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