Focus Media (Kigali)
Rodrigue Rwirahira
30 November 2008
With Rwanda's adherence to the East African Community, knowledge of Swahili might be an important tool for anybody wanting to benefit from the advantages of regional integration.
"Swahili can be a major instrument to ensure better communication and enhance regional integration," remarked Simon Mayeka, the general treasurer of Chawakama, an organization for the promotion of the language, during a recent conference.
Chawakama stands for chama cha wanafunzi wanaosoma Kiswahili katika vyuo vikuu vya afrika ya mashariki, or organization of Swahili-speaking university students in the East African region. It was founded in 2004 in Arusha by Swahili lecturers and students.
"We wanted to create a network of all East African universities, where we share customs, cultures and opportunities, and of course promote Swahili in the whole region," Simon Mayeka says. "We are convinced that the language will facilitate communication and economic exchanges at the regional level."
It is for this reason that the organization decided to hold a conference in Kigali on the use of Swahili, according to Fidelis Kyarwenda, the secretary general of Chawakama-Tanzania. "We want to concentrate on Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, where Kiswahili is not as much used as in Kenya and Tanzania."
"We want to turn Kiswahili into the common language in EAC," Kyarwenda said.
For this reason, the secretary general remarked, they intend to organize a similar conference next year in Burundi.
The choice of venue for the Rwandan conference, the Kigali Institute of Education, was certainly no coincidence, he pointed out. "The institute is going to conceive methodologies of learning Swahili and apply them countrywide, and we hope that this will soon bear fruit."
Fidelis Kyarwenda added that removing the communication barrier in the region could also have wider social consequences, such as avoiding and solving conflicts, as well as comprehensive development.
Fabien Nzabandora, the chairperson of Chawakirwa, the Rwandan chapter of the organization, said they were very happy to host the conference. "We are sharing various ideas and experiences with our friends from Kenya and Tanzania who are more advanced in the use of Swahili, and we are determined to follow in their footsteps."
"We don't want to be landlocked in terms of communicating in Swahili," Nzabandora remarked. "So we intend to do all we can to enhance the learning of the language, starting at university level and going down to the local levels of our society."
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