I think you will agree with me that the tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind , Today a vast number of people in Tanzania look to the west as a social, political, and economic reference. This mentality perpetuates the fallacy that the west is better than the rest that western values are global values and as a result, entry into the global circles therefore means assimilating western culture. Naturally, it is imagined that entry into the global community begins through knowledge of a European language (English) as a subject and thereafter, using it as the language of instruction in schools and universities. I strongly believe this approach is inappropriate because it serves to perpetuate the belief that local African languages are incapable of communicating high function ideas and concepts (in judicial systems, government administration, science and technology) as well as European languages and, it distances Africans from a better appreciation of their own cultural reality and nuances. At the same time it saves the Interest of Imperialists a system that wants to manipulate and controls every sort of life of everybody.The truth will always remains the same that Swahili Language is more than just a means of communication; it is the essence of our being, the very core of our soul as a Tanzanians, "the medium of our memories, the link between space and time, the basis of our dreams.
Today in Tanzania you can find almost all the advertisements are published in English, Doctors prescriptions are written in English, The Laws are written in English but taking into account, all these stuffs addresses a common man whom the system has classed him/her among the 80% of the populations who calls themselves farmers by nature and among those 80% the 36% live below the poverty line, that means they have either attained a primary school or neither attained at all, do we expect this common people to understand what has been written within the Doctors prescription or can we expect the same man to know his/her constitution rights if all the laws have been drafted in the language which he/she is not Competent? At the same time Tanzania is unique in having an extremely small number of legal practitioners in Commonwealth Africa. There are many reasons for this. One is the lack of qualified lawyers.
Tanzanias population is currently estimated at more than 43 Million. There are only less than 1000 advocates in full-time practice who offer legal services. Besides, their distribution among the countrys population is largely misbalanced. About 70% of all full time legal practitioners are based in Dar es Salaam, while some regions do not have a single advocate available.The deficiency in quantity also has a direct negative effect on the quality of legal services and consequently of the quality of justice. Good numbers of practitioners will reduce the costs of legal services and provide advocates with the required time to offer qualitatively and quantitatively improved services, and strengthen the private Bar. More legal practitioners will mean a reduction in the costs of legal services and more equitable distribution and availability of legal services and its quite very amazing when an advocate addresses the Judge in English while the clients and juries fails to understand what exactly is going on. I believe that, probably 60% of the prisoners in Tanzanian are Non Guilty due to the lack of legal presentation before the court and lack of knowledge to understand English language which is written in the law what if the law could be in Swahili? Maybe these innocent 60% could had been defended themselves without the need of advocates.
In Tanzania the language of instruction factor has been ignored for a long time and this has had a negative impact on the quality of education and this can be evidenced by thousands of Tanzanians moving to other countries seeking for a better educations ..Insisting on using English as the language of instruction in Tanzanian secondary schools and institutions of higher learning does more harm than good towards the provision of quality education as well as language teaching as we can not get the pure class of educated people whome the Nation can really depends interments on strategy development Ideas, possibly due to the lack of Enough Knowledge which was the result of either poor understanding during the course ,Can we learn anything from the outcome of the results of the Form four exams of 2010?.Can any one tells me among the many causes of the great failure of the students, Language is not among the causes?and if the answer is Yes what are we waiting for?There is only a chance today to open the door for our future generation who will always be proud of our hardworking, now everything is open to decide the lives we live sometime it is the smallest decisions that can change your life forever if life can not be acceptable it can easily be changed lets be the changes we want to see. If we cant creates these changes today for better the changes will change us into worse situation
Statistic shows that the principal language of Instruction in Education has been the key vital role in in the success of both Economic,Social,Political within the countries which uses their mother tongue,one of these countries are Russia,France,Sweden,Norway,Ukraine and other more which I haven't mentioned.
Have we ever asked why the westerners tends to promotes a lot the use of the English Language in all spheres of our life?just because they love us a lot?the answer is because we contribute much towards their budget and betterment of their citizens,when considering that each and every person who wants to go to Europe or America for some circumstance has to pass an English Proficiency Test which is first of all is not Free and which cost almost 150 to 250 USD. This is how we can realize that Tanzania has been placed among the poorest Nation, I believe that the situation is not because of anything internal, but because the wealth produced by Tanzanians is ending in developing the western world. Tanzania received more per capital aid from the World Bank and Rich Nations more than many countries in the world. Have we ever asked why?? In another side of the coin these aid, loans, and investment capital that they gloat about are simply a chemical catalyst that sets in motion the whole process of expropriation of Tanzanian's wealth, with, of course, a few leftovers for the 'lucky' few.... In a really sense imperialism can never develop our country or develop us, Tanzanians.
Can we really turns the table round so that they can also contribute to our Budget through Swahili Proficiency Test for everybody who intends to come for the Jobs purposes and Education? This is how we can creates respects in human being and considers the notion of Treating others as you want them to treat you because what goes around comes around. Every year almost our Government sent around 1000 students to different parts of the world for study, and most of the countries which these students are sent are those which they use Mother tongue as a means of Instruction in Education. Have we ever thought how much our Tax goes to pay for each and every student to take a one year of language preparatory course? Almost 1500 to 2500 USD for Each student just for the one year language course apart from normal course which depends with the University. If we can consider the value of our language then we could be the key role in emphasizing the importance of it and safeguard a proud legacy and help to ensure that Tanzania's future will be as great as other Nations.
What is to be discussed below is not only of importance to my own language, Swahili, but also applicable to the great majority of the languages of the world. The road to a world with only few languages will be full of strife and social unrest
The English language is colonizing the world. Political, cultural and technical influences from abroad are not necessarily negative, on the contrary, they can often prove to be enriching. But because of an accelerating influence, the English language has come to be a threat towards our Swahili language and our Swahili culture. I clearly predict if necessary measures will not be taken the English language will be the dominating language in Tanzania within a few generations. By then, it will not also be the language that is dominating, but also the culture it brings with it. According to linguists, thousands of languages will disappear within the next hundred years.
It is troubling that English rather than Swahili is now commonly used in Tanzania in certain circumstances. Over the past few decades, English has increasingly come to dominate in research and higher education, especially in the natural sciences, medicine and technology while the Government argues that we lack enough technicality words in and expressions in the worlds of banking, finance, computers and IT, as well as in the increasingly internationalized world of politics. But we forget that what happens when a languages withers away and dies? When a language is no longer used in a certain area of expertise, it ceases to develop as a means of communication in this area. For example, no terms for new findings are invented. If we do not use Swahili for example medical research, it will eventually become difficult to write and speak of new discoveries in Swahili, even in situations in which it for some reasons would be particularly useful to use Swahili. This scenario demonstrates a loss of domain; Swahili has ceased to be a language that can be utilized to describe certain parts of medical science. If the above developments continue, so that medical students are taught exclusively in English, the whole area may be lost to Tanzanian
I think Communication between experts and non-specialists may become fraught with difficulty if there is no appropriate Swahili terminology to use. It is of great importance that we can debate gene technology and national economics in Tanzania. If new findings are not disseminated in Swahili, the possibility for Tanzanian business to put these into a profitable use will lessen.
The ongoing, surreptitious depletion of the Swahili language will in the long term create a division between those who can speak English and those who cannot. Swahili will become an obstacle. It will then no longer function as an independent and rich language of the community. This will threaten our democracy. When this is upon us, it will be too late and we will not be able to retain our highly developed welfare system if we are not able to survive stiff international competition. We will not be able to be competitive in the increasingly technology-based world market
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
Its not the matter of how it cost to introduce this system, the Idea is the Government should either adopt a certain period of plan either 5 years Plan, This plan has to work hand to hand with the enacted law that means every scientific work of literature which will be written after the date of adopted law, shall be in Swahili, every other law which will be enacted after the adoption of the law on Swahili language will also be in Swahili. Every Student either in Nursery, Primary, Secondary and Higher Institution who will start after the adoption of the New law that means the Medium of Instruction will be In Swahili except the Law will not affects every sphere of Life before the law to be adopted. But the system should not affect the Maximum teaching of English subjects as one among the lessons to be taught so that we can not lose English at all.
Our Country is among the Countries which adopted the Principles of Free Market that means a successful economy depends on the proliferation of the rich, on creating a large class of risk-taking men who are willing to shun the easy channels of a comfortable life in order to create new enterprise, win huge profits, and invest them again. Meaning that every single citizen has equal rights before the law, at the same time laws are created to shape and favors the interest of every Individual in every sphere of life that means that the Government should not ban the Presence of English Medium Schools or any other Private schools but there should be some regulations. In order to promote the fully use of Swahili Language then Any English Medium School which decides to use the Tanzanian curriculum of Education (Mtaala) then they have to opt for Swahili Language as the Means of Instruction unless otherwise they opt for international curriculum then they can be free to conduct education in any language they wish in elaborating this idea, I personally believe that the aim of English medium or Private school is to offer the better education compared to the Government ones but not the English Language so their aim will always remain the same unless otherwise they aim to teach only English Language then that is not the Education that we expects to exists in our country or uses as weapon in alleviating poverty and shape our Economic as whole in practical Language should not be the obstacle for them not providing the better Education .
They should be a MANDATORY STATE EXAM of Swahili language which shall have to be taken for any student who wants to apply for HELBS Loan. This exam should also be Mandatory for Foreigner who wishes to practice some aspects of Jobs in Tanzanian like Law, Medicine and other sensitive jobs which mainly serve the Interest of Community and Nation as whole.
WHAT WILL BE THE RESULTS?
If Swahili language will be adopted as a form and expression of knowledge and also be elevated and accommodated as the language of instruction in primary, secondary schools and higher Institutions, this will expose it more practically to the rigors of higher learning and will be more accurate reflection of the reality in Tanzania (where at least 90% speak Kiswahili). Such an approach will empower the majority of the population since many of those once excluded from higher learning due to English language will now have greater access to it in a language almost everyone is familiar with hence this will limit a great number of our educated class who after getting Education in Tanzania flock to other countries for the aim of getting Better Job. After all they will be the best and More Competent in Swahili Language more than English hence reducing the chance of getting a job in other Country hence the Society can utilize these talents for the betterment of the Society and the Nation as whole As and our economy will not faces up to potential very skill labour this will move to a new level of sophistication to compete with the rest of the world, were going to need every Tanzanian on board pulling their weight, rejoining the workforce, gaining new skills. At the same time increasing of much skilled labour will create tension for new more creative and innovation in a self employment as Human being depends on each other
1) This will Creates Employment Opportunities for many Tanzanian ranging in Translation, Interpretation as the Nations will need almost many documents, Films, Documentary to be translated in Swahili
2) If Swahili language will fully be adopted may be an example of the potential of achieving a compromise of somewhat similar nature in other countries. Particularly other East African countries like Kenya, Democratic Rep. of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, wherein European languages have a strong hold.
Dear Tanzanians I am not promoting the use of Swahili to the exclusion of others. On the contrary, I believe multilingual societies are better placed to deal with the complexities of this world. What I am against is the exclusive use of foreign languages in Tanzania, which has, in effect, made many previously multilingual societies in Africa proficient in only one language -- and a foreign one (English or French) at that.
My insistence on using our mother tongue as the principal medium of Instruction is not simply a reaction against the Europeans or the Americans it is more about resurrecting the African soul from centuries of slavery and colonialism that left it spiritually empty, economically disenfranchised and politically marginalized. I believe that when you erase a people's language, you erase their memory. And people without memories are rudderless, unconnected to their own histories and culture, mimics who have placed their memories in a "psychic tomb" in the mistaken belief that if they master their colonizers language, they will own it.
I feel discomfort and more than convinced that by adopting foreign languages lock, stock and barrel, we are committing a "linguicide", which, in effect, has killed off their memories as a people, as a culture and as a society. Because erasure of memory is a condition for successful assimilation, the burial of African languages by Africans themselves ensured that the assimilation process into colonial culture was complete. We can calls this phenomenon a "death wish" that occurs in societies which have never fully acknowledged their loss -- like a trauma victim who resorts to drugs to kill the pain
The truly is we have never properly buried slavery or colonialism, it is committing psychic suicide by producing an entire class of Tanzanians bourgeoisie who view their own languages as "shameful", "inelegant", "incapable of expressing scientific or intellectual thought", and too crude to be exported to other lands. So we end up wring doctors prescriptions, Publishing Advertising, Enacting Laws in foreign languages, adding to the vast pool of literature written in English, rather than contributing to the growth of literature in Swahili.
Dear Tanzanians we all Friends, family in reality things are not the way they seems to be, everything we are doing now opens the door to decide the life we live and the life for our future generation sometime it is the smallest decisions that can change our life forever if life can not be acceptable it can easily be changed
God Bless Tanzania
Anthony Kassamali
Today in Tanzania you can find almost all the advertisements are published in English, Doctors prescriptions are written in English, The Laws are written in English but taking into account, all these stuffs addresses a common man whom the system has classed him/her among the 80% of the populations who calls themselves farmers by nature and among those 80% the 36% live below the poverty line, that means they have either attained a primary school or neither attained at all, do we expect this common people to understand what has been written within the Doctors prescription or can we expect the same man to know his/her constitution rights if all the laws have been drafted in the language which he/she is not Competent? At the same time Tanzania is unique in having an extremely small number of legal practitioners in Commonwealth Africa. There are many reasons for this. One is the lack of qualified lawyers.
Tanzanias population is currently estimated at more than 43 Million. There are only less than 1000 advocates in full-time practice who offer legal services. Besides, their distribution among the countrys population is largely misbalanced. About 70% of all full time legal practitioners are based in Dar es Salaam, while some regions do not have a single advocate available.The deficiency in quantity also has a direct negative effect on the quality of legal services and consequently of the quality of justice. Good numbers of practitioners will reduce the costs of legal services and provide advocates with the required time to offer qualitatively and quantitatively improved services, and strengthen the private Bar. More legal practitioners will mean a reduction in the costs of legal services and more equitable distribution and availability of legal services and its quite very amazing when an advocate addresses the Judge in English while the clients and juries fails to understand what exactly is going on. I believe that, probably 60% of the prisoners in Tanzanian are Non Guilty due to the lack of legal presentation before the court and lack of knowledge to understand English language which is written in the law what if the law could be in Swahili? Maybe these innocent 60% could had been defended themselves without the need of advocates.
In Tanzania the language of instruction factor has been ignored for a long time and this has had a negative impact on the quality of education and this can be evidenced by thousands of Tanzanians moving to other countries seeking for a better educations ..Insisting on using English as the language of instruction in Tanzanian secondary schools and institutions of higher learning does more harm than good towards the provision of quality education as well as language teaching as we can not get the pure class of educated people whome the Nation can really depends interments on strategy development Ideas, possibly due to the lack of Enough Knowledge which was the result of either poor understanding during the course ,Can we learn anything from the outcome of the results of the Form four exams of 2010?.Can any one tells me among the many causes of the great failure of the students, Language is not among the causes?and if the answer is Yes what are we waiting for?There is only a chance today to open the door for our future generation who will always be proud of our hardworking, now everything is open to decide the lives we live sometime it is the smallest decisions that can change your life forever if life can not be acceptable it can easily be changed lets be the changes we want to see. If we cant creates these changes today for better the changes will change us into worse situation
Statistic shows that the principal language of Instruction in Education has been the key vital role in in the success of both Economic,Social,Political within the countries which uses their mother tongue,one of these countries are Russia,France,Sweden,Norway,Ukraine and other more which I haven't mentioned.
Have we ever asked why the westerners tends to promotes a lot the use of the English Language in all spheres of our life?just because they love us a lot?the answer is because we contribute much towards their budget and betterment of their citizens,when considering that each and every person who wants to go to Europe or America for some circumstance has to pass an English Proficiency Test which is first of all is not Free and which cost almost 150 to 250 USD. This is how we can realize that Tanzania has been placed among the poorest Nation, I believe that the situation is not because of anything internal, but because the wealth produced by Tanzanians is ending in developing the western world. Tanzania received more per capital aid from the World Bank and Rich Nations more than many countries in the world. Have we ever asked why?? In another side of the coin these aid, loans, and investment capital that they gloat about are simply a chemical catalyst that sets in motion the whole process of expropriation of Tanzanian's wealth, with, of course, a few leftovers for the 'lucky' few.... In a really sense imperialism can never develop our country or develop us, Tanzanians.
Can we really turns the table round so that they can also contribute to our Budget through Swahili Proficiency Test for everybody who intends to come for the Jobs purposes and Education? This is how we can creates respects in human being and considers the notion of Treating others as you want them to treat you because what goes around comes around. Every year almost our Government sent around 1000 students to different parts of the world for study, and most of the countries which these students are sent are those which they use Mother tongue as a means of Instruction in Education. Have we ever thought how much our Tax goes to pay for each and every student to take a one year of language preparatory course? Almost 1500 to 2500 USD for Each student just for the one year language course apart from normal course which depends with the University. If we can consider the value of our language then we could be the key role in emphasizing the importance of it and safeguard a proud legacy and help to ensure that Tanzania's future will be as great as other Nations.
What is to be discussed below is not only of importance to my own language, Swahili, but also applicable to the great majority of the languages of the world. The road to a world with only few languages will be full of strife and social unrest
The English language is colonizing the world. Political, cultural and technical influences from abroad are not necessarily negative, on the contrary, they can often prove to be enriching. But because of an accelerating influence, the English language has come to be a threat towards our Swahili language and our Swahili culture. I clearly predict if necessary measures will not be taken the English language will be the dominating language in Tanzania within a few generations. By then, it will not also be the language that is dominating, but also the culture it brings with it. According to linguists, thousands of languages will disappear within the next hundred years.
It is troubling that English rather than Swahili is now commonly used in Tanzania in certain circumstances. Over the past few decades, English has increasingly come to dominate in research and higher education, especially in the natural sciences, medicine and technology while the Government argues that we lack enough technicality words in and expressions in the worlds of banking, finance, computers and IT, as well as in the increasingly internationalized world of politics. But we forget that what happens when a languages withers away and dies? When a language is no longer used in a certain area of expertise, it ceases to develop as a means of communication in this area. For example, no terms for new findings are invented. If we do not use Swahili for example medical research, it will eventually become difficult to write and speak of new discoveries in Swahili, even in situations in which it for some reasons would be particularly useful to use Swahili. This scenario demonstrates a loss of domain; Swahili has ceased to be a language that can be utilized to describe certain parts of medical science. If the above developments continue, so that medical students are taught exclusively in English, the whole area may be lost to Tanzanian
I think Communication between experts and non-specialists may become fraught with difficulty if there is no appropriate Swahili terminology to use. It is of great importance that we can debate gene technology and national economics in Tanzania. If new findings are not disseminated in Swahili, the possibility for Tanzanian business to put these into a profitable use will lessen.
The ongoing, surreptitious depletion of the Swahili language will in the long term create a division between those who can speak English and those who cannot. Swahili will become an obstacle. It will then no longer function as an independent and rich language of the community. This will threaten our democracy. When this is upon us, it will be too late and we will not be able to retain our highly developed welfare system if we are not able to survive stiff international competition. We will not be able to be competitive in the increasingly technology-based world market
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
Its not the matter of how it cost to introduce this system, the Idea is the Government should either adopt a certain period of plan either 5 years Plan, This plan has to work hand to hand with the enacted law that means every scientific work of literature which will be written after the date of adopted law, shall be in Swahili, every other law which will be enacted after the adoption of the law on Swahili language will also be in Swahili. Every Student either in Nursery, Primary, Secondary and Higher Institution who will start after the adoption of the New law that means the Medium of Instruction will be In Swahili except the Law will not affects every sphere of Life before the law to be adopted. But the system should not affect the Maximum teaching of English subjects as one among the lessons to be taught so that we can not lose English at all.
Our Country is among the Countries which adopted the Principles of Free Market that means a successful economy depends on the proliferation of the rich, on creating a large class of risk-taking men who are willing to shun the easy channels of a comfortable life in order to create new enterprise, win huge profits, and invest them again. Meaning that every single citizen has equal rights before the law, at the same time laws are created to shape and favors the interest of every Individual in every sphere of life that means that the Government should not ban the Presence of English Medium Schools or any other Private schools but there should be some regulations. In order to promote the fully use of Swahili Language then Any English Medium School which decides to use the Tanzanian curriculum of Education (Mtaala) then they have to opt for Swahili Language as the Means of Instruction unless otherwise they opt for international curriculum then they can be free to conduct education in any language they wish in elaborating this idea, I personally believe that the aim of English medium or Private school is to offer the better education compared to the Government ones but not the English Language so their aim will always remain the same unless otherwise they aim to teach only English Language then that is not the Education that we expects to exists in our country or uses as weapon in alleviating poverty and shape our Economic as whole in practical Language should not be the obstacle for them not providing the better Education .
They should be a MANDATORY STATE EXAM of Swahili language which shall have to be taken for any student who wants to apply for HELBS Loan. This exam should also be Mandatory for Foreigner who wishes to practice some aspects of Jobs in Tanzanian like Law, Medicine and other sensitive jobs which mainly serve the Interest of Community and Nation as whole.
WHAT WILL BE THE RESULTS?
If Swahili language will be adopted as a form and expression of knowledge and also be elevated and accommodated as the language of instruction in primary, secondary schools and higher Institutions, this will expose it more practically to the rigors of higher learning and will be more accurate reflection of the reality in Tanzania (where at least 90% speak Kiswahili). Such an approach will empower the majority of the population since many of those once excluded from higher learning due to English language will now have greater access to it in a language almost everyone is familiar with hence this will limit a great number of our educated class who after getting Education in Tanzania flock to other countries for the aim of getting Better Job. After all they will be the best and More Competent in Swahili Language more than English hence reducing the chance of getting a job in other Country hence the Society can utilize these talents for the betterment of the Society and the Nation as whole As and our economy will not faces up to potential very skill labour this will move to a new level of sophistication to compete with the rest of the world, were going to need every Tanzanian on board pulling their weight, rejoining the workforce, gaining new skills. At the same time increasing of much skilled labour will create tension for new more creative and innovation in a self employment as Human being depends on each other
1) This will Creates Employment Opportunities for many Tanzanian ranging in Translation, Interpretation as the Nations will need almost many documents, Films, Documentary to be translated in Swahili
2) If Swahili language will fully be adopted may be an example of the potential of achieving a compromise of somewhat similar nature in other countries. Particularly other East African countries like Kenya, Democratic Rep. of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, wherein European languages have a strong hold.
Dear Tanzanians I am not promoting the use of Swahili to the exclusion of others. On the contrary, I believe multilingual societies are better placed to deal with the complexities of this world. What I am against is the exclusive use of foreign languages in Tanzania, which has, in effect, made many previously multilingual societies in Africa proficient in only one language -- and a foreign one (English or French) at that.
My insistence on using our mother tongue as the principal medium of Instruction is not simply a reaction against the Europeans or the Americans it is more about resurrecting the African soul from centuries of slavery and colonialism that left it spiritually empty, economically disenfranchised and politically marginalized. I believe that when you erase a people's language, you erase their memory. And people without memories are rudderless, unconnected to their own histories and culture, mimics who have placed their memories in a "psychic tomb" in the mistaken belief that if they master their colonizers language, they will own it.
I feel discomfort and more than convinced that by adopting foreign languages lock, stock and barrel, we are committing a "linguicide", which, in effect, has killed off their memories as a people, as a culture and as a society. Because erasure of memory is a condition for successful assimilation, the burial of African languages by Africans themselves ensured that the assimilation process into colonial culture was complete. We can calls this phenomenon a "death wish" that occurs in societies which have never fully acknowledged their loss -- like a trauma victim who resorts to drugs to kill the pain
The truly is we have never properly buried slavery or colonialism, it is committing psychic suicide by producing an entire class of Tanzanians bourgeoisie who view their own languages as "shameful", "inelegant", "incapable of expressing scientific or intellectual thought", and too crude to be exported to other lands. So we end up wring doctors prescriptions, Publishing Advertising, Enacting Laws in foreign languages, adding to the vast pool of literature written in English, rather than contributing to the growth of literature in Swahili.
Dear Tanzanians we all Friends, family in reality things are not the way they seems to be, everything we are doing now opens the door to decide the life we live and the life for our future generation sometime it is the smallest decisions that can change our life forever if life can not be acceptable it can easily be changed
God Bless Tanzania
Anthony Kassamali
