Uganda's claims on dislike of Kiswahili a myth, says official

Arusha. Claims that Ugandans are apprehensive about embracing Kiswahili are only a myth, the country’s minister has said.

On the contrary, the country has been using the language since the early 1900s and will tomorrow (Friday) mark its second World Kiswahili Day.

“Kiswahili is doing well in Uganda not only as a medium of communication but also in unifying people,” said James Magode Ikuya, the minister of State for East African Community (EAC) Affairs. He added that the perception that Kiswahili had no place in Uganda was mere rhetoric, contrary to the reality on the ground.

Mr Ikuya was speaking at Namanga border town during the launch of a peace caravan across East Africa organised by the EAC.

Mr Ikuya said it was not by mistake that the regional leaders elevated to an official language of the EAC from the lingua franca status.

He pointed out that Kiswahili was the best medium of communication among diverse communities in the region, especially those living in border areas.

These include the pastoralist communities living in the remote zones, often impacted by conflicts over grazing land.

The state minister said Tanzania was not the only country in the EAC region where Kiswahili has been fully embraced.

“I was in Burundi two months ago for a peace workshop. Wanafanya vizuri sana huko (The language is doing well there)”, he said during the launch. “What has happened to Kiswahili in Uganda? We need to enhance communication in Kiswahili,” he said.

Although Kiswahili was elevated last year to an official language of the Community, it has been recognized as the lingua franca since the year 2000. However, Uganda has been wrongly or rightly seen as a pariah state in the promotion of the language, which has emerged as a common form of communication in the region for the past 100 years.

Even with the political support and introduction of the language in the school curriculum, many Ugandans are still not able to speak it.

The first attempt to popularise the language was made by the then-governor in 1903 when he ordered the teaching of Kiswahili in schools.

Other directives made by successive colonial and independence-era governments were shattered as they remained on paper. Kiswahili was to get a boost with the entry into power of the NRM government of President Yoweri Museveni in the 1980s.

Despite the policy guidelines—especially the teaching of Kiswahili in schools and its use as an official language—observers say much has remained on paper.

The minister admitted that there were some challenges but said this would soon become history given the growing status of the language regionally and internationally.

Currently, it is estimated that Kiswahili has more than 200 million speakers in the world and is the national language of Tanzania and Kenya.

The need for a language as a medium of communication was apparent at the Namanga ceremony, where speakers were compelled to speak in the vernacular.

In Tanzania, as the country marks its second World Kiswahili Day tomorrow, calls have been made for the media to spearhead the process.

A scholar, Prof Kitila Mkumbo, said on Tuesday that Kiswahili should graduate from being a medium of communication to a language of business and diplomacy.