Chichewa not national but natural language for Malawi

The statement "No to Chichewa in the North" by some overzealous northerners as reported in the media is quite unfortunate, though I wondered what prompted them to make such an unfortunate statement.

The debate came about when it was recommended Chichewa be incorporated into the national constitution as the national language, although some view the debate in the light of Nkhoma/Livingstonia synods wrangle.

Historically some major languages like Latin and English became dominant because the colonizing powers wanted to have one medium of communication. Latin perished when the Roman Empire crumbled, English is still alive although the British Empire is no more.

On the other hand Swahili is a language that came naturally because of interaction between the Arabs and Bantu speaking Africans. Before adopting policies it is important to understand the context in which they are going to be applied.

Some claim by declaring Chichewa as a national language it will foster unity, language is not the only unifying factor, Somalia is a country with one tribe (but just different clans) speaking one language, Somali, yet it is a failed state.

Contrast the chaos in Somalia with Botswana with one dominant tribe and language, Tswana, living in harmony with other smaller tribes. In fact language can be divisive if it is perceived as being imposed on others.

Further, in Kenya and Tanzania Swahili is the lingua franca among the locals but it is an open secret that tribalism is more pronounced in Kenya whilst it is almost non-existent in Tanzania.

In Zambia Bemba is the lingua franca around copper belt and nyanja is the major language in and around Lusaka yet tribalism is not as pronounced in Zambia as it is in Kenya.

In Zimbabwe Shona is lingua franca in Mashonaland and Ndebele in Matebeleland.

Furthermore, all these countries adopted single-party system supposedly to unite the people but we know that some leaders used single-party system to cling to power rather than the unity purpose. It must be recognized that there is no tribe known as Swahili, this makes it easily acceptable as it is perceived neutral.

A "national" or dominant language naturally emerges on its own without necessarily being propped up. The Ngoni of Maseko lost their language to Chichewa despite the former having defeated the latter in the same vein the Mbelwa Ngoni lost their Zulu language to Tumbuka.

On a lighter note someone from Ntcheu said that he was Ngoni and that his wife, from Mzimba, was a Tumbuka. I argued that if his wife was Tumbuka on account of being tumbuka speaker then he too was Chewa because both of them lost their mother tongues.

The Kanyenda chieftaincy has been around since 1400s; Senior Chief Kanyenda and his cousin Chief Kabunduli of Nkhata Bay are Chewa chiefs but now are essentially Tonga speakers.

From the foregoing we see how Chichewa naturally survived the might of Maseko Ngoni yet it died a natural death to a small language of Tonga.

The Anglican church use Chichewa in the predominantly Tonga Nkhotakota north and Nkhata Bay, the Catholics use Tumbuka and probably that is why the two churches have not taken many roots in the area. It was quite interesting to listen to the congregation sing "Chichewa in Tonga" whenever I went home on holiday.

There is more to achieving national unity than language alone, actions of leadership matter very more than anything. They say, "The truth shall set you free." In the ensuing national language debate it has been said that the Chewas do not have negative history but the then government, however, Dr Banda and his ruling clique who banned other languages were Chewa.

Language experts, or is it educational experts, say that children learn better in their mother tongue, and the recommendation is that in the early classes of primary school mother tongue should be used and English be used later on as a means of educational instruction, this was the case before the ban.

At the time of the ban Chichewa was not incorporated into the constitution, now that there is talk of re-introducing other languages in early primary school classes there is talk of incorporating Chichewa into the constitution as a national language, is that not suspicious?

Looking at the interpretation or misinterpretation of our constitution in recent times it will not be surprising one day to see somebody say, "The constitution says that Chichewa is the national language of Malawi and therefore the other languages are illegal."

For the time being we can not do away with English which is our official language, by the way, is English incorporated in our constitution as Malawi’s official language?

To speak ones mother’s tongue is not necessarily being tribalistic especially when speaking to somebody who understands that language, sometimes diversity must be appreciated. In fact there is revival for the study of Gaelic languages in Britain. I would expect a tumbuka to try to speak Yao when speaking to Yaos in Makanjira in the same vein a Chewa should try Lambya when in Kameme Chitipa.

It sometimes feels good to see foreigners try to speak our local languages, so why can we not, amongst ourselves, speak other local languages whenever we go to areas where our mother tongue is not a dominant language?

Policies or actions of leadership are a more unifying force than language, and language can be divisive if perceived as the language of the oppressor. Dr Banda’s positive contribution to the development of Malawi as a nation is indisputable, however, some decisions were divisive, which should be forgiven but not forgotten.

Is it coincidence that posts of SPC, Inspector general of police and the army commander went to people from a particular region? We should learn from our history and accept mistakes were made not to repeat them in future.

After the cabinet crisis it seems there was a silent campaign to get even with areas that were thought to be sympathetic to the dissidents, those areas were systematically marginalized. There was no meaningful development in the North since independence in 1964 until the civil war in Mozambique in the 1980s.

The northern corridor, which has been the economic catalyst in the North, was not developed as deliberate plan by the then government but because of the war in Mozambique, its development partners advised it so, as it became the shortest route to the sea that time.

Further, Dr. Banda declared at a public rally that government was going to build a referral hospital for the North in Kasungu! The South was a bit lucky firstly because it was already better developed than the two regions and secondly it is the most populous and the ruling clique was cautious for obvious consequences.

Whether it is declared in the constitution as a national language or not the fact still remains, Chichewa is the most widely spoken language in Malawi, everyone knows that!

The official language undermines the relevance of national languages, unless the intention is to replace English as an official language otherwise the national language is mere symbolism.

Replacing English by Chichewa as official language especially in this information age of internet is not an option either, we are merely consumers of information and knowledge, and we are not yet creators. Chichewa is already a dominant language without necessarily being in the constitution.

Our preoccupation as Malawians should be economic advancement not language trivia, we should learn to prioritize issues, economic advancement implies urbanization hence tribalism will gradually go as our society becomes more cosmopolitan, tribalism is not a major problem in Malawi but poverty. China is an economic giant and a lot of people are learning Chinese in order to do business in China.

Chichewa should not take a puritan approach as it grows. Let it grow alongside other local languages. Languages grow and die, just like Latin and ancient Greek grew and died.

Feedback: james.phiri@mtl.mw