By James Wafula Nyayo House, Nairobi
The NGO council of Kenya has called on parents, schools and colleges in the country and around the East African region to devote more time and resources in teaching the Swahili language and its associated cultural norms that are quite rich along the Indian ocean coast. In a press statement Friday July 7, 2023, Council Chairman Stephen Kipchumba Cheboi said as the world marks the Swahili Day today the challenge is upon the region to build on the gains the language has attained by easing communication across the board in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Seychelles.
He said Swahili which originated from the coastal islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Mombasa as a mixture of Arabic and local dialect had become a strong language besides English which can be used to forge close working relations between people in the region. This he said is at a time the East African Community (EAC) and the African Union (AU) are pushing for close economic and social interactions on the continent.
“We applaud UNESCO for recognizing Swahili as an international language that is now spoken with translators during major conferences of the United Nations Assembly in New York” and around the world adding however that there is need to speak “swahili sanifu” (correct verbal communication) without resort to mixing sheng as widely done in Nairobi which has tended to be abused by unscrupulous elements.
Cheboi challenged schools and parents in Kenya to discourage the use of sheng among the youth which often has been associated with antisocial activities saying the language must embrace proper use of grammar, verbs, and adverbs just like English. In Uganda during the Amin dictatorship of the 1970’s Swahili suffered a blow after it was associated with rowdy soldiers who bullied, looted and killed civilians leading to a huge stigma on the language.
Cheboi said however that swahili has now become acceptable in the neighbouring countries including Rwanda, Burundi and DRC Congo and has seen intensive movement of people and goods as communication is eased. But he said other neighbours like Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia were yet to catch up but progress was being made■
