The contradictions of teaching bilingually in post-colonial Burundi: From Nyakatsi to Maisons en Étage
Abstract This article examines language practices in schools in rural and urban areas of Burundi, where Kirundi is central to post-independence nation-building, but French the language of power mastered by the urban elite. A close analysis of specific episodes in two classrooms shows that Kirundi/French code contrast helps construct a distinction between knowledge of the world in rural and urban settings, and between knowledge of the world outside and inside school. These distinctions orient students to the value of French and French-mediated knowledge and marginalise Kirundi, thus serving to reinforce the dominance of French and hence of the Frenchspeaking elite.