Language Planning From Below: The Case of the Tonga in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Arguments for bottom-up approaches in language planning are currently in vogue. Rarely, however, are such arguments supported by evidence demonstrating how such bottom-up planning leading to successful implementation can be achieved. This article presents evidence based on archival documentation in the form of annual reports and manuscripts written by administrators that document how, through community empowerment, the Tonga, a minority (a term which the Tonga do not use) language group from Zimbabwe, successfully lobbied for the promotion and development of Tonga as the language of instruction in all Tonga-speaking areas. But the success of the promotion is constrained by the nature of the framework within which language, heritage and micro-nationalism form the basis of the promotion exercise.