from \nRwanda's public universities focusing on how students, who are all Rwandan \ncitizens, view the role of Kinyarwanda, French, English and Kiswahili languages in \ntwelve core areas of post-conflict development. Although post-conflict development \nis socio-economic, previous historical and political factors affecting Rwanda's violent \npast play a role as new forms of linguistic categorization - Anglophone and \nFrancophone - emerge which may be used to camouflage previous ethnic \ncategorizations that have had disastrous effects in Rwanda. Further, social \ncategorizations laden with salient features of linguistic identity may influence the \nimplementation of the post-conflict development programmes, and also affect the \npace and pattern of reconciliation in Rwanda. Conclusions are based on eclectic \nsources: quantitative, qualitative, historical and participatory, with patterns of analysis \nestablished from secondary and historical data. The study is also grounded in the \nCommunication Accommodation Theory that rests on issues of divergence and \nconvergence during interaction where emerging language identities dovetail with \nlanguage attitudes and language use, resulting in an interface that influences the \nimplementation of Rwanda's post-conflict development programmes. \nAdditionally, it is argued that the African languages such as Kinyarwanda and \nKiswahili, should be considered as vehicles for Rwanda's post-conflict development, \nalthough Kinyarwanda, the home language, has in the past really not served an \nintranational unifying function. On the other hand, Kiswahili, unlike Kinyarwanda, \nhas no divisive myths and identities that would inhibit post-conflict development; it is \nan important language in the East and Central African region where post-conflict \nRwanda will play a positive and active role, and would be a language to be positively developed.

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