Africa-Press – Uganda. It is disturbing that the present generation cannot sustain a conversation in their mother tongues, but prefer English even at the family level.
Language is cardinal in expressing the independent identity of any given society. Language is a pillar of identity undertaking, which means that the way someone talks reflects the identity of a community. Likewise, the language we use forms an important part of our sense of who we are–of our identity.
The Constitution of Uganda declares English an official language. It was also the medium of instruction at all levels of education, until 2006/2007 when local languages were given room for the first three years of primary education in rural areas.
Unfortunately, the policy on supporting advancement of local languages through all levels of education is still weak.
In schools, learners are punished for speaking their local languages by wearing sacks while others are praised and awarded for speaking English. As a result, this has instilled a belief that our mother tongues are inferior to English. People who speak English are perceived to be more elite and intelligent compared to those with a limited proficiency.
Sometimes people bully or laugh at each other over wrong vocabulary or pronunciations in English. Statements like, ‘what do you have to contribute when you can’t even construct a sentence in English?’, ‘You are a villager!’, are common.
During the recent 2021 national leaders swearing-in process, we witnessed some local counsellors being compelled to take oath of office in English, a language they were unable to speak and comprehend. They spoke “broken English” and the comedy world had a field day. Then we wonder, what the counsellors were paying allegiance to, did they understand what they were swearing-in, will they be able to participate and articulate issues of their electorates if they are to deliberate in English?
Ever wondered why social behavioural change has become a pain to government, for instance during this pandemic? It is a question of language of communication. Most of the information about coronavirus is in English with a small proportion translated into local languages.
To date, some important safety sign posts are in English with no local language translation.
Most of the publications from research projects that engage local communities are solely published in English with little effort for findings to be translated in non-technical and in local languages. When researchers are collecting information from the community, they always translate consent forms and questionnaires in local languages so that they are able to collect valid data. How come little effort is put into translation of publications from the paper to local languages for the local communities who participated in the research to be informed about the findings.
We recommend that regional languages be declared official languages and incorporated in all proceedings of government and institutions. This has been successfully done elsewhere. For example, Zimbabwe has over 11 official languages based on their major spoken local languages. In Rwanda, the official gazette is translated to all the three official languages; Kinyarwanda, English and French
Joy Birungi & Provia Ainembabazi, Members of Social Medicine Consortium – Uganda Chapter
