“History is too important to be left to Historians alone”, so the gurus said. This is the month of June, 2023. The lovers of our country’s political history may be interested in this little piece of our country’s history; which is that on June 24th, 1963; Zanzibar was granted the status of “self-government” by the British colonial Authorities. This was the final constitutional step, on the way to Zanzibar’s independence.
Under the colonial system of governance; Zanzibar was categorised as a “Protectorate”, which meant ‘a country which was ruled by another Authority, but under British government protection’. And in the case of Zanzibar, that other ‘ruling Authority’ was the Arab Sultan.
Thus, according to the relevant historical records, the ‘Zanzibar Protectorate’ was granted that constitutional status on June 24th, 1963; and was soon followed by the granting of independence to that same Arab ruling Authority, on 10th December, 1963.
This record may help to provide a better understanding of the basic reason for the ‘glorious revolution’ which removed that imposed Sultan’s government, only a month later during the night preceding January 12th, 1964. In other words, it was a heroic rejection of this new form of colonialism.
However, this little piece is only a “curtain raiser”, before the main presentation, which will focus on a different matter whose title is “The progressive growth and development of Kiswahili as the language of communication in government business,” We will now direct our readers’ attention to that other matter.
We must first recognise and appreciate, the Kiswahili language’s positive critical role, and its immense contribution, to the relatively easy success of the liberation movement in Tanganyika in achieving the country’s independence from British colonialism; for it was this language which enabled Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, together with his TANU colleagues and associates; to reach all the areas of this geographically vast country, in order to deliver the ‘message of liberation from colonialism’ directly to the people living in those diverse areas, and belonged to more than a hundred different ethnic groups, each having its own language or dialect. But fortunately, at least the majority of them could understand these liberation messages that were delivered in Kiswahili.
The growth and development of Kiswahili.
In my article of last week in this column, I referred, albeit very briefly, to the directive that was issued by President Julius Nyerere, in January 1963, to all government establishments; to use Kiswahili, instead of English, in all official government business communications.
But this directive was not merely ‘whimsical’, or a sudden wish by President Nyerere to do something that was unusual or unnecessary. His was a well thought out design for the country’s transition to the official use of the national language in all the young nation’s government, and other public affairs transactions. This is clearly demonstrated by his decision to address the first Parliament in Kiswahili, on the occasion of its official opening under the new Republican constitution, on 10th December, 1962; which was quickly followed by the January directive referred to above.
Thus, it was in the process of implementing that directive, that the National Assembly formally resolved, on 12th February, 1963; to adopt Kiswahili as the official communication medium in our Legislature.
This was a complete departure from past practice, when all parliamentary proceedings had been conducted solely in English. Indeed, it is for that reason that it had become necessary to administer an oral “English language proficiency test” for those MPS who had been elected to the ‘Independence Parliament’, in September 1960, whose curriculum vitae showed that they had not completed even primary education. Bibi Titi Mohamed, who had been elected to represent the Rufiji constituency, was the only one who required to take this test, which she did, and passed.
As a result of this National Assembly resolution, we had to take fast action to look for appropriate Kiswahili words for the parliamentary technical words and phrases which had no Kiswahili equivalents at that material time. However, in some cases, this conversion to Kiswahili became a process of “trial and error”; in the sense that some of such technical names and phrases had no Kiswahili equivalents; a fact which made it necessary for us to invent, or create, our own such equivalents.
Thus, for example, we had to find a Kiswahili name for the institution itself, i.e. the ‘National Assembly’, or ‘Parliament’, for which we created the single word ‘BUNGE’. And for the description “Member of Parliament”, we adopted the word “Mbunge”. For the Honourable “Speaker”, we initially adopted the word “Khatibu”; but that was soon discarded, for being unsuitable. Instead of which we created the word “Spika”. We also had to find Kiswahili equivalents for phrases like the “Order Paper”, for which we adopted the words “Orodha ya Shughuli za Bunge”; “Government Bills”; for which we adopted the words “Miswada ya Sheria ya Serikali”; “Government Motions”, for which we adopted the phrase “Hoja za Serikali; et cetera.
Those were the humble beginnings of the use of the Kiswahili language, as a medium of communication in government business transactions. It has been a long journey, to where it is today; when it has been adopted as one of the official languages of communication in some of the international forums, such as the ‘East African Community’, the ‘Southern African Development Commission’, and the ‘African Union’.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s efforts in promoting Kiswahili
The story of the growth and development of Kiswahili would certainly be incomplete, without mentioning Mwalimu Nyerere’s personal role and efforts that he invested in its promotion.
His eagerness to promote Kiswahili, seems to have been partly based on his own sincere love for this language; and this is evidenced by his early adventures into the rather exclusive field of Kiswahili poetry; as well as in his astonishing efforts in translating some of the ancient scholarly and highly sophisticated works; namely the New Testament of the Holy Bible; and two of William Shakespeare’s famous Plays, Julius Caesar; and The Merchant of Venice. With regard to his adventures into Kiswahili poetry, I can vividly remember the piece which he penned in welcoming Tanganyika’s independence, which was appropriately titled “Kulikucha kuchele, na kulala kukomele”.
The publication which contains the Kiswahili version of the New Testament, is titled “Tenzi za Biblia”. .
And in respect of his astonishing efforts in translating these heavy, scholarly literature volumes; there are two aspects which are truly amazing. The first wonder, was just how he was able to render so many lines of dense Shakesperian old sixteenth century English verse, into Kiswahili.
This, perhaps, provides proof of the richness of the Kiswahili language, in the sense that it is capable of being used even in such highly sophisticated and scholarly undertakings. But the second wonder, was how he managed to get sufficient time for concentrating on these intellectually demanding tasks, when at the same time, he was already engaged heavily in the political business of liberating the country from British colonialism; plus putting the new nation on a proper footing, following the achievement of independence. But that was Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the founder President, and father of our nation.
But Kiswahili was not as a language of instruction in schools
We are, presumably, all aware of the serious discussions which are currently taking place regarding the use of Kiswahili as a language of instruction in the country’ education system. This same matter was also raised at one point during Mwalimu Nyerere’s presidency; and I happen to have been directly involved. It occurred during the preparations for a meeting of the TANU National Executive Committee, that was scheduled to be held in April, 1974; in Musoma.
This meeting had been convened, primarily for the purpose of giving consideration to proposals for some major reforms, that were intended to be introduced in the country’s entire education system, with the aim of achieving the goal of “Education for Self-Reliance” that had been announced in the 1967 ‘Arusha Declaration’ policies. That meeting was also expected to consider proposed reforms in the procedure for students admission to the University of Dar es Salaam, for that same purpose of incorporating the need for self-reliance at the tertiary education level.
I was then the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, and President Nyerere had asked me to prepare a ‘Discussion Paper’ which would help to guide the deliberations of that important meeting. The Minister of Education, Reverend Simon Chiwanga, had got wind of my assignment, so he asked me to include his Ministry’s proposal to make Kiswahili the medium of instruction in the country’s entire education system.
I of course obliged, and crafted it in the following words: “That Kiswahili shall be progressively introduced, to replace English as the medium of instruction, in the country’s entire education system, including the secondary and tertiary levels”. Thus, when my assignment had been done and completed, I submitted the final draft to Mwalimu Nyerere, for his scrutiny and approval, or other instructions.
That is when he called me to express his strong disapproval of Minister Chiwanga’s proposal. Therefore, I deleted it from the ‘Discussion Paper’ that was presented to the Musoma TANU NEC meeting.
But during the meeting itself, Mwalimu Nyerere disclosed that this proposal had been suggested to him, and explained why he had rejected it. “We cannot avoid training our students in English, for English is the Kiswahili of the world today; and we will only be doing irreparable harm to ourselves, if we remove it from our education system”; he said.
That position may probably have drastically changed by now; so we can only wait to see the outcome of the on-going discussions regarding this matter.
We may now return to the point of the vital contributions that Kiswahili has made generally; and look at the fundamental contribution which was made by Kiswahili in facilitating the country’s governance, which should also be properly appreciated. This was in respect of promoting public acceptance of new major development policies; and thus made their enforcement very much easier. This includes the new policy of Ujamaa, which was introduced by the “Arusha Declaration”, in February 1967; which introduced new words and phrases like: “Jitegemee, usiwe mnyonyaji, “usiwe kupe; or “Usiwe bepari, Ubepari ni Unyama”; et cetera.
All such words and phrases emerged spontaneously, and were being enthusiastically chanted especially among the youth; as a way of demonstrating their full support for the new ‘Arusha Declaration’ policies; and they greatly assisted in creating a clearer public understanding of the true meaning of these policies; and this greatly helped to generate higher compliance levels.
Enter President John Pombe Magufuli
It was the late President Magufuli who secured the acceptance by the Southern Africa Development Commission (SADCC) of Kiswahili to be used as one of its official languages of transacting its business. The late President John Pombe Magufuli was, apparently, also a keen lover of Kiswahili; for in his State Banquets which he hosted for Foreign Heads of State who visited Tanzania, he always proudly used Kiswahili in his welcoming speeches.
His contributions to the spread of Kiswahili to other countries include his efforts in ‘marketing’ Kiswahili in the countries which comprise the South African Development Commission (SADCC).
piomsekwa@gmail.com /0754767576.
