An interesting, but very long, article from Malawi's The Daily Nation explores some of the country's languages that are in danger of disappearing. The example is given of Ngoni, which now exists only in chants, but which some people are trying to revive.
The article says that "A 1966 population census showed that Lomwe was the country’s second largest spoken language. Chichewa was number one, Yao came third with Tumbuka on fourth", although the accuracy of the statistics are doubted, and examples given whereby people speak different languages according to their situation or location. It also contends that "Perhaps, the worst setback to all languages in independent Malawi was the Malawi Congress Party’s 1968 convention which resolved that Chichewa be a national language." There has been some resistance to this, but it has meant that some of the more marginalised languages have been under threat.
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