Figure 10.1 presents the percentage distribution of the population by language of communication at
home, disaggregated by rural and urban residence.
Bemba emerged as the most spoken language
nationwide, accounting for 34.0 percent of the population. It was also the dominant language in
both rural and urban areas.
However, usage varied considerably: In urban areas, 46.7 percent of
people reported Bemba as their main language of communication at home. In rural areas, this figure
dropped to 23.8 percent.
Tonga was the second most commonly spoken language overall (12.8%), and more prevalent in rural
areas (18.2%) compared to urban areas. Nyanja followed with 11.4 percent usage, playing a more
prominent role in urban settings where 21.8 percent of the population used it at home.
Despite its status as the official national language, English was used by only 1.9 percent of the
population as a primary language of communication at home.
The majority of English speakers resided in urban areas (4.1%), while rural usage was minimal (0.1%).
Languages spoken by less than one percent of the population were grouped together and reported
under “Other languages.”
– Nkanionline
And what is the source of this data?
Tonga overtaking Nyanja??? It’s a big lie…
Tonga is mostly spoken by people from Southern Province..It’s a minority language spoken by Tongas.
Nyanja is spoken by people who don’t even hail from Eastern Province.
Who is cooking up this Data??
Don’t start this debate. It’s well-known how the UNIP government started the policy of marginalizing some languages after independence in the 1960s through its local language broadcasts on state-radio and earl-education instruction. That policy sowed the seeds of today’s marginalisation. Surely most informed Zambians know how this has caused conflict in fellow African countries. Are you sure you want it here if the source of marginalisation is pointed out to those whose languages are now facing a slow death even in their native provinces and villages? Careful what you post here.
@ Gunner
Get lost Useless Praise Idi*t.
What wrong have I committed? Who has posted the article on which am commenting on?
Can I not comment on an article which is clearly parading falsehoods? Why are you threatening me?
Since when did the Tonga Language over take
Nyanja as the language mostly
spoken in our homes in Zambia?
Who has started this clearly Tribal debate? Is it not the author of the Article?
Atase.
People are tired of this nonsense..The obsession with Tribe and language is totally uncalled for.
I cannot lower myself to your level of insulting another person. Although I am not a trained trained linguist I have picked the brains of people who study these things in heterogeneous societies. I doubt it you have because of the way you’re coming out. You only bring insults and strong feelings to the debate and that just generates more heat than light. As I have said before, the blame does not lie on you but the UNIP post-independence education that taught you that the languages of your fellow citizens should slowly die out.
I hope you know that in technical terms, tribe and language are actually not the same thing. But I do understand why this confusion arises in Africa where tribe and language are seen as the same thing.
Gunner, I think you are offside on this one. You people want to silence everyone that is not Tonga?. That is wrong my brother. Let people speak their minds. The obsession your people have about being victims of tribalism is unfounded. Your president is the chief tribalist himself, always playing the victim to the extent of his party paying Kambwili to insult our beloved Tonga brothers and sisters. Do not accuse KK of tribalism as well. All Zambian voices should be heard, not just Tonga. Do not take the other 71 tribes for granted please. The immunity you people have right now will not be carried forward when there is a change in leadership. Stay humble my friend.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
Zambiano Old Saint and Indigo your conduct and arguements are the same. Insults than content in your arguement. And Gunner is right. Your comments lack facts and when this is pointed out you insult, call people tonga (people you have not even met or know). Tone down. The essence of the comments by large is to learn. Yes, your opinion counts but let it be rational, objective and factual.
Yaba.
I always ignore reports that UPND generate. They have their own motives.
REJECT TRIBALISM, CORRUPTION AND OPPRESSION.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
The proposer of this data is an opposition member and a follower of the people we all know who hate the Tonga people, such a post is provocative
I do not know the writer of the article and I do not even believe it to start with. It’s the demeaning of other tribes and their languages that I hv seen in the commentary that I feel I hv a duty to oppose. It starts with radio phone-in progrommes where other languages are shut out by everyday practice. I hear it just about daily in Zambia. The UNIP government has made some tribes and their languages a by-word for tribalism, backwardness and others as symbols of progress and modernity. But which Zambian tribes have developed an advanced civilisation complete with scientific and mathematical concepts which has in turn developed their languages to a level above others? The answer is none. We’re all at the same level and even share some words and names.
Tribalists are known.
They can be seen.
But they accuse others
When their acts tell it all
The useless strategies are very naked .
And all for our eyes .
To the dust bin is Bill 7
It shouldn’t see the face of Parliament ever
again.
And that delimitation report
To the sewers
We are not fools.
There is nothing wrong for Tonga to be widely spoken.
It’s tribalism for Tonga to be widely-spoken in Zambia. People have no idea how insulting this is. I personally blame the UNIP government for this problem.
Two tribalist are at again, imagine having a sleepless night and fighting cause a Language is spoken widely. Losers
All this is nonsense.
Nefishili fyakulakilapo. Twaleni amasushi uko. People can use whatever language they prefer without political influence. Nyanja is a language without a tribe and it has survived because of that. Whenever I listen to it on Radio RSA I wonder why it had to be used instead of my mothertongue then I realise that the oppressor did his homework.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know that part of the reason there’s violence in the Middle East is because the Kurds were left without a country of their own as Britain and France were dividing up the place between themselves following collapse of the Ottoman empire. Although they are a big community, some of the Kurds found themselves in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran and have been facing discrimination and marginalisation in all four countries. Kurds have been fighting for their own country for a long time as they see that as the only way to end discrimination and marginalisation. The next time you hear a bomb has gone off and killed people in Turkey, you should understand why. When a language is removed from being a medium of instruction in education, it stops developing as no books are published in it. Native speakers of such a language soon begin to encounter marginalisation and discrimination.
This is a very good development. I will certainly be entertained to walk on a street in Mporokoso and hear people loudly debating in Tonga language, just as it is in Namwala and other towns in southern province where people debate in Bemba and Nyanja. Tuli Bantu bomwe nobasankwa.