ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the sociopolitical and ethnohistorical motivations for young Kenyans preference for Sheng, a nonstandard urban vernacular not recognized by authorities, over the officially sanctioned standard Swahili and English. Although Sheng speakers employ it for many social functions, the chapter specifically examines how Sheng subverts or stretches the confines of the dominant official language ideology and associated identities promoted in schools and in the wider Kenyan society. The chapter draws data from a one-year period of ethnographic research in two urban, ethnically diverse, mixed-gender high schools located in Nakuru and Mombasa. Finally, the discussion on the subversive role of Sheng and the various comparative links with other urban youth vernaculars alludes to the fact that language competence among youth in contemporary urban Africa is no longer being measured by their ability to perform the standard but by their ability to innovate from their linguistic repertoire.
