Decolonisation takes yet another toll in East Africa

Introduction

Word has gone round that the Government of Tanzania is planning to banish English as a medium of instruction in secondary schools and replace it with Kiswahili. I hope to discuss my views on this subject and explore whether it is possible to do the same in Uganda.

DECOLONISATION

Refers to the movement that has arisen in majorly former colonies of Britain and France ( the Anglophone and Francophone) around the world to restore the effects of the colonisation process which had a huge bearing on culture, arts, science, literature and general ways of life of the Peoples in these places. Decolonisation involved more than political independence but post independence review of foreign languages, culture e.t.c and trying to restore an old identity. Kiswahili is a language spoken in East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi e.t.c. tracing its roots in portugese and Arab occupation of the East African coast.

Decolonisation has manifested itself in the renaming of Ghana amongst other examples.Until recently it was reported in the media including BBC that the Tanzanian government moved to replace English with Kiswahili as a language of instruction.

On a BBC interview, the news anchor raised several concerns with a professional teacher in an interview namely

What were the justifications for the proposed move?, Whether a Tanzanian scientist trained in Kiswahili could compete favourably in the international Market. Of course the teacher supported the move reasoning that students were instructed in Kiswahili in Primary schools and learning English in secondary schools was making the learning process hard but was left in an awkward dilemma in the second question.The following are my views on second concern.

It is actually possible to compete in the international market in Kiswahili.

The reasons are not far to get.

1. Kiswahili has  fast gained  the status of an international language and is being taught in institutions of learning including international universities like Yale in the USA

2.One of the world’s largest emerging economies, china have managed to preserve their language and culture vis-a-vis English with manuals for their products published in Chinese, With the East African Political Federation being fast tracked, it is only logical that there should be a unifying language that cuts across the spectrum bearing in mind that this part of the world is blessed with a diversity of ethnicities and races ( I have carefully excluded the term “tribes” due to its distaste in the decolonisation and post colonial movements for the obvious reason that it connotes inferiority and primitivism)

3. It is better to stay who you are than pretend to be a person you are not. The English, Russians, Koreans, Japanese e.t.c have preserved their civilisations and are by large succesful, this side of earth suffers from a dual identity and remains poorest and unprivileged by large.

CONCLUSION

It is possible to compete internationally with a well-groomed Kiswahili training on account of the above reasons other than pretending to speak the “queen’s language”