"We still have our mother tongues but we don’t care for them." Prof Manuel Muranga (Photo: © Jeremy Woodham/CMS) Prof Manuel Muranga of Bishop Barham University College in Uganda says mother tongue languages are good news – theologically and economically
Mother tongue languages must not only be preserved but used fully in the academic world.
That's the opinion of Ugandan academic the Rev Prof Manuel Muranga, principal of Bishop Barham University College – and he's working to establish a new literary prize to boost pride in the mother tongues of the Kigezi region.
Prof Muranga, a linguist by profession, was in London over the summer to address the International Community of Banyakigezi (ICOB) on the topic of retaining mother tongue languages in the Kigezi region of south-western Uganda, where Bishop Barham University College is based.
ICOB is an organisation that unites people from Kigezi, who are now living around the world – in countries that include Canada, US, Great Britain and Europe. Every year ICOB gathers in an international city and this year members met in London.
On a visit to CMS in Oxford, Prof Muranga talked about the variety of mother tongue languages. “At least three are spoken in our region: Rukiga, which is close to Ruhororo and Runyankore and is spoken in four distinct dialects; Ruhororo, which is very similar to Runyankore; and Rufumbira, which is virtually a dialect of Runyarwanda.
"The Banyakigezi in the diaspora speak these languages both at home in Uganda and where they live in the diaspora,” Prof Muranga explains.
Threat of extinction
There is a general fear that the mother tongue is dying out, according to Prof Muranga. “The official language of Uganda is English, even though Swahili was introduced as a so-called national language in Idi Amin’s days but it never caught on,” he says.
“So we still have our mother tongues but we don’t care very much for them. We speak them in our villages but in the major towns we tend to abandon them and even look down on them.”
In contrast to this attitude, Prof Muranga believes it is time to take pride in mother tongue languages: “We ought to develop our mother tongues and even teach school in them from the first class to the third or fourth, and then continue teaching them as subjects and part of the school curriculum and then at university.
"And at all these levels, nationally recognised examinations should be set and sat."
It was time to create "language industries", said Prof Muranga, "with our mother tongues and our appreciation and enjoyment of their beauty and power as the raw materials for the production of books in all genres, newspapers and other mass media, drama via both theatre and film.
"This is important not only in Uganda with her 43 languages, but also in other multilingual countries in Africa and the world over.”
As part of this push, Prof Muranga is working with ICOB to establish a literary prize for Kigezi people writing in their mother tongues.
'Speak Christian' in your mother tongue
Prof Muranga also believes it’s important from a theological and spiritual perspective for people to pray and express themselves in their mother tongues.
There is great scope for creativity when people use their mother tongue, he adds.
“We need to encourage people and be creative and develop theological terminology. We must keep the English language, of course, but we shouldn’t forget our mother tongue.”
As part of Prof Muranga's vision, BBUC has introduced a new course as part of its curriculum – a Master of Arts in Translation and Language Development. Literature development, he says, is subsumed under language development.
“It’s about getting people together who are passionate about their mother tongue. In the second year of their thesis we ask the students to translate an important book from their chosen field – so a doctor might translate, for a start, an easy-to-understand medical book, and a theologian could translate something like The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.
“We hope that when people read books from all kinds of areas of endeavour in their mother tongue, they themselves will be able to think and write original material in their own mother tongues and that way there will be an industry in their mother tongues, which is economically good news for our region.”