Swahili needs to be taught formally
Oct 14, 2004
On August 22, 1973 as Makerere University students commemorated Africa week, Somali vice president Major General Afrah was the main celebrant and was accompanied to the campus by Brigadier Moses Ali.
On August 22, 1973 as Makerere University students commemorated Africa week, Somali vice president Major General Afrah was the main celebrant and was accompanied to the campus by Brigadier Moses Ali.
The students had begun observing this week as a solemn ceremony to demonstrate solidarity with fellow Africans still suffering under colonialism. However, that year’s events coincided with Ali’s promotion to the rank of brigadier and subsequent appointment to Idi Amin’s ruling supreme military council. It was at the ceremony that Amin declared Swahili a national language.
But the military council and Swahili were unpopular at Makerere and this prompted the students to use Moses Ali’s presence to show their disgust with the language and military men. They heckled and booed down all speakers despite the fact that the guild had had a hand in inviting these visiting dignitaries.
It was only guild President Olara Otunnu’s speech, delivered in quite intellectual English that was attentively listened to, a ‘crime’ that together with subsequent friction with the regime, forced Otunnu to flee into exile soon afterwards. The history of Kiswahili is its own undoing as the language has, over time, been used by aggressors from the Arab slave traders to the marauding soldiers we have had during past regimes.
It was common to have army men at a roadblock demanding for answers to simple questions from civilians who could not speak Kiswahili. The civilians were forced to fidget with the language or face the wrath of the soldiers.
Association with wrongdoers has demonised the language. In any case, very few Ugandans can speak Swahili. Interestingly, the White paper tabled in Parliament on September 21 states that Swahili has been seconded as a second official language to English. Questions then must start being asked why Uganda has decided to have a language that more than half its population cannot speak fluently.
Remember, little effort has been taken to have it included in the primary and secondary school syllabuses with many students offering it more like a personal project. There are some about to sit for national examinations this year but have never been taught formally in class.
Others take the trouble to use Internet sites like www.unforgettableswahili.com to teach themselves although internet coverage and knowledge is also miserable countrywide. It is only urban centres which are mostly connected. Swahili is a language basically of Bantu or African origin but this has not, despite the widespread use made most Kenyans prefer their own tribal language and view swahili as a foreign dialect like English. The websitewww.blissites.com/kenya/language.html gives an in- depth coverage of the swahili vis-Ã -vis local language preference in Kenya which I think can make good food for thought in our context.
Colonialism has left ugly scars on us that will never be removed forever. Using Kiswahili as a second diction still shows that we can’t do without English and it would have been better to just not say anything about second-rate dialects in the white paper. After all, why can’t the people of this country also initiate having second official wear like barkcloth costume to break the monotony of tie-jacket syndrome?
If only Swahili was to work in the Ugandan setting in whatever capacity, the age-old misconceptions like those held by Makerere students of the 1970s have to be eroded by way of teaching it formally as a subject at all levels coupled with sensitisation of the masses.
The writer is a freelance journalist
The students had begun observing this week as a solemn ceremony to demonstrate solidarity with fellow Africans still suffering under colonialism. However, that year’s events coincided with Ali’s promotion to the rank of brigadier and subsequent appointment to Idi Amin’s ruling supreme military council. It was at the ceremony that Amin declared Swahili a national language.
But the military council and Swahili were unpopular at Makerere and this prompted the students to use Moses Ali’s presence to show their disgust with the language and military men. They heckled and booed down all speakers despite the fact that the guild had had a hand in inviting these visiting dignitaries.
It was only guild President Olara Otunnu’s speech, delivered in quite intellectual English that was attentively listened to, a ‘crime’ that together with subsequent friction with the regime, forced Otunnu to flee into exile soon afterwards. The history of Kiswahili is its own undoing as the language has, over time, been used by aggressors from the Arab slave traders to the marauding soldiers we have had during past regimes.
It was common to have army men at a roadblock demanding for answers to simple questions from civilians who could not speak Kiswahili. The civilians were forced to fidget with the language or face the wrath of the soldiers.
Association with wrongdoers has demonised the language. In any case, very few Ugandans can speak Swahili. Interestingly, the White paper tabled in Parliament on September 21 states that Swahili has been seconded as a second official language to English. Questions then must start being asked why Uganda has decided to have a language that more than half its population cannot speak fluently.
Remember, little effort has been taken to have it included in the primary and secondary school syllabuses with many students offering it more like a personal project. There are some about to sit for national examinations this year but have never been taught formally in class.
Others take the trouble to use Internet sites like www.unforgettableswahili.com to teach themselves although internet coverage and knowledge is also miserable countrywide. It is only urban centres which are mostly connected. Swahili is a language basically of Bantu or African origin but this has not, despite the widespread use made most Kenyans prefer their own tribal language and view swahili as a foreign dialect like English. The websitewww.blissites.com/kenya/language.html gives an in- depth coverage of the swahili vis-Ã -vis local language preference in Kenya which I think can make good food for thought in our context.
Colonialism has left ugly scars on us that will never be removed forever. Using Kiswahili as a second diction still shows that we can’t do without English and it would have been better to just not say anything about second-rate dialects in the white paper. After all, why can’t the people of this country also initiate having second official wear like barkcloth costume to break the monotony of tie-jacket syndrome?
If only Swahili was to work in the Ugandan setting in whatever capacity, the age-old misconceptions like those held by Makerere students of the 1970s have to be eroded by way of teaching it formally as a subject at all levels coupled with sensitisation of the masses.
The writer is a freelance journalist