KISWAHILI REPRESENTS AN AFRICAN WORLD VIEW DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Kiswahili is the most widely used native language of Africa, the national and official language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and the official language for both the AFRICAN UNION and the EAST AFRICA COMMUNITY. In main land Tanzania and Zanzibar Kiswahili is the first language and medium of instruction in primary schools, this is due to the absence of Tribalism, influence of inter-marriage among native tribes, native tribes and foreigners especially along the coast of east Africa Kiswahili, also is used as Lingua franca of the Africa Continent spoken as second language and third language by millions of people in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, East Congo. There are also speakers in Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Malawi, Comoro Island, Somalia, Yemen and Omani as well as other parts of the world. Kiswahili is used in various radio broadcasting networks such as the BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION in particular BBC SWAHILI, VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), DEUTSCHELE WELLE (Germany), VOICE OF RUSSIA, RADIO CHINA INTERNATIONAL, RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONAL, RADIO SUDAN, RADIO SOUTH AFRICA, and RADIO JAPAN INTERNATIONAL to mention a few, besides Kiswahili is used in the local and international entertainment for example Tanzanians movies, songs, drama, poems and the lyrics for the song titled "Liberian girl" by late Michael Jackson has Swahili phrases: "Nakupenda pia, nakutaka pia, mpenzi we!" (I love you, and I want you, my dear!). There are many linguistic elements of Kiswahili which make the language suitable for the multi lingual African continent to be the language of Africa despite of many tribes languages, Kiswahili remain the dominant language of Africa due to its unique advancement in linguistic structure and spreading sphere of influence Kiswahili is a BANTU language of the Niger-Congo family and has typical complicated Bantu structure. For example Swahili utilize over 13 nouns classes, however Kiswahili has no linguistic origin in any of European languages but there are borrowed words from Portuguese, Arabic, German, French and English languages due to trade and colonialism Moreover due to its linguistic structure and spreading sphere of influence, Kiswahili among other many African tribe languages was chosen to be the official language the AFRICAN UNION and the EAST AFRICA COMMUNITY. This indicates that Africa has Kiswahili as unifying language that is different from European languages Tribalism and Colonial legacy influenced many African nations to use European languages as the national and official language. In Tanzania Kiswahili had become national language soon after the national independence hand in hand with establishment of the National Kiswahili Council for regulating Swahili language standards this lead to the Country (Tanzania) through her universities to offer academic programs in Kiswahili language for example Bachelor of arts in Kiswahili, Master of arts in Kiswahili and PHD in Kiswahili which is difficult to have PHD in other African tribe language. Kiswahili has the greatest number of speakers and is the most widely spread language in Africa since it is the National language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda also it has great number of speakers in East Congo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Somalia, Comoro Island and outside African continent in general there are over 140 millions of people speak Kiswahili, therefore the greatest the sphere of influence of Kiswahili in African counties influence other national to accept to be use in the AFRICAN UNION hence represent the African continent In final analysis, due to the influence of western cultures, intermarriage among African tribes, urbanizations, influx of foreigners and formal education in Africa, many African tribes’ language will slowly perish and few well establish languages like Kiswahili will survive as language to represent the language of African people Moreover, Tribalism in few African countries lead to the co-existence of two or more big antagonistic African tribes’ languages which pave the way to the European language to be their lingual frank at the national level as a result such European language become the dominant language. For example Kikuyu people versus Jaruo people in Kenya whereas English became their lingual frank and currently Kiswahili language. KARIBU TANZANIA TANZANIA THE LAND OF KILIMANJARO, SERENGENTI, ZANZIBAR By Christopher M. Masami (FLTA 2013/14 JSU) BA(Ed) UDSM, PGD – AF MUCCOBS
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 20:13:03 +0000
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