1520: Why Dutch isn't spoken in the DRC Feb 10, 2019

The history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is often discussed as if it was colonized by Belgium, but this is not entirely true, and the linguistic makeup of the DRC and its government represents this. In 1885, what is now the DRC was colonized by King Leopold II as his personal property, but even after he gave over control to the Belgian government decades later, Flemish (Dutch) was barely recognized as a language in Belgium, even though it is spoken by half the population. Today, Belgium has 3 recognized languages: French, Flemish and German, but because French was favored for much of Belgium's history, only French is the official language of the DRC. For more on this theme, watch the video about how anthropology intersects with linguistics: https://youtu.be/oqmZCCXL_Hg.