Language Policy transformation and Democratization in Malawi.

The paper critically discusses transformation of language policy during the democratization of Malawi since the year of political change, 1994. After 30 years of autocratic one-party rule, winds of democratic change that were blowing across Africa in the 1990s did not spare Malawi. In 1993, a national referendum went in favour of the adoption of a multiparty system of government. In the following year, 1994, President Hastings Kamuzu Banda and his Malawi Congress Party lost power through the ballot box. Since then, Malawi has had successive democratically elected governments. The current paper critically considers what has changed in language policy and what has not changed. We focus on language policy in the following domains: mass media, primary school education, and the legislature. The most transformed domain has been the national radio station which transformed from a two language policy to a seven languages policy. The primary education sector and the legislature have remained untransformed in terms of their language policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]