Jeater, Diana2010-10-012010-10-011995-05-22http://hdl.handle.net/10539/8816African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 22 May, 1995Unlike French colonial administrations, British colonisers did not attempt to impose their language on those they colonised. Instead, they charged their administrators with a duty to learn the local vernaculars. In regions where there were few white settlers, this was a fairly straightforward exercise. Southern Rhodesia, however, was a 'settler society'. The debate about the usefulness for ordinary white settlers of speaking local languages was also a debate about the risks and the benefits of different policies for controlling the African communities. The question of how far the state should encourage a broad knowledge of the vernaculars amongst various sections of the white communities was fundamentally a question of how power could best be exercised.enLanguage policy. ZimbabweZimbabwe. Languages. Political aspectsWorking Paper