Involvement in Language: The Role of the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae in the History of Lingala

The missionaries of Scheut (Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae) played an important role in the history of the Congolese language Lingala. The linguistic policies and practices they developed not only had a serious impact on the language’s geographical spread and range of sociocultural functions but also involved an extensive “reworking” of the grammar and lexicon and led to the first appearance of the glossonym Lingala. In some parts of the colony, the language-reform program met with considerable success. In other parts, resistance and subaltern defiance took the language in other directions than originally intended.