I am not sure about Lingala but Swahili absolutely spread through coercion in colonial times and post independence. In Tanzania the Germans and later the British heavily promoted Swahili as a lingua franca.
Nowadays Swahili is the first language of most Tanzanians but in the past it was mainly limited to coastal areas formerly controlled by the Sultanate of Oman. The government of Tanzania promotes Swahili to this day, and many native languages in the interior of the country are declining.
As seen by Senator Elizabeth Warren, identifying as Native American can confer quite a few benefits, and that was back in the 80's. These days I can only assume the dividends are even greater.
With that in mind it is not a huge leap of the imagination that, if given the option to, many people will self-id as Native American to gain a perceive edge in a society were diversity is increasingly valuable.
This is the logical conclusion of our contemporary understanding of privilege. Anything a person does (or does not) accomplish can be directly attributed to the privilege he or she had (or lacked). High SAT scores means the person was privileged enough to afford tutoring, or privileged enough to live in a two-parent household, or privileged enough to be born without any major disability, etc.
Once you accept that as your worldview you accept merit is meaningless. What separates Ramanujan and Newton from the average college dropout are extraneous factors. Any difference in outcomes is societal and environmental, and must be corrected.
Nowadays Swahili is the first language of most Tanzanians but in the past it was mainly limited to coastal areas formerly controlled by the Sultanate of Oman. The government of Tanzania promotes Swahili to this day, and many native languages in the interior of the country are declining.