© Victor Ochieng’
There are three things that have transpired in the recent past that fascinate lovers of Kiswahili. One, the Ugandan government has directed that Kiswahili should be made a compulsory subject in both primary and secondary schools.
Two, Uganda also adopted Kiswahili as an official language
The third was the World Kiswahili Day which was feted globally for the first time since UNESCO declared July 7 the official day to celebrate Kiswahili as a lingua franca.
This gave me a rehash of a language colloquium I attended some time back. One of the keynote speakers said: Kiswahili was conceived in Zanzibar. It was born in Tanzania. It was brought up in Kenya. It died in Uganda. It was interred or buried in the Democratic of Congo (DRC). Delegates in-attendance broke into gales of laughter, others giggled while some just grinned with glitz.
Since the conference was basically a conference of lovers of the language from Kenya, they chose to laugh at the sorry state of Kiswahili in Uganda and DRC.
This was equivalent to the proverbial story of the diminutive dwarfs laughing about who is taller than the other.
Scholars of Isimu Jamii (Socio-linguistics) contend that Kiswahili is the lingua franca of East Africa, just as English is that of Commonwealth countries. Kiswahili is a fully grown adult in Tanzania, but in Kenya, it is still throwing adolescent tantrums. The only solution is to celebrate its scholars who are dead and alive. We should also glorify and magnify its strong slogan Kiswahili Kitukuzwe.
The emergence of sheng slang has dented the growth and glory of Kiswahili language in Kenya and beyond. Learners in primary and secondary schools break the language policy and express themselves in sheng or shembeteng. No wonder most of them find it difficult to write in Kiswahili.
Their speeches are also replete with grievous grammatical goofs because some of them hardly engage in practical use of language.
Most of the language policies in schools put a lot of premium on English. There are schools in where, at the gate, you will bump on conspicuous write-ups like: This is an English Speaking Zone. Such biased writings consign Kiswahili to the museums of forgotten history.
There is also this policy in many schools where English language should be spoken from Monday to Thursday, then Kiswahili is given only Friday. Allocating English umpteen days is not bad per se because it is the language of instruction in several subjects. My only worry is, do we pay homage to this policy?
Secondary school teachers aiming to teach Kiswahili as a teaching subject should be allowed to specialise only in Kiswahili and Fasihi. This notion of teachers of Kiswahili specialising in additional subjects like Geography, Religion or History and Government complicates things. We expect teachers of a language like Kiswahili to express themselves eloquently while interacting with students even beyond the four walls of the classroom. Such a thing will be totally be a pipe dream if we are not going to treat Kiswahili and Fasihi as a couple.
The glaring question is: How do we expect Kiswahili to grow and glow yet those who use it as a medium of communication in formal fora are sometimes perceived to be less learned, inept or daft? Those who employ excellent English in their confabulations are thought to be more competent and intelligent. Those who speak English are perceived to be wiser, even when they are just speaking English of the nose (de)void of content.
The mainstream media is also to blame. Prime time news is read at 9:00 pm when people have settled in their homes after work. Kiswahili is used to air news at 7:00pm when people are still escorting the sun to sunset.
Moreover, most of our newspapers are written in English – Daily Nation, The Standard, The Star and People Daily. We have only one paper written in Kiswahili, and to add insult to the injury, it is thin like a pin. The other problem that impedes the speed, progress and success of Kiswahili is that we have paucity of self-help books written in it. We also have few orators and rhetors in Kiswahili.
It’s therefore important for all of us to change our attitude, mindsets and beliefs.
Let us not forget that Kiswahili is one of our indigenous languages. Its provenance can be attributed to the intimate intercourse of languages spoken at the coastal strip of East Africa. If it is indigenous, it enshrines our culture, literature and orature. For the sage said: Language and culture are inseparable. Whoever divorces culture is a slave. Ngugi wa Thiong’o warned us that knowing your language and a foreign one is empowerment, but knowing a foreign language and failing to know your own language is enslavement.
Marvelous mastery of Kiswahili can make us accrue a lot of benefits. We can work and engage in business with ease in various parts of East Africa. Proliferation of Kiswahili in Africa and beyond will enhance regional integration and trade. Kiswahili is one of the official languages in the African Union. In the recent past, South Africa just like Uganda, adopted Kiswahili as part and parcel of the curriculum in their basic education. This means some of our Kiswahili teachers will secure teaching opportunities across the borders more so, when they choose to see beyond the sea.
The writer is an editor, orator and author. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
