Mother tongue and English have their place

Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o recently gave a public lecture at Kenyatta University aptly titled “African Languages in Devolution”.

The literary giant wondered why parents are nowadays proud that their children cannot speak mother tongue but are fluent in foreign languages with “imported accents”.

Time and again Prof Ngugi has belaboured the value of mother tongue. Those who have followed his writings are familiar with the efforts he has made to push this agenda, including publishing some of his fiction in his mother tongue.

Kenyans prefer to use mother tongue at home and English and Kiswahili in public. A commentary I wrote in 2013 in this newspaper drew angry reactions from some people, who argued that asking counties to adopt vernacular as the official language is outrageous. I insist, like Prof Ngugi, that use of mother tongue in the public domain is the missing link in our development efforts.

In his lecture, Prof Ngugi pays homage to mother tongue while ignoring the overwhelming presence of English and Kiswahili in our society. Many parents in Kenya would approve if their children learnt mother tongue, but they definitely feel better if the children learnt English and Kiswahili.

There is nothing wrong with this state of affairs because human beings make use of language and not the other way round. Isn’t social interaction a kind of exchange during which pragmatic choices are made?

Most Kenyans will, therefore, continue to learn English and Kiswahili for two good reasons: the need to expand their social networks and to gain access to resources. Prof Ngugi forgets that preference of a language of “wider communication” is a necessary step in mitigating the adverse effects of limited opportunity. Consequently, failing to learn one’s mother tongue is not by free will; it is actually a consequence of circumstantial compulsion.

Like it or not, knowledge of English, Kiswahili, or even Sheng is an investment from which returns such as a good bargain, ease of administration, lower costs of consumption, and efficiency in negotiation accrue.

We are attracted to these languages because of the opportunities available to us through them. How much value do we get from speaking mother tongue other than the communicative function it plays within our speech communities and the other clumsy fact that it feels good to speak it.

In this age of devolution, however, it would be best to mainstream our mother tongues by legislating their visibility alongside English and Kiswahili at county assembly level.

Since we failed to fix a minimum level of education to be attained by MCA candidates — and we will not change that any time soon — we need to allow those proficient in neither English nor Kiswahili to use regional languages during debate.

The physical exchanges that break out in county assemblies are in part the result of the frustration of those who feel excluded when debate is conducted in English or Kiswahili, in which they are not proficient.

Dr Obiero teaches linguistics at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. [email protected]