Major Themes in Linguistic Stereotypes and Prejudices and Their Role in Fueling Ethnic Conflicts among Major Communities Living in Eldoret , Kenya

Abstract

This paper examines the major themes in linguistic stereotypes and prejudices among communities living in Eldoret and their role in fueling conflicts among them. Linguistic stereotypes and prejudices are common among the major communities living in Eldoret, Kenya. Although ethnic conflicts (tribal clashes) have been witnessed in Eldoret, especially during and after general elections, there has been no adequate attention accorded to this problem. The study embraced ethnographically qualitative research design against the backdrop of Relevance Theory by Daniel Sperber and Deidre Wilson. A purposive sample of five clusters of ethnic group concentrations from which a random sample of twenty five respondents, five from each group was chosen. The groups comprised of members of the Kalenjin, Luhya, Kikuyu, Luo and Kisii communities living in Eldoret. Respondents were randomly drawn from local leadership, education institutions, Jua Kali traders and religious organizations. The instruments for data collection comprised of oral face to face interviews, open ended questionnaires and observation schedules. According to the results of the study, there are ten main themes in linguistic stereotypes and prejudices in Eldoret, namely; women aggression and infidelity, violence, witchcraft, thievery, arson, cannibalism, backwardness, servitude, exploitation and childishness. It is anticipated that the results of this study will be beneficial to the policy makers, the general public and researchers in applied linguistics.