The following is one exchange from an interview of Ugandan Pres. Yoweri Museveni by Agnes Asiimwe of the Kampala daily paper, The Monitor http://www.monitor.co.ug/ , on 27 June 2006 (it was published on 2 July). Entitled "Nothing to Reconcile About With the Besigyes - Museveni", it was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200607030426.html . This excerpt deals with redistricting and language policy. I added the [Q] and [A] based on my reading of the article (there were no clear markings as to who was speaking in this part of the interview)... DZO
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607030426.html?page=4 ... [Q] What we see in Uganda today is fragmentation, which is also being encouraged by government policies. We are dividing the country into many more districts and more alarming is that these districts are being tied to tribes. So in a way these policies are promoting sectarianism. [A] No, there is nothing wrong. These old colonial districts were suppressive; there was sub-colonialism in colonialism. These Bakiga were sitting on the Bafumbira of Kisoro. Those Bafumbira of Kisoro speak a dialect close to Kinyarwanda but when they were in the District of Kigezi, those Bafumbira were forced to speak Rukiga, which is quite different from Rufumbira and the people were forced to abandon their language. Who are you to kill anyone's dialect? Why should you have an administrative unit that kills the dialect of a Ugandan? These dialects are a work of God. This suppression of the different peoples of Uganda is not called for. That is why in the NRM, we encourage a three-language policy. Let each group speak their local dialect in their own area - in the district council, in primary education let it be the medium of instruction. Secondly, let us teach Swahili which is a regional language and thirdly, let us teach one international language, English. That way, we preserve the heritage of the people by speaking their dialect, then you have the regional lingua franca and an international language. Our plan, my plan at least, is that maybe if we encourage Swahili, it may integrate these dialects and become richer. This is what I discussed with the late Mwalimu [Nyerere] long ago. I was saying why don't we enrich Swahili with these words from the interior because Swahili is not as rich as it should be in terms of vocabulary. It is a good language because it belongs to nobody. It's not anybody's dialect so everybody can learn it. What we do is, we promote Swahili and let it integrate these words so that it becomes a very rich African language for the future. But in the meantime, you cannot kill these dialects and you think you are doing a service to African heritage. But, of course, people like the Monitor don't care about African heritage, African pride, African dignity. ... Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
