“We were attacked due to our language”: Kinyabwisha in the family language policies of refugees from the DR Congo in Norway

In this article, we investigate the role of the Kinyabwisha language in the family language policies (FLPs) of six refugee families from DR Congo resettled in Norway. In these families, parents list Kinyabwisha as part of their otherwise varied linguistic repertoires and say they usually use it with one another. However, our ethnographic fieldwork within the larger KongNor project has revealed that the parents are reluctant to transmit Kinyabwisha to their children because of its indexicalities in the conflict zone of North Kivu. Based on this case of FLPs, we show how long-term ethnographic research can provide insights into the ways in which refugee parents’ painful experiences from the past unfold in their current family language policies. • Investigates the role of the Kinyabwisha language in the family language policies of refugee families from DR Congo. • Shows how ethnographic research can provide insights into how past experiences unfold in family language policies. • Highlights how indexicalities shaped in a war zone unfold in family language policies.