1
Tara Reyelts
Abdulai Iddrisu
Integrative Studies 391
1 May 2014
English as a Colonizing Tool in East Africa
Preface
As an aspiring historian, an English major, and a creator of the individual major African
Culture & Colonialism, I have endeavored to integrate the curricula of History, English, and
African Studies into a meaningful independent research project. I studied abroad in Tanzania for
the month of January 2013 with a St. Olaf English class. After journeying across northern
Tanzania, meeting with locals in different cities and towns, and reading literature written by
Ernest Hemingway as well as Kenyan and Tanzanian authors, I became interested in the colonial
influences of the English language on East Africa.
I spent the past eight months researching the issue of language as a colonizing tool,
comparing the situations in Kenya and Tanzania. While I have certainly not exhausted the topic
in my paper, I have provided, I hope, a novel perspective – one of an English scholar, one who is
intrigued by both literature and history – to the discourse of the relationship of language and
colonialism in East Africa. Many scholars address the history of economic or social factors
related to this discourse, and some even focus heavily on East African literature written in
English. I, however, offer a survey of different perspectives including psychology, history,
political science, literature, and linguistics. I seek to add to the discussion on colonialism,
explaining the strategies that the British implemented to colonize bodies and minds. I also
explain in this paper a paradox that extant scholarship seems to neglect: the acute differences
2
between post-colonial Kenya and Tanzania. To be clear I adamantly oppose colonialism, and the
British colonialism I examine in this paper is no exception.
Abstract
This paper addresses the ways in which British colonization implemented the English
language in British East Africa (present-day Kenya and Tanzania). It draws on scholarship,
literature, and primary sources regarding the relationships of language and colonialism generally
as well how it specifically pertains to twentieth century East Africa. Missionaries paved the way
for colonialism, and from the outset language played a decisive role in colonial policy. Both
English and Kiswahili were utilized to subjugate the indigenous peoples of East Africa. The
independent states of Kenya and Tanzania struggled and still struggle with language-related
issues due to the potency of the British colonial legacy in the post-colonial era. Although both
colonized by the British, Kenya and Tanzania endured different colonial and post-colonial
situations, especially regarding language policy.
Introduction: Burgeoning Colonialism
I recently visited Tanzania for a study abroad term. When the plane landed in Arusha I
clung to my English-Swahili dictionary as if letting go would precipitate a catastrophe. I rapidly
searched through its pages to find a suitable Swahili phrase with which to greet and thank our
van drivers who were waiting in the terminal for our class of thirty St. Olaf students. I kept
repeating habari, habari, habari in my mind, trying to loose my American accent. When we
approached our drivers they exclaimed, “Good evening, friends! How are you? How was your
flight?” in clearly enunciated English. Shamefully, I admit I was surprised. Throughout the
3
month I spent in Tanzania almost every Tanzanian I encountered spoke English, even in rural
villages. I began to wonder why so many people knew English, and I realized a disturbing truth:
colonial legacies still persist in much of Africa. This paper interrogates the legacy of colonialism,
examining how English became and remained prevalent and influential in East Africa. How can
a foreign language gain such power? What factors allowed British colonialism to flourish in
Africa? What ideologies and practices create colonialism? For Africanist scholars such as
Goncharov, “the colonial régime is a monopoly exercised by the bourgeoisie of an imperialist
country, based on economic and extra-economic pressure in a dependent country.1” Colonialism
is a monopoly exercised by the leaders of an imperialist country – often via economic pressures –
over a dependent country or territory. It is based on the premise that one nation or social group is
inherently better than the one being invaded and controlled.
Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o delineates the exploitative nature of colonialism:
Over the last four hundred years the developments in the West have not just been
the result of internal social dynamics, but also their relationship with Africa, Asia
and South America. But both the internal relationships within them and their
external relations with Africa, Asia and South America, have not been those of
equality but of dominance and domination at the economic, political and cultural
levels.2
How does one social group assert such control over another? The British, French, Belgians, and
other Europeans imposed their languages on Africans they colonized. If the colonizer forces a
group of people to speak and write in his language, the colonizer can teach them how and what
1
Goncharov, L. “New Forms of Colonialism in Africa.” The Journal of Modern African Studies,
Vol. 1, No. 4, 1963. pp. 467-474. Web 5 Dec. 2013. pp. 467.
2
Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Moving the Center: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. London: James
Curry Ltd., 1993. Print. pp. 27-28.
4
to think – to think like him and to ascribe to his ideologies. English was used as a tool to force
indigenous inhabitants of British East Africa (specifically present-day Kenya and Tanzania) to
assimilate to British culture and to follow British rule. I purposefully do not say that the British
used English as a tool for assimilation, but rather I use the passive form: “English was used as a
tool.” This is because some of the individuals that first influenced the dissemination of English in
East Africa did not have colonizing motives (although they did have proselytizing ones). Most of
these individuals were Christian missionaries from Europe who wanted to spread Christianity
and teach the Bible to Africans they encountered, a task in which language was critical.
This missionary work, particularly in East Africa, opened the door for colonial authorities
with less laudable agendas to intervene in African affairs. Furthermore, even after the British left
the region, the English language could not be simply replaced by an indigenous or quasiindigenous language such as Swahili. The colonizing effects of English lingered in East Africa
long after the British withdrew. English quickly developed into a juggernaut beyond the control
of any single individual or nation. Colonialism is unethical – that is uncontestable. However, the
main goal of this paper is not to judge the immorality of British colonialism; rather, I focus on
how and why the British used language to dominate and colonize East Africa. I also examine the
extent to which English, Swahili, and indigenous African languages were and are still used in
post-colonial Kenya and Tanzania. Language possesses greater power than many realize.
Frantz Fanon rightly states, “A man who has a language consequently possesses the
world expressed and implied by that language.3” Fanon, one of the most influential thinkers and
writers who contributed to Post-colonial theory, asserts that because language is woven into most
aspects of life – communication, identity, culture, business, etc. – it is one of the most influential
3
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove, 1967. Print. pp. 18.
5
tools, and weapons, that human beings can wield. In the case of British East Africa, colonial
authorities subjugated a large territory and large groups of people by forcing them to live in a
society dictated by the English language.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o corroborates with Fanon’s emphasis on language: “The choice of
language and the use(ses) to which language is put is central to a people’s definition of
themselves in relation to their natural and social environment, indeed in relation to the entire
universe.4” One of the most effective ways to physically oppress a people is to first oppress them
mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Missionaries, whether or not they intended to, initiated this
process by converting many Africans to Christianity. The British sought to dispirit the Maasai,
Kikuyu, Kamba, Kisii, Luo, and other tribes by dismantling their traditional sense of identity. By
teaching them English and coercing them to work in British-owned coffee and cotton plantations,
they alienated Africans from their tribal or ethnic languages and activities – essentially making
them less African and more British. Ngũgĩ also expresses in his famous book Decolonising the
Mind that “language was the most important vehicle through which that power fascinated and
held the soul prisoner. The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the
means of the spiritual subjugation.5”
Education as a Colonizing Effort
Interestingly, the British did not initially impose the English language on Africans.
Rather, Swahili (officially referred to as Kiswahili) was promoted “as the language of
communication in East Africa,” which “led the British colonial authorities in 1930 to establish an
4
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiongʼo. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature.
London: J. Currey, 1986. Print. pp. 4.
5
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiongʼo. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature.
London: J. Currey, 1986. Print. pp. 9.
6
inter-territorial committee to oversee full utilization of the language.6” Swahili was the lingua
franca in much of East and Central Africa prior to European colonization, because it was a
language that various ethnic groups could use to communicate for trade and other inter-tribal
relations. The British used the existing prevalence of Swahili as the gateway for implementing
English teaching in colonial schools. If the British could regulate the use of Swahili and
encourage its use among the hundreds of different ethnic groups in East Africa, especially in
schools, and create a type of uniformity, then the British would later incorporate English into the
curricula. Perhaps this system was supported by the philosophy that Africans were more likely to
agree to speak a common language if it was Kiswahili rather than a completely foreign,
European language. Furthermore, it is easier to teach English to a group of Swahili speakers than
it is to teach English to a group of people who have no common language. Thus in primary
school, Kenyan and Tanzanian children were taught in Swahili, but in secondary school they
were taught in English. The British only used Swahili in education as a intermediary step to
ultimately impose English.
Swahili is an important “language of wider communication” in Africa, which linguistics
scholar Joseph Errington describes as a “non-native, non-European languag[e] of power.7” A
language of wider communication can bridge the gaps between European languages and some
African languages. Sadly, Swahili was used as a vehicle for driving out African languages.
Although Swahili may seem like an indigenous African language that represents a pure African
identity, it was actually a language of colonization that developed from Arab trade and
6
Biswalo, Tage A. “Policy Processes in Relation to Language in Tanzania: Examining Shifts in
Language Policy,” PhD Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010. Web 23 Oct.
2013. pp. 32.
7
Errington, Joseph. Linguistics in a Colonial World: A Story of Lange, Meaning, and Power.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print. pp. 124.
7
conquering that occurred on the East African coast long before Europeans arrived. Still, Swahili
is considered an African language. Swahili was a language of wider communication that was
used in similar ways by different European colonizers.
It is noteworthy that European colonialism plagued much of the African continent in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I fact, in 1884, several European powers met in Berlin to
divide up Africa into colonies. This conference catalyzed the infamous “Scramble for Africa,”
through which the British gained control of a large section of the continent. Several European
colonizers used pre-existing languages of wider communication as a primary step in the process
of imposing a European language. For example, in his book, Language and Colonial Power: The
Appropriation of Swahili in the Former Belgian Congo, 1880-1938, Johannes Fabien explains,
“from the point of view of the [Belgian] colonial administration and of industrial-commercial
interests in Katanga, Swahili was above all a means to implement certain labor policies.8”
The British took advantage of Swahili in a similar fashion, training Africans in Swahili in
order to replace lower-echelon white workers in menial jobs. During British colonial rule in
Tanzania, “the objective of education at that time was to prepare a few Africans for work in the
civil service and to help create an African elite that could use English as a working language.9”
The British educated some Africans just enough to fill entry-level positions in agricultural and
industrial work. These lower-class laborers were distinguished by speaking Swahili rather than
their ethnic languages. In this way, Swahili was portrayed as “better” or closer to European than
other African languages were. This formed a hierarchy of language, intended to motivate
Africans to learn Swahili and then English. This hierarchy was one motivating factor for
8
Fabian, Johannes. Language and Colonial Power: The Appropriation of Swahili in the Former
Belgian Congo, 1880-1938. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Print. pp. 137.
9
Roy-Campbell, Zaline M., and Martha A. S. Qorro. Language Crisis in Tanzania: The Myth of
English versus Education. Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki Na Nyota, 1997. Print. pp. 1.
8
language shift in East Africa: “Language shift, also known as language transfer, is a process
whereby an individual or a speech community reduces the functions of their native language or
even stops using it all together and replaces it with another language.10” Native African
languages such as Kikuyu or Kisii were reduced in function and therefore in value, because
British officials offered Africans wage-earning positions that necessitated Swahili or English
rather than ethnic languages.
Even though colonialism had some minute benefits for East Africa – technological
advancement, international commerce, and education – colonialism is still unethical and
problematic. Negritude writer and politician Aimé Césaire stated, “wherever there are colonizers
and colonized face to face, I see force, brutality, cruelty, sadism, conflict, and, in a parody of
education, the hasty manufacture of a few thousand subordinate functionaries, ‘boys,’ artisans,
office clerks, and interpreters necessary for the smooth operation of business.11”
Not only was the ultimate goal of colonizing and conquering Africans the reason why
colonialism is condemnable. The ways in which education was offered, or rather forced, on
young pupils was horrifying. For example, Ngũgĩ describes his secondary school experiences in
colonial Kenya:
I have told of instances of children being punished if they were caught speaking
their African languages. We were often caned or made to carry plaques inscribed
with the words “I am an ass”. In some cases, our mouths were stuffed with pieces
of paper picked from the wastepaper basket, which were then passed from one
10
Mutiga, Jayne. “Effects of Language Spread on a People’ Phenomenology: The Case of
Sheng’ in Kenya.” Journal of Language, Technology & Entrepreneurship in Africa, 4.1 (2013):
1-14. pp. 7.
11
Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. Translated by Joan Pinkham (1972): 1-31. pp. 6.
9
mouth to that of the latest offender. Humiliation in relation to our languages was
the key.12
Teachers in colonial schools were largely European colonists and they sought to sever the young
students’ ties to their cultural heritage and therefore their families and communities. Is the cost of
formal education or learning English worth this abuse? As Ngũgĩ notes, some students struggled
to consistently converse in English, since habit caused many to speak in their African languages.
However, the exceptionally educated Africans (in the eyes of the colonizer), excelled at
English and were usually sent to England for higher learning in universities. When these
educated individuals returned to East Africa, they were often given government positions as
village or district officials – liaisons between the colonial government and its subjects. These
individuals, often referred to as the educated elite, were usually despised by rural or lesseducated Africans. A rift formed between the educated few (upper class) and the oppressed many
(lower classes) – a relationship fueled by animosity and mistrust from both sides. This
dichotomy persisted after independence as noted by two educated Kenyan immigrants to the
United States. While studying at university and working in Nairobi, Kenya in the 1980s and
1990s, they noticed this rift between their peers, on the one hand, and less educated members of
their natal communities on the other13.
Tanzanian author Peter K. Palangyo offers an example of an educated elite in his 1969
novel, Dying in the Sun. One character, James, returns to Tanzania after being educated abroad
(presumably in England). The narrator condescendingly points out James’ arrogance: “He would
for instance quote an obscure politician’s speech without the least provocation to some awed old
12
Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Moving the Center: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. London: James
Curry Ltd., 1993. Print. pp. 33.
13
Marigi, Alexander, and Elizabeth Marigi. Personal interview. 19 Jan. 2014.
10
men as he discussed his village development plans with them.14” Although James is a colonized
African, he acts like a British colonizer, wanting to develop and educate his former village.
Ironically, as Ali A. Mazrui and Alamin M. Mazrui explain, colonial intellectuals “are the most
alienated party because they yearn to be the most assimilated.15” Many educated elites emulate
their colonizers, aspiring for recognition as equals. However, when these educated Africans
realize that the colonizer will not grant recognition of their tantamount intellect or humanity,
their disillusionment leads to alienation – from the colonizer and from other Africans.
Frantz Fanon comments on this phenomenon of the educated African: “The colonized
intellectual has thrown himself headlong into Western culture. Like adopted children who only
stop investigating their new family environment once their psyche has formed a minimum core
of reassurance, the colonized intellectual will endeavor to make European culture his own.16”
Even though the educated elites were largely despised by rural Tanzanians in the late colonial
and post-colonial eras, many people (especially in urban centers) still aspired to learn English
and receive Western education. Political Scientist David Kimble remarks, “English became the
language of government, of overseas trade, and, in particular, of the schools. Education, to many
people, came to mean simply the ability to speak and write English. It was both the gateway to
opportunity and the main medium of communication between educated Africans of different
tribes.17”
14
Palangyo, Peter K. Dying in the Sun. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, 1969. Print. pp. 16.
Mazrui, Ali A., and Alamin M. Mazrui. The Power of Babel: Language & Governance in the
African Experience. Oxford, England: J. Currey, 1998. Print. pp. 61.
16
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth; Trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove, 2004.
Print. pp. 156.
17
Kimble, David. A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism 1850-1928.
London: Oxford University Press, 1963. Print. pp. 510.
15
11
English received varying levels of esteem throughout the colonial period, but it seemed to
reach a zenith near the end of the era. Zaline M. Roy-Campbell and Martha A.S. Qorro explain
this in their book, Language Crisis in Tanzania: The Myth of English versus Education:
In the 1940s and 1950s English was the language of the rulers and a symbol of
power wielded by the politicians. The governor, the provincial commissioner
(PC), and the district commissioner (DC) all used English...This situation may
have very likely provided integrative motivation for learning English. A learner is
said to be integratively motivated when he/she wished to identify with users of the
target language.18
In fact, English was so revered during the 1940s and 1950s in Tanzania (called Tanganyika at the
time) that any language other than English was banned in schools. Palangyo, Fanon, Kimble,
Roy-Campbell and Qorro all seem to agree that, unfortunately, in colonial and post-colonial
Africa, Westernization and the English language were signs of prestige.
British Strategy: Divide and Conquer
Not only did the relative popularity of English fluctuate in East Africa, but also British
interactions with Africans differed among the different tribes. For example, in colonial Kenya,
British relations with the Maasai were significantly more hostile than with the Kikuyu. British
colonization generally followed the dictates of Indirect Rule in which British colonial authorities
granted titles and limited power to existing chiefs and other indigenous leaders. Through this
system, the British would pass down laws and judgments to the masses of colonized people. For
18
Roy-Campbell, Zaline M., and Martha A. S. Qorro. Language Crisis in Tanzania: The Myth of
English versus Education. Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki Na Nyota, 1997. Print. pp. 116.
12
example, African history and British colonialism scholar Robert L. Tignor describes the
immense authority that the British distributed to Kikuyu chiefs:
In these early British-African contacts when coercion was overt and physical,
Kikuyu colonial chiefs played a decisive role in compelling people to shoulder
unpopular burdens. The chiefs were, for many years, the principal labor recruiters
in the Kikuyu districts, rounding up young men and sending them under guard to
work destinations. They also supplied some of the first school children to mission
schools.19
The British favored the Kikuyu and often made their chiefs rulers who presided over not
only their own tribes but also other tribes such as the Maasai, Luo, and Kamba. Tignor continues
to state that unlike the Kikuyu, the “Kamba and Maasai did not establish powerful collaborating
chiefs.20” This raises the question of why the British favored the Kikuyu over other ethnic
groups. The British broke more than one treaty with the Maasai, forcing them into one
reservation after another and building the new Uganda Railway through the best Maasai grazing
grounds in the Great Rift Valley.21 For these reasons, the Maasai developed animosity toward
and mistrust of the British who intruded on their land.
The breaking of treaties and establishment of reservations began at the beginning of the
twentieth century; thereafter, the Maasai refused to cooperate with British rule. This is one
reason why the British did not implement Maasai chiefs as indirect rulers like they did with
Kikuyu chiefs. Also noteworthy is that the Maasai were nomadic and the Kikuyu were sedentary.
19
Tignor, Robert L. The Colonial Transformation of Kenya: The Kamba, Kikuyu, and Maasai
from 1900 to 1939. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976. Print. pp. 7.
20
Tignor, Robert L. The Colonial Transformation of Kenya: The Kamba, Kikuyu, and Maasai
from 1900 to 1939. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976. Print. pp. 7.
21
Hughes, Lotte. Moving the Maasai: A Colonial Misadventure. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2006. Print. pp. 15.
13
The British preferred the Kikuyu over the Maasai because the Kikuyu were easier to
geographically and physically survey and, therefore, to control. Perhaps it was not just the
Maasai refusing to cooperate with the British; possibly the British never wanted to implement
Indirect Rule through Maasai chiefs because they could not monitor them as closely or control
them as easily as they could sedentary tribes.
Post-colonial Era: Neo-colonialism
The British reigned in East Africa for decades, but in the 1960s Kenya and Tanzania both
gained independence and the process of decolonization began. Although Frantz Fanon was
correct in most of his predictions relating to decolonization in Africa, I disagree with him on one
major point. At the beginning of The Wretched of the Earth, originally published in 1961 (the
same year that Tanzania gained independence and two years before Kenya did), Fanon claims
that a tabula rasa “from the outset defines any decolonization.22” Yet, for Kenya and Tanzania a
tabula rasa – a blank slate or total starting over – was not feasible. When each country won its
independence from Britain, it did not rid itself of colonialism, not really. One obvious reminder
of the long reign of colonialism was the English language that persisted into the post-colonial
period. The misleading title of this era – post-colonial – is ironically characterized by neocolonialism, which is a colonial nuance in which a one nation uses subtle forms of capitalist and
cultural imperialism to oppress another.
As Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah posits, in the transition from colonial rule to
independent African societies, little actually changes. In his novel, The Beautiful Ones are Not
Yet Born, Armah depicts with the following metaphor the corruption that still exists in many
22
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth; Trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove, 2004.
Print. pp. 1.
14
African nations today: you can change the driver but the same rickety car will still steer in the
same direction.23 At the time of independence, the governing power in several African nations
was handed from white colonizers to educated, sometimes greedy or self-aggrandizing African
political figures. Just because a black African is in charge does not prove that oppression and
corruption will suddenly desist. The Congo’s (or Zaire’s) former president Mobutu Sese Seko is
a compelling example of this corruption, but less severe examples are some Kenyan and
Tanzanian politicians.
Some scholars point to the continuation of speaking and teaching English in East Africa
to show that little has changed from the colonial to the post-colonial era. The issue of the English
language in Kenya and Tanzania is complicated: it represents corruption, colonization, and
oppression but it also opens the door to higher education, international commerce, and power.
The question of what language or languages should be taught, used, and given official status was
no doubt debated in both Kenya and Tanzania; however, each nation dealt with the debate
differently.
Ironically, independent Kenya, which suffered under colonialism and waged a bloody
revolution against the British, almost immediately accepted English into its schooling, trade, and
politics; conversely, independent Tanzania, which was not as severely oppressed as colonial
Kenya and which achieved independence from the British relatively peacefully, adamantly
opposed English for many years. This is a paradox that extant scholarship to my knowledge has
not fully explained. However, I posit that the explanation lies in the difference between Kenya’s
and Tanzania’s domestic ethnic relationships, which I will expound later in this paper.
23
Armah, Ayi Kwei. The Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1968. Print.
15
Although English was a strong source of colonial power that still reigned in post-colonial
East Africa, Swahili was a strong source of anti-colonial (anti-European), national fervor.
Swahili was perhaps most powerful during the years just before independence. In fact, “during
the 1950s when former [Tanzanian] President Julius Nyerere began his campaign for political
independence, Kiswahili emerged as the unifying language and became an important tool for
mass mobilization throughout the entire country.24” Both Kenyans and Tanzanians rallied for
independence, using Swahili as the common language to communicate political messages and
bolster sentiments of African nationalism, freedom, and unity.
There are several reasons why Kenyans were able to unite in the bloody struggle for
independence and to continue that unity after freedom was obtained. Swahili was a major player
even though it was not made an official language until 1974. Author Lyndon Harries states that
the first Kenyan president, Jomo Kenyatta, was “reported as saying, ‘A nation without culture is
dead, and that is why I decreed that Swahili would be the national language25.’” This was a
strategically skewed political statement since Swahili was not the best representation of Kenyan
culture: Kiswahili was not the first language for most Kenyans and few Kenyans belonged to the
Swahili ethnic group.
In the same article, “The Nationalization of Swahili in Kenya,” Harries explains the
underlying reasons why Kenyatta felt it necessary to declare Swahili a national language. Harries
says that “to make Swahili the national language is to make a political declaration in favour of
what is African however unfamiliar Swahili may be to Kenyans,” and, “if an African language is
24
Rwezaura, B. “Constraining Factors to the Adoption of Kiswahili as a Language of the Law in
Tanzania.” African Adaptation Programme vol. 37, 1994. pp. 109-126. Web 4 Jan. 2014. pp.
111.
25
Harries, Lyndon. “The Nationalization of Swahili in Kenya.” Language in Society, Vol. 5, No.
2. Cambridge University Press, 1976. pp 153-164. Web 9 Nov. 2013. pp. 155.
16
to be chosen as the national language, then it must be a politically neutral language, and Swahili
at present happens to be such a language26.” Swahili was the lingua franca of East Africa and
was not associated with any of the major ethnic groups in independent Kenya, so it was a
politically neutral and applicable language for politics and basic education in Kenya.
Contrasting Post-colonial Kenya and Tanzania
Kenya needed an ethnically neutral language because choosing one of the main ethnic
languages would have increased district and ethnic tensions. Thus, both English and Swahili
were used. In her 1970 book, The Politics of Independent Kenya 1963-8, Cherry Gertzel states,
“District self-consciousness was heightened by the significant economic and social differences
that existed between the tribal groups. This was particularly marked between the Kikuyu, the
most economically developed and politically conscious people, on the one hand, and the
economically less developed pastoral and coastal peoples on the other.27” This addresses tensions
that the British created among different ethnic groups, which still lingered after Kenya’s
independence. The British fostered animosity and competition among different ethnic groups by
favoring certain tribes, like the Kikuyu, and dismissing others, like the Maasai. Tensions among
different ethnic groups were exacerbated in the colonial era by the British; paradoxically, the
same tensions were mitigated by the unity in the post-colonial era of a common language and
coexistence in cities introduced and created in large part by the British.
Strains in Kenya did not only exist along ethnic lines: generation gaps were also a factor.
The issue of a cultural disconnect between older generations that experienced colonial rule and
26
Harries, Lyndon. “The Nationalization of Swahili in Kenya.” Language in Society, Vol. 5, No.
2. Cambridge University Press, 1976. pp 153-164. Web 9 Nov. 2013 pp. 156.
27
Gertzel, Cherry. The Politics of Independent Kenya 1963-8. London: Heinemann Educational
Books Ltd., 1970. Print. pp. 9.
17
younger generations that were born and raised after Kenyan independence seems to stem from
language. For example, Kenyan satirist Wahome Mutahi notes, “Kiswahili is the national
language and for reasons other than to sound official and national, my children speak the two
languages at the same time. They call the language ‘sheng’, which is a curious hybrid of the two
languages.28” This cultural integration combines English and Swahili, which Kenyan youth seem
to do naturally. Perhaps the younger generations are more willing to accept both Western and
African cultures because they are not haunted by memories of the colonial past or the stigma of
the English language with which colonialism is associated.
Colonization and the English language in Kenya forced various ethnic groups that spoke
different languages to interact politically, socially, and economically. Because of this,
decolonization could not simply reverse the situation – reverting to each ethnic group only
speaking its own group’s language. That type of reversal was not realistic in newly independent
Kenya or Tanzania because so many of the originally separate ethnic groups were integrated in
towns, cities, schools, and businesses. If these new independent states could not break up into
smaller groups – each with their own language – then what language would be universally used?
The most practical options were English or Swahili. The dilemma of appropriating a unifying,
national language was dealt with differently in Tanzania than in Kenya.
One reason why they differed in post-independence language policy was because
Tanzania’s President Nyerere and Kenya’s President Kenyatta disagreed on many issues. For
example, they supported different social and economic policies: “by tampering with civil society,
Nyerere turned previous allies into adversaries and distinguished himself from Kenyatta, whose
28
Mutahi, Wahome. How to Be a Kenyan. Nairobi: Kenway Publications, 1996. Print. pp. 6.
18
accommodating management of civil society was more pragmatic.29” While Nyerere’s
aspirations for Tanzanian patriotism propelled the reconstruction of Tanzania’s economic system
to reflect socialist values rather than the capitalism that was implemented with colonialism,
Kenyatta did not significantly alter Kenya’s capitalist economic and social structures after
independence.
Swahili was declared Kenya’s official language in 1974, while Tanzania first tried to
implement Swahili as the official language in 1967 – this was not completely successful,
however, until 1984. Even though it appears odd that Tanzania took many years to declare
Swahili an official language, upon further examination it is reasonable: Swahili was already
widely used in the country and did not require official status in order to be implemented in much
of the political realm. For example, Kiswahili was used in education even before it became an
official language. Since independence, Nyerere advocated for improved education, an education
that was characteristically Tanzanian, so naturally “Kiswahili was the only medium of
instruction that could guarantee a democratic distribution of knowledge and an Africanization of
thought.30”
Independent Tanzania accepted Swahili more readily than Kenya did, because although
Swahili was the lingua franca in both countries, it was indigenous only to Tanzania. Lyndon
Harries elucidates this phenomenon: “Nairobi [Kenya’s capital] is not Swahili country. If
anything, it is Kikuyu country,31” and English too is highly esteemed. This contrasts with “the
29
Barkan, Joel D., editor. Beyond Capitalism vs. Socialism in Kenya and Tanzania. Boulder: L.
Rienner, 1994. Print. pp. 21.
30
Blommaert, Jan. “The Metaphors of Development and Modernization in Tanzanian Language
Policy and Research.” African Languages, Development and the State. Ed. Richard Fardon and
Graham Furniss. London: Routledge, 1994. 213-226. Print. pp. 217.
31
Harries, Lyndon. “The Nationalization of Swahili in Kenya.” Language in Society, Vol. 5, No.
2. Cambridge University Press, 1976. pp 153-164. Web 9 Nov. 2013. pp. 157.
19
political capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, [which] is a coastal township where Swahili is a
first language for the majority born either in the capital or in Swahili communities along the
coast.32” A national language will likely be most important and widely used in large cities or
political centers, since “one of the most important aspects in language formation in any country
is the relationship between the politics of the nation-state and official language policy.33” Thus,
Harries’ assessment of Kenya’s and Tanzania’s capital cities is a valid explanation for Kenya’s
struggle and Tanzania’s ease in implementing Swahili as a national language.
David Kimble explains, “Language is known to be an important factor in national
sentiment. A group of people are more likely to consider themselves a nation if they have a
common cultural heritage, and especially a common language.34” Immediately after gaining
independence, many African countries – including Tanzania – asserted their freedom and
national pride by separating themselves from the recent European colonizers in every way
possible: culture, language, dress, trade, politics, economics, etc.
Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, said, “We have to be a part of the society
which we are changing; we have to work from within it, and not try to descend like ancient gods,
do something, and disappear again. A country, a village, or a community, cannot be developed; it
can only develop itself.35” This means that the educated citizens of Tanzania cannot exude elitist
behavior, but rather, they must relate to their natal communities without patronizing the less
32
Harries, Lyndon. “The Nationalization of Swahili in Kenya.” Language in Society, Vol. 5, No.
Cambridge University Press, 1976. pp 153-164. Web 9 Nov. 2013. pp. 157.
33
Biswalo, Tage A. “Policy Processes in Relation to Language in Tanzania: Examining Shifts in
Language Policy,” PhD Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010. Web 23 Oct.
2013. pp. 57.
34
Kimble, David. A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism 1850-1928.
London: Oxford University Press, 1963. Print. pp. 507.
35
Nyerere, Julius K. Man and Development: Binadamu na Maendeleo. Dar-es-Salem: Oxford
University Press, 1974. Print. pp. 8.
20
educated. By believing in binaries – good and bad, European and African, modern and traditional
– some educated elites alienate themselves from the larger Tanzanian or even East African
society. Nyerere proposed a solution of amalgamation to help Tanzania compete in a rapidly
modernizing and globalizing world; not surprisingly, he later advocated for bilingualism in the
education system.
Initially, however, Africanization motivated an adamant anti-English policy in Tanzania
to unite its citizens with a quasi-indigenous African language, Swahili. Unlike many other newly
independent African countries, “Tanzania chose to elevate Kiswahili as its lingua franca inspired
by its socialist policy of Ujamaa (Family-hood), and Kujitegemea (Self-Reliance).36” Perhaps the
intense focus on nationalism and unity immediately after independence was the cause of
Tanzania’s subsequent decades of economic instability. Since English is the language of
international trade, a country that condemns English would likely struggle in the international
economic sphere, which would also affect the country’s domestic economy. Nyerere offered a
solution to this problem. In his Crusade for Liberation, he advocated for bilingualism because
English is practical for international relations and because Swahili is necessary for a distinctly
African nationalism and pride. This was rational for Tanzania because Swahili had already
spread inward from the coastal regions during the pre-colonial era. By the time of independence,
many Tanzanians already spoke Swahili as a first or second language.
As important as Swahili is to promoting national pride and unity in both Kenya and
Tanzania, these countries cannot completely shake the yoke of colonialism because English still
lingers in many facets of life. For example, “in time, both kujitegemea and ujamaa as nationalist
36
Biswalo, Tage A. “Policy Processes in Relation to Language in Tanzania: Examining Shifts in
Language Policy,” PhD Diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010. Web. 23 Oct.
2013. pp. 22-23.
21
ideologies lost their appeal to the Tanzanian population, opening new spaces for the
‘rehabilitation’ of the English language and literature in English. Globalization threatened the
supremacy of Swahili in Tanzania.37” Furthermore, Swahili and English have distinctive nuances
that make it impossible to replace one language with the other; they are not interchangeable.
Therefore, Tanzania and Kenya might need to incorporate both English and Swahili in education
and other fields. Also, it is important to note that English remained in many independent African
nations because of practicality: “one reason for continued use of the foreign language as the
primary language for education was the vast numbers of indigenous languages of many
countries. This mitigated against consensus on a common language.38” Because English is not an
indigenous African language it is not associated with any particular African ethnic group. For an
African state to avoid favoring a certain ethnic group over others, continued use of English (or
another colonizing language) for universal communication is reasonable. This is one factor
contributing to neo-colonialism in which the ex-colonizers still influence independent African
states.
Frantz Fanon predicted that European nations had such immense power in Africa that
even after they officially left the continent, their power would still persist. In Toward the African
Revolution he claims, “Every new sovereign state finds itself practically under the obligation of
maintaining definite and preferential relations with the former oppressor.39” His prediction was
accurate because the British still have indirect control of much that they created in Africa – the
current government, education system, economy, and the language of international (and for
37
Mazrui, Alamin. Swahili beyond the Boundaries: Literature, Language, and Identity. Athens,
Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2007. Print. pp. 164.
38
Roy-Campbell, Zaline M., and Martha A. S. Qorro. Language Crisis in Tanzania: The Myth of
English versus Education. Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki Na Nyota, 1997. Print. pp. 2.
39
Fanon, Frantz. Toward the African Revolution. Monthly Review Press (English translation),
1967. Print. pp. 120.
22
awhile even national) trade – and it is difficult for a nation to start over completely without the
prior influences of colonization that inevitably linger.
Conclusion
English scholar and professor Lois Tyson aptly states the phenomenon of neocolonialism that plagues much of Africa today:
That so many peoples formerly colonized by Britain speak English, write in English, use
English in their schools and universities, and conduct government business in English, in
addition to the local languages they may use at home, is an indication of the residual
effect of colonial domination on their cultures.40
Through colonization the British incorporated the English language into politics, education, trade
and commerce, and other spheres of East African life. English was so intrinsically ingrained in
East African cultures by the 1960s that even strong national or African sentiment could not free
Kenya or Tanzania of the grasp of the English language and neo-colonialism. Each country faced
post-independence language issues: Tanzania struggled to accept English and Kenya struggled to
implement Swahili. Each country toiled in slightly different ways; but they both struggled
because of the severe economic, social, cultural, and linguistic boundaries that British
colonialism created between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, European and African, and
English and Swahili.
Reconciling these two languages is an ongoing endeavor in East Africa – one that
requires cooperation among ethnic groups and political parties. Yes, Kenya and Tanzania move
toward reconciliation through bilingualism; but, in the classrooms of English-speaking schools
40
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-friendly Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge,
2006. Print. pp. 419.
23
and in the margins of government legislation written in English in both countries, the echoes of
Frantz Fanon’s warnings reverberate: “any independent nation in an Africa where colonialism
still lingers is a nation surrounded, vulnerable, and in permanent danger.41” This undermining of
Kenya’s and Tanzania’s stability as independent states reminds the world that colonialism has
indelible consequences that even amalgamation and reconciliation cannot resolve.
41
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove, 2004.
Print. pp 180.