Nzunga, M.P.K.2015-06-172015-06-171999http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/12966The existence of a pure and isolated culture seems practically impossible. Even long before the era of the Great Voyages, social contacts between different peoples were frequent. These Voyages, however, marked a decisive step towards domination (socio-political, socio-economic, socio-cultural, socio-linguistic ...) of the colonized peoples, by the colonial masters. The situation created was one in which the structures of the institutions of the former simply had to align themselves to the forces of the culture of the foreign masters. This article attempts to show the conditions that provoke inevitable cultural and linguistic changes. The author goes on to show how, in extreme cases, loss of cultural and linguistic identity can lead to a social crisis, which could be accompanied by retarded cognitve development. Attempts are made to show the three main stages (contact, conflict, adaptation), of a complete cultural transformation. The article points out the social characteristics associated with each one of the three universally observed stages of transformation, and discusses suggested solutions to the subsequent cultural and linguistic crisisfrOther