Political will needed for Kiswahili to spread in East Africa
As the globe marked the third World Kiswahili Language Day on July 7, it became apparent that East African countries, deemed to be the custodians of Kiswahili, are still grappling with policy implementation in favour of the language.
Kenya hosted the fete for the first time since Unesco, in 2022, recognised the global role of Kiswahili in the socioeconomic and political spheres.
The issue of policy gaps and or lack of implementation of existing ones, featured during the event in Mombasa, as the East African Community (EAC) members, and Kiswahili experts, called upon all Partner States to pass laws and policies that will promote the use of Kiswahili.
Kiswahili is one of the official languages of the EAC. Article 137 of the EAC Treaty provides that Kiswahili shall be promoted, developed and used as a ‘lingua franca’ ‘of the Community.
It is ironic that, despite this fact, Kiswahili cannot be used as a language of communication in transacting the business of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) as English remains the working language of EAC.
Kiswahili, which is spoken by over 200 million people across the globe, has been billed to be the 'lingua franca' of the African continent as envisaged by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Ali Mazrui, Mohamed Hassan Abdulaziz (Kenya) and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, among other prominent leaders and scholars.
Kenya's former Gender, Culture, and Heritage cabinet secretary Aisha Jumwa (2nd R) launches a book by East Africa Kiswahili Commission. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
On policy formulation, Kenya has not established the National Kiswahili Council - Baraza la Kiswahili la Kenya (Bakike) as per the requirement of the EAC. In 2017, the Council of Ministers of EAC directed Partner States to initiate the process of institutionalisation of Kiswahili as one of the EAC Official Languages through the establishment of National Kiswahili Councils.
So far, only Tanzania has complied and established Baraza la Kiswahili la Tanzania (Bakita), and way back in 1967. Uganda has made significant progress in forming Baraza la Kiswahili la Uganda (Bakiu).
“The consequences of Kenya’s ‘failure’ to establish Kiswahili National Council have been seen through lack of proper language planning and management at policy level,” says Prof Inyani Simala, former executive secretary, East African Kiswahili Commission, Zanzibar.
Tanzania, which is perceived to be leading the pack on matters Kiswahili, has found itself in apolicy conundrum. For a long time, Tanzania, a multilingual country with more than 100 languages, has formulated language policies that gravitate more towards Kiswahili –particularly in its education system.
From Tanzania’s policy statement of 2014, the language of instruction in early childhood and primary education is Kiswahili. When the students transition to secondary school, the language of instruction shifts to English.
While Africans are busy competing on who speaks better English, other nations are busy translating schoolbooks into their own languages so that their children have a learning advantage using their own language.
American scientist Scott L. Montgomery author of Does Science Need a Global Language? English and the Future of Research seeks to answer this question by investigating the phenomenon of global English in science -- how and why it came about, the forms in which it appears, what advantages and disadvantages it brings, and what its future might be.
In East Africa, a major regional rival to English is Kiswahili. It has been touted by scholars such as Ali Mazrui as a suitable language for ‘detribalising’ East Africans. Can Kiswahili, therefore, replace English in teaching mathematics and the sciences – and, indeed, all other subjects, except English and Kiswahili itself?
Research done in the past five decades within and outside Tanzania proves it is possible. The only impediment, as observed by Prof Fikeni Senkoro of Tanzania is a lack of political goodwill.
He says: “lack of political goodwill and commitment is the greatest impediment to operationalizing such a policy. Tanzania needs a courageous leader (whose thinking borders insanity or kichaa) to give a decree – the way it was done in Malaysia. But again, we shall do all that we can to effectively teach foreign languages.”
