Government plans to make Kiswahili an optional subject is a reflection of days when Kiswahili was treated as a preserve for the "low class".
Those are bygone times and no amount of retrogression can reverse seeds planted decades ago that flowered and bore fruits at the international level.
Kenya National Examinations Council’s move to make Kiswahili optional is disrespectful and unjustifiable. Throughout the Kiswahili historiography, critics have tried in vain to reduce it to nothing through retrogressive policies.
In a rejoinder, language scholars have expressed disbelief at the move and vowed to fight it to the bitter end. Head of Kiswahili faculty, Moi University, Nathan Ogechi describes the move as step backward.
Prof Kimani Njogu, the Chakita chairperson,says Kiswahili is a mode of communication and gives one a sense of belonging. It is also a form of cultural expression and carrier of history. According to him, the language plays a role in resisting injustices and regenerating meaningful and ecologically balanced lives
If the Knec move is anything to go by, our education system is in jeopardy. The plan has nothing to do with bettering the rights and interests of the disadvantaged group but a colonial mentality.
Significant strides
Experts’ opinion is that the move should be revoked and Knec seeks advice on how best to incorporate sign language in the curriculum.
Kiswahili has registered significant strides at the global level. And users are neither illiterate nor low- class so to speak.
In southern Africa, Kiswahili was treated as lingua franca due to common hatred against the apartheid and the Portuguese imperialism.
In the African perspective, Nigeria novelist Wole Sonyinka’s dream came to pass in 2000 when Kiswahili was adopted a lingua franca (symbiotic communication and interrelation) of the 54 African member states.
Mozambique president Joachim Chisano five years ago, while handing over African Union chairmanship, delivered his speech in Kiswahili.
Reports also have it that Libya and Rwanda advertised posts for Kiswahili teachers. Egypt is also said to have more than 300 Kiswahili students.
According to Dr Makoti Said of Moi University, Kiswahili has in the recent past been embraced by magazines, radio stations, Internet, journals ,books and that there are more than 150 universities across the globe teaching Kiswahili. He says there are Kiswahili radio stations in Japan, Iran, Moscow, VOA, BBC, Saudia, China and Germany.
In 1990, Unesco embraced Kiswahili as one of the core languages of the world.
In England a, the universities of London, Cambridge and York offer Kiswahili lectures.
Interestingly, Germany , South Korea , Japan and China have incorporated Kiswahili subjects into their curricula. It is also worth noting that in 2005, Kiswahili experts from the US and Africa translated more than 650,000 technical glossaries from English to Kiswahili.
The language is spoken in South Somalia, Comoro Islands, north Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar and Southern Sudan.
{Onwong’a Yabesh, Nairobi}
