Publish at May 26 2015 Updated September 27 2023
That English, French, Portuguese and Spanish are commonly spoken languages in many African countries can be explained in part by the fact that they have served and serve as a bridge between hundreds of local languages and dialects, with no claim to dominance by any particular ethnic group.
But when the mixing of these "local" languages occurs in places where colonial languages are no more widely spoken than others, then a new language may emerge that meets communication needs.
Urbanization + technologies
In the neighborhoods of Kenya's major cities like Nairobi or Mombasa, the mixing of the country's fifty or so ethnic groups is accelerating, with mobility and communications helping. Understanding each other is becoming a necessity. The result is Sheng, a mixture of languages with a Swahili structure but incorporating vocabulary borrowed from the 40 or so Kenyan languages, to which are added English, Italian and French, as well as other locutions from the languages of the thousands of immigrants from neighboring countries - Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania - for whom Kenya has become a refuge.
Not all have been to school for very long, not all speak English, but almost all own or have access to mobile devices. By formalizing the rules a little and providing a dictionary of equivalences, ShengNation users can refer to a common, if changing, language base.
"Sheng gives young people the opportunity to "question the ideologies and identities that try to define them." Kelvin Okoth
A gesture as practical as it is political, putting the Sheng forward is becoming a form of affirmation and emancipation for thousands of people.
Is the creation of new common languages a trend that will spread to Africa, India, Asia, indeed to all regions where hundreds of languages live side by side, alongside the penetration of communication technologies?
The phenomenon is one to watch.
Illustration: meunierd / Shutterstock.com
References
ShengNation - News and references
https://www.sheng.co.ke/research/
GoSheng - "The Academy" Sheng
http://gosheng.org/
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