South African politician Julius Malema is of the opinion that there should be a fresh drive to make Kiswahili the lingua franca of Africa.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader, who is the inspiration behind a number of memes on social media, believes that Kiswahili has the potential to revolutionise Africa if it is introduced and adapted into the curriculum of all non-speaking Kiswahili States across the continent.
“Swahili is the most practical language not because it is one of the big languages but because it is already being spoken in different countries. You might say Zulu is big but it is only spoken in South Africa but once you go with a language that is already in different countries then you are not going to start from zero,” said Malema in an interview with Standard Digital.
“So we have made a call for Swahili to be taught in schools and once we start teaching Swahili in South African schools we will be able to call all of the African content to teach the language.”
He went on to say that by making Kiswahili a bridge language, Africa will reduce its over-reliance on foreign languages in official communications while bringing the language to the global stage which will promote Pan Africanism.
“Once we have a common language that we can use to communicate amongst ourselves and not use the colonial language the unity of Africa is going to be easy. Now we are divided between the francophone and the anglophone colonial languages,” he said.
“Let’s push this language and make sure that we have got some starting point and the most practical thing to do now is to say let’s teach Swahili and encourage other countries to start teaching Swahili.”
His sentiments come just two days after the Ugandan government approved the adoption of Swahili as an official language and further directed for it to be made compulsory in schools.
In a statement on Tuesday, President Yoweri Museveni’s cabinet approved the recommendation that is said to be in line with the directive of the 21st East African Community (EAC) Summit held in February 2021 that called for Kiswahili to be embraced as an official language in the East African region.
English has been the only official language in Uganda ever since the nation gained independence in 1962.
