The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Arusha, Tanzania | Xinhua | The East African Community (EAC) Sectoral Council on Education, Science and Technology, Culture and Sports (SCESTCS) has adopted a roadmap for the implementation of Kiswahili and French as official languages of the bloc.
A statement issued late Tuesday by the EAC’s headquarters in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha said the SCESTCS adopted the roadmap at its 17th meeting held Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania.
The adoption of the roadmap for the use of Kiswahili and French as official languages of the bloc was part of the implementation of the directive of the 21st summit of the EAC heads of state that adopted Kiswahili and French as official languages of the EAC, read the statement.
Currently, the EAC has been using English as its official language.
The SCESTCS urged the EAC secretariat to expeditiously implement these roadmaps and undertake necessary capacity building and other requirements to facilitate the use of these languages in the official business of the regional bloc, said the statement.
The SCESTCS adopted the UNESCO declaration of July 7 as World Kiswahili Language Day and directed the EAC secretariat to include it in the calendar of activities as an annual EAC event. It also approved the inaugural EAC World Kiswahili Language Day to be celebrated in Zanzibar on July 7, 2022, under the coordination of the East African Kiswahili Commission, said the statement.
EAC member states are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Xinhua
It may be worth considering “East African English” and “East African French” and their various dialects as official languages of the EAC, and afford them the respect and official recognition they deserve as distinct, widely spoken languages in the EAC.
Years ago, there was a live televised broadcast from a Francophone African country in the aftermath of a coup d’etat, and the French translator on the international news channel was not able to accurately translate what was being said by the new military leadership in their dialect of French… not because the African had a poor command of the French language but because the translator had a poor command of the dialect of French spoken by the African while broadcasting their official statement. We need to officially name, own, recognize, and respect our own languages and their dialects.
Kiswahili, “East African English” instead of “English”, and
“East African French” instead of “French”.