Ugandan government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo P’Odel has denounced a viral social media about the adoption of Swahili in his country post as fake news. The post was circulated with the intention to “cause alarm and hate,” tweeted Uganda’s Media Centre Executive Director.
In a viral post circulating on social media platforms, the Ugandan Government spokesperson, Mr. Ofwono Opondo is quoted declaring that speaking the Luganda language in schools is banned with immediate effect. KiSwahili would be used in schools and public places instead, claimed the statement.
The viral post made reference to the Ugandan government’s decision to effect Swahili as an official language in the East African country. It is after the motion received cabinet approval in July that the Uganda Media Centre Executive Director, Ofwono Opondo is then said to have made the statement.
The adoption of the law was a surprise to many and is said to have sparked off a series of discussions that evidenced an information gap in understanding the impact of the new legislation. Common were questions such as what kind of Kiswahili would be used in schools, and the relevance of the Bantu language in African integration and unity.
Some proponents concluded the government’s aggressive implementation of Swahili would be a political ploy. Others viewed the Ugandan government’s approach as the same as imposing a foreign language on millions of ethnically and culturally diverse African people, a mere repetition of colonialism. According to most, Swahili would be a threat to Luganda as well as thousands of other dialects spoken across the continent and beyond.
One thing remained clear Pan Africanist circles have reaffirmed Swahili is central to regional integration and unity which are prerequisites to the African Union’s development plan, Agenda 2063.
After the African Union declared Swahili an official working language in 2021, the Ugandan cabinet justified making Swahili instruction in primary and secondary schools obligatory, as a move towards integration and uniting the region. The East African Community (EAC) bloc ordered member nations to adopt the language to facilitate communication, according to a tweet from the Ugandan cabinet.
With around 200 million speakers worldwide, Swahili has its roots in East Africa primarily in Kenya and Tanzania. It is one of the ten most commonly spoken languages on the continent from sections of Somalia all the way down to Southern Africa and parts of Central Africa, people speak this language and its dialects.
