Bemba belongs to the Bemba Group (Guthrie 1942) of Bantu and is spoken in the Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt, and Northwestern Central provinces of Zambia, as well as in southeastern Zaire.
Ohannessian and Kashoki (1978) offer a range from a narrow interpretation of the 1969 Zambian census of 18.6 percent (or 741,000) to a larger figure of 34.6 percent (or 1,328,000 speakers). On the basis of their own sample survey they suggest a percentage of 56.2 (or 2,339,000) first language speakers of Bemba. UBS (1982) lists 1.5 million speakers. In contrast, Voegelin and Voegelin (1977) list 170,000 first-language users, which appears out of line with the other figures. Grimes (1996) gives a figure of 2,150,000 or more in all countries.
Bemba is a national (official) language in Zambia and is widely used as a lingua franca, especially in urban areas, in Copperbelt Province, and in radio broadcasts. At least one periodical, Mbila, is known to exist. Mann (personal communication, 1986), citing Zell, ed. (1984), notes: "African Books in Print/Livres africains disponible (3d edition), Mansell Publishing Ltd reports only 29 Bemba titles in print; this probably does not include some titles prepared for and circulated directly to schools but represents a depressing decline in availability."
Although orthographic practices vary widely, reports Michael Mann (personal communication, 1985), there is a set of rules for spelling Bemba. These (entitled Zambia Languages Orthography, by S. Chimuka, 1976) have been published by the Zambian Ministry of Education and Culture as part of a project to standardize the orthography of Zambian languages. Bemba has about 100 titles in print, some of which, reports Mann, "consciously reflect Town Bemba."
One set of learning materials should be prepared based on standard Bemba.
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