An invitation to teach Kiswahili

This week, I received – among others – feedback and a proposal from reader Edwin Ariiho who described himself as a Kiswahili teacher.

“Greetings! Today I was reading Daily Monitor of June 24 and came across readers’ participation request information... Depending on what is going on in the country about the spread of Kiswahili language, I propose that in every newspaper edition, you devote one page to teach the nation Kiswahili. It will create awareness among the nationals, as well as giving us the push to support by buying a copy because we shall be ready to learn with you. Thanks!” he wrote in an email. I shared Mr Ariiho’s proposal with the editors and management.

Be that as it may, can the media really help resuscitate a language that, according to a popular joke in the region, was born in Tanzania, grew up in Kenya and was maimed in Uganda and died in the Congo? Perhaps it can!

As we all know, the media’s responsibility traditionally rests on three pillars: to inform, to entertain and to educate. Everything else falls in between. These roles may not be easily disaggregated in the content the media carries every day, but they are visible in every newspaper page or radio/television broadcast.

The information (particularly news) and entertainment pillars are the most popularly associated with media and journalism. The education role has, however, become more visible with advancement in technology as Rinu Raju notes in his 2022 essay, “Role of Media in Education”.

He writes: “The media has become a reservoir of knowledge and has entered into all the structures of daily life. In the last century, a revolution in technology has greatly altered the teaching-learning process by providing new media for sharing ideas and thoughts. Education is no more constrained in textbooks.

Media transformed the conventional styles of teaching where learners were passive listeners. The use of media in education has gained the attention of the children and makes the learning process more interesting and effective. Hence it is the cheapest means of transferring knowledge; it wipes out all discriminations between haves and have not’s.”

Therefore, in teaching Kiswahili as Mr Ariiho suggests, the media would not be acting out of its mandate or practice. It would simply be fulfilling one of its cardinal pillars. Indeed in Uganda, we are already seeing the media create education programmes under the banner of Newspapers in Education (NiE).

NiE is described as “an initiative that involves the use of newspapers in schools for purposes of improving literacy and developing a reading culture among children.” The “Pass PLE” pullout that is published in Daily Monitor  every week is an example of these endeavours.

But beyond this, Kiswahili is not just an examinable subject like English, mathematics or geography. It is Uganda’s second official language, and the language of the East African Community. As many have pointed out, it is a critical brick in building national cohesion and regional integration.

Point number 10 of the NMG Editorial Policy Guidelines states: “We are committed to promoting the national efforts of the people of the member states of the East African Community to develop and harmonise their institutions for the common good and encourage regional integration where this is practicable and demonstrably so to the advantage of the peoples of those countries involved.”

Mr Ariiho may, therefore, not be off the mark in his proposal – at least from the perspective of integration of the peoples of East Africa.

That said, new media or social media for that matter, is already ahead of traditional media in the region in teaching Kiswahili. The X (Twitter) handle @KiswahiliNaTwea everyday shares Kiswahili vocabulary with English translations under the banner “Learn Swahili with Twea”. It is very simplified learning.

Regardless, how effectively the media can teach Kiswahili largely depends on attitudes and perceptions of its teachers and its students.

Both, and a few other factors, have unfortunately beset Kiswahili in Uganda as Prof Apolo Nsibambi, former prime minister and educationist of great accomplishment, articulated so well in his book, “National Integration in Uganda - 1962-2013”, published by Fountain Publishers Ltd and available in bookshops.

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