UNESCO criteria for assessing language vitality & Nsambaan, Nsong and Ngong
| Nsambaan, Nsong and Ngong are unmistakably severely endangered. They score low (2 or 1) on all nine UNESCO criteria for assessing language vitality: 1. The intergenerational language transmission is highly problematic in all communities: Most adult speakers between 35 and 65 years are still able to speak these languages, but mostly rely on Kikongo. Certainly amongst the younger generation within this group (35-50 years), the ethnic language knowledge is diminishing. They only use it with older speakers. Their everyday language of use is Kikongo. This is also the language in which parents currently raise their children and which is used in primary schools. Hence, even if children may still hear the languages under study, they no longer learn it. Kikongo has become their first language. Amongst young people (12-35 years), Lingala is becoming increasingly popular. It is the language of pop music, also widely used by foreign traders and soldiers in the region. 2. Their absolute number of speakers is low: According the last census, taken for the 2006 presidential elections and subdividing the rural electorate on the basis of ethnicity, the Nsong and Ngong communities comprise respectively 7.080 and 11.028 members. Numbers for Nsambaan are not available. As far as we currently know, the few remaining speakers of Nsambaan can be found in the villages Musangu-Mangala (4°39'S, 18°56'E) and Mitshakila (4°4'S; 18°45'E) on the right bank of the Kwilu River. The actual number of Nsong and Ngong speakers is also considerably lower than the official numbers suggest. Only a minority of community members still fully command these languages. 3. Only a minority of speakers within the total population still speak the languages under study as their first language: only the older generations (+ 65) still use these languages in all contexts and only some of the most elderly speakers (+ 85) are monolingual. 4. The use of these languages becomes progressively more refrained to limited domains, especially rituals and ceremonies, such as funerals and marriages. 5. As a consequence, their response to new domains and media is minimal to inexistent: apart from a very occasional passage on the local radio in the form of proverb or riddle, these languages do not get a chance in schools, in broadcast media or on Internet. 6. People generally do not write in these languages and no practical orthography is known to the communities: no textbooks available in these languages and alphabetisation happens exclusively in French and Kikongo, which are the sole official languages in this area. 7. Authorities neither recognize nor protect minority languages. 8. Although ethnicity remains an important identity marker, most community members' attitude towards language loss is indifference. Nevertheless, during recent linguistic research carried out in these communities, it became clear that at least some members regret this situation and would support language maintenance. 9. The amount of documentation available on these languages is low to inexistent. |
Mikunji Mbumbu, Ngong chief of the groupement Kalamba (JKM, 2009)
Kambembo Muluwa, Nsong chief of the groupement Mangungu, attired with power symbols
The chief of Mbuun, Pascal Okwib (1935-2011), in front of the kitchen of his second wife.
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