The following article was seen on the IPP Media site ate
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2007/05/03/89680.html . It
contains one gross error: The genocide in Rwanda had nothing to do
with languages - Hutu and Tutsis all speak one and the same maternal
language: Kinyarwanda. (The article also appeared on
http://www.tanzania-info.com/news/news_show.php?id=2987 ) Don
Kiswahili, bridging the gap of ethnic divide
2007-05-03 09:07:34
By Neema Mugali
The issue of whether Kiswahili should continue to be Tanzanians
official medium of communication is still highly debatable.
For one, it is worth noting that the said language has played a
pivotal role in uniting the country as well as providing a form of
national identity to indigenous Tanzanians.
Tanzania with a population of over 32 million people has 120 tribes
and dialects and the social policy of the country has been that of
Kiswahili first while ones native language comes second.
The introduction of Kiswahili as a national language has also helped
to stamp out detrimental social evils such as ethnic divide which has
had devasting effects in countries such as Rwanda.
The Rwanda genocide is not at all news as the whole world watched in
utter disbelief as two ethnic languages in one of Africa's smallest
nations took to the sword in an effort to eliminate the opposing side
from the face of the earth.
In some countries tribalism is so rife so much such that it has
affected the levels of economic stability and social harmony.
Certain names have been black listed on tribal lines even affecting
the level of employment opportunities for victims of this surge.
This literally means that undeserving people get the top most jobs
leaving qualified people out in the cold.
Kiswahili has also acted as Tanzanians national flag bearer on the
international community.
In most instances anything associated with the language is either
directly or indirectly linked to Tanzania, which has the largest
number of Kiswahili speakers in the East African Community followed by
Kenya and Uganda.
Kiswahili is also widely spoken in countries such as Rwanda, Burundi,
and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Unlike other countries in the commonwealth Tanzania has always been an
exception having adopted Kiswahili and not English as the first
official language.
This could have been a step taken by the founding fathers of the
country to totally rid the nation of imperlistic elements, it seems
that they meant real business.
Kiswahili is a unique language in many respects as it contains a
mixture of many dialects of both African and Asian origin.
This is among the many reasons why it has been widely embraced by
different ethnic groups in the country especially in Dar es Salaam
which could best be described as a cosmopolitan city with people from
different ethnic backgrounds.
Tanzania has also made great strides to develop the use of the
language in the East African community which has been officially endorsed.
As the East African community heads towards regional integration the
use of one language plays an important role in unifying the respective
countries.
While it is a generally accepted fact that the introduction of
Kiswahili has brought about remarkable achievements in the area of
national unity Tanzania has suffered some drawbacks in vital sectors
of the economy such as education.
As the world is slowly moving towards globalization the medium of
communication in almost half of the world is English.
However the use of such international languages has brought about a
lot of communication problems for students most of whom are not fully
conversant with the language.
Such drawbacks have in a way affected the standard of education for
students especially those in Government schools who seek to study abroad.
This is the main reason why during the past recent years the nation
witnessed an influx of students to neighbouring countries such as
Kenya and Uganda.
But the situation seems to have changed especially with the mushroom
of English medium schools which provide a relatively strong foundation
of the English language.
After all has been said and done the question of whether the use of
Kiswahili has beneficial to countries like Tanzania still remains
largely unanswered.
* SOURCE: Guardian
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