Young Kenyans/Africans Can Own the Future..........Here's Why....

[mabenda4]

Our identity must never be eroded. While i agree that the use of English is crucial for transactions, our identity is important for posterity. Its like loosing ur name. The most comical sight is a modern socialite trying to talk to her two year old in english and making the worst errors in gramma since Elizabeth1. In a matatu mark you, while trying to sound all learned and crap. Just today nikikula lunch somewhere, a lady told her son …"have you went for washing hands dadiii. " i bit on my phone not to scream

[Kinene_wega]

@FieldMarshal CouchP

Over the last few days, I have had reason to hope that young people in this country can own their future. Two things on this site have built my confidence:

1. The emerging questioning of blind religious faith
   Nothing has perhaps underdeveloped Africa, and Kenya, like religion, especially the White Man’s religion. It has subverted both social and economic development by selling an incredibly dubious illusion of eternal bliss.

In every village and town, you will for example find huge cathedrals built with funds contributed by poverty-stricken masses, but no schools or dispensaries. Millions of these ordinary people are routinely conned of their hard-earned money each day in the name of a foreign god. Thousands more refuse to take their children for immunisation in the name of the so-called god. Others refuse condoms and contract HIV, in the name of the same god. And thats just the start of it.

Imagine the man hours wasted in useless prayer. Imagine the failure to take responsibility in avoidable accidents, deaths, etc etc because “its an act of god” - my generation elevated religion into some sort of wichcraft that explained everything as the will of this silly god, and absolved everyone of responsibility. So if Moi wanted to become a dictator, he said leaders are chosen by god. If a matatu driver caused a fatal accident by stupid driving, we said it is an act of god! The social malignacy this has spawned will take years to cure.

So how do the young come in.

More than at any other time, THEY ARE QUESTIONING THE ILLOGIC AND SILLINESS OF RELIGION. They want realistic solutions to real problems, not some mumbo jumbo about a Jewish myth. No, leaders do not come from god, we elect them and if they are bad we should remove them, they are saying. If a driver causes an accident and he is to blame, let him go jail.

This is the beginning of a new start.

2. I will be short in the next reason - Mabenda’s listing.
   When I was in a national high school, so many years ago, the speaking of vernacular was banned and looked down upon. Yet, we could speak French and English in school!

The net effect of this was to create generations of Africans with a sense of inferiority complex - our languages were vulgar, dirty, primitive. I could say ferk, but I couldn’t say guthicwo without blushing. Even today I suffer this embarrassment.

Looking at Mabenda’s thread, though, I was taken aback at the depth of understanding of vernacular by the young people of today. Many spoke with the confidence and wisdom of their forefathers, using proverbs and ageold anecdotes to spice their contributions. That many could write fluently despite never having been taught the language shows an acute awakening of cultural identity.

This is symptomatic of all Kenyan communities, AND NOT JUST THE KIKUYU.

Now, you may wonder what this has to do with development of a modern state like Kenya?

The fact IS THERE’S NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT HAS MADE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS BY ADOPTING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. YES, English is the universal language of business, BUT IF YOU GO TO ALL THE ASIAN TIGERS they speak their own languages! Han Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, etc etc. Even the little new European states that have emerged over the last 20 years - Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, etc etc know this.

The re-emergence of our indigenous languages should make us go one step further - to elevate Swahili above English. Our indigenous languages should also get pride of place. I do not understand why our schools offer French and German but not Maasai and Luo to say Kikuyu kids. I would have loved to study Maasai in high school.

The fact that young people are by themselves starting to redress these colonial hangovers means well for our future.

It means that we, as Africans, are starting to shed those yokes that have for centuries put us down. We are starting to reclaim our pride. Am I reading too much from these two simple things?

I don’t thing so.

Guka, you are aging gracefully. If only we had several gukas like you to guide us.
I beg you, my sage, to allow me to offer a different perspective on the second point.
Language, being an important aspect of human life, should never be taken for granted the way black people have done since the invasion by arabs and europoids. We use hard foreign languages to learn equally, if not more, hard but important subjects such as maths and science. To the few here who are forever ‘osungu-ing’, the foreign languages may be a walk in the park but it’s not the case for more than 99% of the population. This translates to the said subjects becoming difficult to understand thus impending our progress. It would be wise if we did away with our current vernacular languages and adopt a single language such as Swahili or maybe English (YES, english I said, after all we have lost everything about us; be it culture, names, religion,etc, and as such letting go languages that we don’t teach our children shouldn’t be a big deal) which should be made our mother tongue, official, and national language. Business people should be let to open language and cultural institutions for those who wish to learn about whichever local language(s) and the available scraps of our culture. The fact that we still use our local languages which aren’t neither official nor national makes us less interested in them, therefore, doing little to none study/research about them and having a false sense of our cultures being intact. Using one’s mother tongue makes learning easier, if not more interesting, and that’s why many countries save for those in sub Sahara africa are pushing for it. Some end up splitting, case in point european countries. Adoption of a single language happened and succeded in the Americas

[Kinene_wega]

@Hunter Xp

And when baba suggested we use mother tongue in assemblies people were quick to rubbish him

It’s a noble idea but given the nature of our politics it would result in disaster

[Hunter_Xp]

@Kinene wega?

It’s a noble idea but given the nature of our politics it would result in disaster

I think we have let our weaknesses let us compromise on our new strides for long, we need to move! and what would it result in anyway?

[Kinene_wega]

@mabenda4

Our identity must never be eroded. While i agree that the use of English is crucial for transactions, our identity is important for posterity. Its like loosing ur name. The most comical sight is a modern socialite trying to talk to her two year old in english and making the worst errors in gramma since Elizabeth1. In a matatu mark you, while trying to sound all learned and crap. Just today nikikula lunch somewhere, a lady told her son …"have you went for washing hands dadiii. " i bit on my phone not to scream

We don’t have any identity to protect apart from our black skins and kinky hair and we may soon lose that through bleaching our skins and ‘kaangaing’ our hair, or even the ‘better’ obsession of pointie kids. we are just living in denial. Majority of us are going that lady’s way and you can be certain that in all major towns in kenya majority of kids below 15 can only converse in english or engsh/whatever

[Kinene_wega]

@Hunter Xp

I think we have let our weaknesses let us compromise on our new strides for long, we need to move! and what would it result in anyway?

Spreading and deepening of tribal animosity especially in those counties occupied by more than one tribe.

[kawambui]

kumbe guka hata kama chuma haijisimamishi without props bado kuna kitu between the ears.
nakuombea mungu wako akuongeze miaka kaa mbao hivi

[Ingia]

@Stony

Adopting a foreign language marginalizes 99.9% of the population. I am yet to find a single technologically and economically advanced nation that uses a borrowed language. I see pride in Tanzanians who have decided to adopt Kiswahili as the teaching language at all levels. It only takes the sacrifice of one generation to reap the benefits of using one’s own language. It is cruel to deny children knowledge simply because they were unable to pick a foreign tongue.

While i agree on the part of religion and culture, I will disagree about language.

The problem with the sub saharan languages (BLACKMAN’S LANGUAGES) is that none has an alphabet or a writing system. Secondly, none has a number system. most are spoken within small groups and there are hundreds of languages and dialects here in kenya alone. kiswahili is very much foreign. Finally, most are narrow and you would have to expand them to make any practical and economic sense especially in technology. I wouldnt want to be forced to use kikuyu or dholuo in school if I come from a minority community.

Unfortunately, the black man never developed a system for making records and never made or seek to use the WHEEL for some mysterious reason.

[Ingia]

@tm wa klist

I have never understood why people/parents fail to teach their kids the language of their catchment areas.
Why should i be Kikuyu and my kids not learn a single word of Kikuyu? Or am living in Nairobi and the only language my kids know is English.
Aje sasa?

Children should learn their languages for cultural attachment alone. However, if I am a somali, my language does not make any economic or practical sense to a kikuyu or a kipsigis especally if we do business or have common law and common government. it would be utter chaos.

[Ingia]

@aviator

I beg to differ on your two points.

2. Local languages have never taken anyone anywhere. Dont be deceived by China’s economy size. Look at their population too and consider the per capita. If speaking native language was proportional to development, pokot would be a first world.

I agree with you on this one. People forget that chinese language is uniform for most part aand most speak han. Secondly, these languages have an alphabet and a number system

[tm_wa_klist]

@Ingia

Children should learn their languages for cultural attachment alone. However, if I am a somali, my language does not make any economic or practical sense to a kikuyu or a kipsigis especally is we do business or have common law and common government. it would be utter chaos.

Language is for socialization. If there are people who love speaking their language must be Somalis. All my Somali friends speak it anywhere anytime. Apparently, it has never bothered me. My Luo friends speak it comfortably and nowadays i have learnt some words here and there likewise with them, they speak broken Kikuyu courtesy of me.
Main thing is to let this tribalism thing not hit your mind, like i wonder how i can be bothered with people speaking Luo yet am a die-hard fan of Gor Mahia. People should outgrow tribalism, my speaking Kikuyu has nothing to do with tribalism as much as am doing it socially and without any ill motive.

[system]

@Kinene wega?

It’s a noble idea but given the nature of our politics it would result in disaster

Imagine the situation in multicultural counties.

[Ingia]

@tm wa klist

Language is for socialization. If there are people who love speaking their language must be Somalis. All my Somali friends speak it anywhere anytime. Apparently, it has never bothered me. My Luo friends speak it comfortably and nowadays i have learnt some words here and there likewise with them, they speak broken Kikuyu courtesy of me.
Main thing is to let this tribalism thing not hit your mind, like i wonder how i can be bothered with people speaking Luo yet am a die-hard fan of Gor Mahia. People should outgrow tribalism, my speaking Kikuyu has nothing to do with tribalism as much as am doing it socially and without any ill motive.

So you are suggesting I learn the forty two languages + dialects in kenya. That we write 50 copies of the constitution in different language to just gratify pride.
Africans are too proud and admire themselves too much for no tangible reason. And I think thats why they dont get anywhere because they cant learn from anyone.

[Ingia]

Some people here are living in Utopia where there is harmony everywhere, there is a whole profession like architecture or mechanical engineering written in marakwet as well as in kikuyu,…and so on. And the people of this utopia are actually living together in harmony so that a judge trained in kikuyu presides over a case where the counsel for one side is trained in dholuo and the counsel for the other side is trained in turkana.
That is Utopia

[tm_wa_klist]

@Ingia

So you are suggesting I learn the forty two languages + dialects in kenya. That we write 50 copies of the constitution in different language to just gratify pride.
Africans are too proud and admire themselves too much for no tangible reason. And I think thats why they dont get anywhere because they cant learn from anyone.

ujinga yako ni kipawa.

[Ingia]

@tm wa klist

ujinga yako ni kipawa.

Sema huna jibu.

[tm_wa_klist]

@Ingia

Sema huna jibu.

At least am tired for the day and i can reply,
Jibu ni, i am very picky in semantics. You lost it when you missed my comment on language of catchment area.
Or maybe we are talking from very different perspectives of life.
I insist, language is a tool for both communication and socialization. You cannot equate language with tribalism. NEVER.