| dc.description.abstract | The
Depattment
of
Linguistics
and
African
Languages,
in
which
Kiswahili
is
a
central
subject,
was
established
in
the
Faculty
of
Aits
at
the
University
College
of
Nairobi
in
1969
Since
then,
at
least
five
more
depattments
which
ru·e
devoted
to
the
teaching
and
study
of
the
Kiswahili
language
and
Literature
have
been
established
in
vruious
Kenyan
universities
(see
below).
Most
of
these
deprutments
run
post-graduate
progrrunmes
leading
to
MA.
and
PhD..
degrees.
As
a
result,
considerable
reseru·ch
activity
related
to
both
the
Kiswahili
language
and
literature
has
been
going
on
This
is
evident
from
the
dissertations
that
have
been
written
and
that
continue
to
be
written
every
yeat
(see
a
list
of
the
titles
in
the
appendix)..
Although
supervised
reseatch
work
has
been
going
on
in
Kiswahili
deprutments
for
many
yeats,
no
attempt,
to
our
knowledge,
has
been
made
to
describe
and
evaluate
the
general
direction
in
which
the
research
effort
is
directed
The
main
aim
of
this
paper,
is
therefore,
to
briefly
describe
and
assess
the
reseatch
work
that
has
been
going
on
in
these
deprutments
..
But
before
we
discuss
what
has
been
taking
place,
it
is
perhaps
imperative
to
understand
the
broad
philosophy
underlying
the
teaching
and
the
study
of
Kiswahili
in
Kenya.
The
teaching
of
this
language
was,
and
still
is,
intended
to
achieve
the
following
broad
goals
(see
for
instance
the
Ominde
Commission
of
1964
..
(a)
To
promote
nationalism
Nationalism
has
been
defined
by
Fishman
1972:
266)
as
"an
integrative
movement
which
seeks
to
go
beyond
the
piimordial
ties
of
the
family
and
locality
and
that
forges
wider
bounds;
a
movement
that
stresses
the
inherent
unity
of
populations
that
have
never
been
awrue
of
such
unity
..
"
(b)
I
o
serve
modernization,
i.e.,
to
function
as
an
important
tool
of
communication
in
a
modem
state
in
which
there
is
a
seru·ch
for
newer,
more
rationale,
more
efficient
solutions
to
the
problems
oftoday
and
tomorrow.
In
order
to
make
the
realization
of
the
above
goals
possible,
the
Ominde
Report
on
Education
of
1964
recommended
not
only
the
training
of
Kiswahili
teachers,
but
also
that
a
depattment
concerned
with
the
teaching
and
study
of
the
language
at
the
university
college
of
Nairobi
be
struted
in
order
to
assist
in
the
promotion
of
Kiswahili
as
a
national
language
..
It
is
against
this
background
that
the
reseruch
effort
on
Kiswahili
language
and
literature
is
predicated
..
The
remaining
patt
of
this
paper
is
divided
into
two
major
patts.
Patt
one
will
deal
with
supervised
reseruch
on
Kiswahili
Literature
while
patt
two
will
deal
with
reseruch
on | en |
