Identity Crisis Part 2 – Language

I am asked to give answers to the questions, “What is African? Who is African?” but I still don’t yet have the answers to, “What is Kenyan? Who is Kenyan?”

Ngugi wa Thiong’o recently wrote an article about our Kenyan languages and basically blamed the middle class for our lack of pride in them and the consequence of children with no knowledge of their mother-tongues. He has a point. A large section of the middle class cannot or do not speak their mother-tongue and most of their children cannot or do not speak it either.

The comments below the article are what got me. Lots of congratulatory messages for the article and a call for children to be taught mother-tongue in schools and return to our African roots and the lifting off of the veil that is neo-colonialism and so on was the basic rhetoric. Great suggestions but how to make all those nice dreams a reality? A little thinking it over and the impracticality of it becomes apparent. It’s one thing to give opinions on what should be done but it’s a whole other ball game to give solutions that can actually be implemented.

In the case of mother-tongues, the notion that children can be taught in mother-tongue in school is not practical. This is only applicable in the village schools and even then we need to think national. Here’s why:

• How would the teaching be done considering that a lot of schools have a multi-tribal class? Are we going to separate the children into their tribes to teach them? Isn’t that sowing tribalism?
• If we were to pick one language to teach them in, how would we pick it? Through majority? Isn’t that discrimination?
• Let’s be honest, our mother-tongues do not have a lot of words for scientific terms. How will that work?

Even if we just teach the children in mother-tongue for their formative years, the idea though well-intentioned is simply impractical. How do we begin to uplift mother-tongues in a practical way?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Parents have to get involved. Kenyans are always quick to ask teachers to teach their children things they themselves should be responsible for! My mother talked to us in mother-tongue. That’s how I learned! I will do the same for my children.
• With inter tribal marriages on the rise we should have multilingual children. You are Luo and your significant other Taita. Your child should speak both languages.
• Interest in our fellow Kenyans’ mother-tongues should be encouraged. What is stopping a Kikuyu from learning Luo and a Luo from learning Kikuyu?
• Since the middle-class is the affected party, they can afford to attend mother-tongue language classes. There are many of these classes available especially in Nairobi that cater for both adults and children in group classes or individual tuition.
• Kiswahili should be given more importance. Sure it’s considered a national language, but that’s just a formality. Its use should be actively encouraged. This will foster national cohesion and pride.
• If we must have mother-tongues taught in schools, I’d suggest it be offered as an optional language one can take up as we do with French, German and other languages. It should not be examinable but part of the extra-curricular activities offered in schools.

All in all, we have a rich cultural diversity in Kenya that we should take advantage of. Of course with globalization, cultures collide and change. The more reason we should be aware of what we already have as we move forward on the ever shifting cultural identities of the 21^st century.