During President Paul Kagame's recent interaction with the media, he stressed the need to teach the younger generation how to speak Kinyarwanda properly. He went on to give examples of common mistakes made by mostly the young. What a timely conversation!
In February this year, Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy (RCHA, Inteko y'umuco) released results from research that examined the use of languages in Rwanda's capital Kigali. Unsurprising but unfortunate, Kinyarwanda was only used on 15 percent of directory signs. Those in English were 42.6 percent, four percent in French, and 1.2 percent were in Swahili.
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This is unfortunate for a country that has only one unifying native language- as the national anthem goes- which is spoken by almost all its population. So what went wrong? Why can't the young speak Kinyarwanda when it is a given that they should?
Kinyarwanda should be invested in and its usage sensitized highly, like other important campaigns. The young, who are the "Rwanda rw'ejo" like we call it, cannot give what they don't have to their children. If nothing is done, we are heading in a bad place where our language, which is also our identity, will not have meaning.
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As the young are encouraged to learn, the older generation should make it their mission to teach them and highly encourage it. Schools should do the same. "Vernacular" is not shameful, it should be our pride. There is no worse path to head than self-alienation as a nation, and it is everyone's responsibility to stop that from happening.
As we also do this, investment in Kinyarwanda should also be done in research to decolonize the language, which is evident in writing and speaking. For a language that goes back to the 15th century in speaking and a little over 100 years ago in writing, it is important that Rwandans examine the impact that colonialism may have had on the language.
But all this will only be achieved if the language is taken with the seriousness it deserves.
Finally, like the President stated, the media must rise up to the occasion. We command a lot of influence within communities and it is very important that we leverage on this to promote our mother tongue.
