In 1974, Kenya made Kiswahili a co-official language alongside English. It was more than a policy change. It was a statement of identity. Kiswahili, which had evolved over a thousand years along the coast from the fusion of Bantu and Arabic, had become the most widely spoken language in East Africa. Making it official acknowledged what was already true: that millions of Kenyans across dozens of ethnic groups communicated through Kiswahili every day. The language of trade had become the language of the nation.