Weekkly Observer, 13th January 2005
OPINION: Another case for Swahili in a new Uganda
Jaffar Mjasiri
Swahili is fast growing into a lingua franca in the Great Lakes Region. It was introduced in Uganda by Arab merchants who frequented the country in search of ivory and precious minerals.
The language dates back to the 16th century when local coastal communities received Arab merchants on the shores of the Indian Ocean, including Zanzibar, Dar-Es-Salaam, Mombasa, Somalia, Maputo and the Comoros.
Swahili developed from a blend of Arabic and several coastal Bantu languages.
Arabs found the natives along the shores and christened them �people of the shores� (Assaahiliuun).
Swahili itself, therefore, is an exotic word, which lost its articulation because of the strong Bantu accents. It is correctly pronounced as Saahiil in Arabic, which means shores and not Swahili as we know it today.
This language, though not appreciated by many in Uganda and not effectively used within the country, is already widely spoken in parts of the country. Chama cha Kiswahili, an organisation based at Makerere University, last month announced support for a fresh government proposal to have Swahili as Uganda�s second official language.
Mzee Ali bin Hussein, 78, a retired driver, believes that the old East African Community before its collapse in 1977, had contributed immensely to the development of Swahili language and culture in Uganda.
He attributes this to the exchange of EAC personnel between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, which helped to spread Swahili in Uganda. Ali worked for the community until the late 1970s. He speaks fluent Swahili and favours it to be adopted as the national language. But in Uganda, those who have lived through different dictatorial and militaristic regimes have only gloomy stories to tell about Swahili.
Hajji Haruna Mwanje Mutesasira, 57, who works for Radio Uganda, nearly lost his life during Idi Amin�s regime of 1971 �1979, because he failed to explain himself in Swahili. Swahili was the official language in the army. When he was arrested near a military barracks for alleged trespass, he failed to explain himself in Swahili and thus offended the interrogating army officer, who pulled out a pistol to kill him. Fortunately, another officer intervened and the bullet missed its target.
Another man from Ankole almost got himself killed at a roadblock when soldiers stopped him and quizzed him in Swahili. Sensing trouble, he gathered all his Swahili into one sentence whose meaning he didn�t even know. He said, �Kama unaleta matatizo hapa, tutagombana.� Meaning, if you try to cause trouble, we shall fight. The soldiers beat him up and left him for dead.
Another senior citizen Margaret Abwooli, a teacher at Kibuli College, recalls how the roadblocks mounted by Idi Amin�s soldiers and Milton Obote�s UNLA could be horrific, if one did not speak Swahili. �We were coerced to learn Swahili phrases such as sit down (keti chini), stand up (simama), where is your identity card (wapi tambulisho), stupid (tumbavu), where is the cash (wapi pesa), please (naomba), sorry (pole) to minimise harassments and embarrassments,� she said.
Most Ugandans may have known not more than five Swahili words, but almost all knew the meaning of funguwa mulango (open the door), wewe iko kipingamizi (you are a rebel), toa kashi bila kusema (don�t say anything, bring the money). As a result, Abwooli says, Swahili was perceived as an abominable language. Swahili was also perceived as a language for prostitutes.
Many women avoided it in fear of being branded sluts. Women who spoke Swahili were either considered to be concubines for soldiers or sex workers for the Tanzanian army.
A senior journalist in Kampala recalls how he once tried to teach himself Swahili. But when he went to Shauri Yako market and used the little Swahili he had learned, a market woman blasted him and told him to take his Swahili �back to the barracks�.
Such attitudes indeed discouraged many Ugandans from learning the language. But Swahili has its defenders. Mansoor, a taxi driver, argues that other languages such as Luganda could as well have been used in any standoff between soldiers and civilians. He adds that Uganda lacks national identity and feels Swahili can help to solve existing ethnicity divisions.
During my three years in Uganda, I have met many people keen to learn the language. Someone who speaks Swahili would be comfortable in Rwanda, Burundi and D.R. Congo, especially if one cannot communicate in French, the official language in those countries. According to Almasi Said from Kasese, Swahili was used even before Uganda�s independence in 1962. Therefore, if Uganda were to achieve national identity, it would be easy to use Swahili as a melting pot that can blend different ethnic groups found in the country.
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The author is a Tanzanian journalis t and master�s student at Nkumba University.
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