Mwalimu and great zeal for art, culture, language

“ART is the spirit of a nation’s life. A nation without traditional art is like a group of soulless people.” The late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere uttered these words at a public rally during his presidency.

He emphasised the importance of the nation preserving and celebrating art and culture.

He emphasised this, recognising that culture and arts are vital to the identity of any nation because culture and art carry language, indigenous dances, clothing, food and lifestyle.

In his emphasis on the importance of culture and the society’s arts, he condemned former colonialists’ behaviours who discouraged African culture and encouraged Africans to embrace their culture.

“Of all the sins committed by colonialism, there is no greater sin than the attempt to make us believe that we did not have our original art objects and labelling our culture and taboos as barbaric, “ He was quoted as saying. Mwalimu Nyerere was indeed a pillar to our nation, who laid principles and foundation guiding our country.

During and after his leadership he made an emphasis on a number of issues, including the importance of cultural identity, while criticising scholars and elites who ignored their culture to embrace Western civilisation.

“Some of us, especially those with whom we had a foreign education, made great efforts to show our colonial rulers that we were ‘civilised’. Civilisation meant abandoning all things of our traditions and imitating foreign cultures,” Mwalimu said.

He further stressed that he was saddened to see many youths prefer embracing foreign cultures rather their indigenous culture.

“Most youth, especially today, prefer being modern at their homeland (in African continent). When I was at school during the colonial time, it was a great pride to be called a Westernised person; we were taught to sing foreign songs in schools to embrace their culture.

“Today, most of us are good at dancing rhumba, jazz, bachata, twist and tango and other foreign styles,” he said. As he addressed the public, he questioned the crowd that gathered at the venue how many can dance African music genre such as gombessa, mangala, konge and kiduo or how many can play traditional instruments such as banjo, sitar and xylophone.

Nyerere’s cultural legacy still lives

The vision and mission of preserving and maintaining Tanzanian culture, traditions and customs has been sustained, as the country’s leaders have been at the forefront to follow Mwalimu Nyerere’s footsteps.

Among the leaders is President Samia Suluhu Hassan. In January 2022, President Samia called on parents and guardians to ensure they pass on cultural values to their children, since they are vital to preserving the nation’s values for future generations.

The Head of State made the remarks during opening of the Kilimanjaro Cultural Festival at Ushirika grounds in Moshi, Kilimanjaro.

During the launch of the unique cultural festival, various cultural groups across the region had a chance to showcase their heritage.

Among them were tribal dances. On that occasion, President Samia Suluhu Hassan was installed as head of chiefs by the Union of Chiefs in Tanzania.

The decision was unanimously agreed upon by 96 tribal chiefs, who gave her the name ‘Hangaya’, which means a shining star.

Furthermore, the Head of State hinted at the possible return of the skulls of Tanzanian chiefs from abroad. She disclosed that the Foreign Affairs and Tourism and Natural Resources dockets are currently engaging former colonial masters, including Germany, to have the remains repatriated to the country.

“The government, through the two dockets, is in talks with the countries to ensure a possible return of the skulls,” said President Samia. She called for the return of the chiefs’ remains have been kept abroad for years in Tanzania.

Still in contention are the remains of Chief (Mangi) Meli of the Chagga tribe, which are said to be reserved somewhere in Germany. Such an initiative has passed through the ages and we witness it today. Among the successes of the initiative was the establishment of a ministry and institutions responsible for arts, culture and tradition.

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Currently, Tanzania has a ministry responsible which is the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports. The ministry supervises a number of institutions such as the National Arts Council, the National Kiswahili Council, the Copyright Office of Tanzania, the National Sports Council and the African Liberation Heritage Centre.

Other than establishing these institutions, the ministry is responsible for preserving and encouraging cultural heritage and there have been efforts to ensure Tanzania’s culture and tradition are shared among other nations.

Efforts to foster Kiswahili language

Among the key elements that build the identity of a community or nation is culture. Other than cultural attire, food and lifestyle, language is another element. Following the importance of language in uniting and promoting culture, Mwalimu Nyerere played a great role in ensuring Kiswahili spreads within and outside the borders of the country.

In efforts to ensure Kiswahili becomes a lingua franca, Mwalimu Nyerere established organisations that dealt with the growth and spread of Kiswahili. Mwalimu Nyerere, being the country’s main leader, gave permission for the establishment of these organisations so that they could deal with development of Kiswahili in the country.

These organisations include Tuki known by its acronym TATAKI, established in 1964, the National Kiswahili Council (BAKITA) in 1967 and other institutions. In September 1962, it was ordered that Kiswahili be used in the Parliament and in all governmental activities.

In 1964, Kiswahili was declared the national and official language. In 1965, Kiswahili was designated to be used to teach all subjects in primary schools in the country, while English remained to be taught as a subject. Other than that, Mwalimu Nyerere wrote and translated Kiswahili books.

Efforts to embrace Kiswahili language

The initiative has witnessed a number of successes including the spread of the Swahili language within and outside the borders of Tanzania.

A good example is recently Tanzania and Türkiye heightened their cultural and sports cooperation. On the move, the Türkiye Embassy in Tanzania committed to establishing a cultural centre in the country that will teach Swahili and Turkish languages.

Other than Türkiye, Russia announced that its primary schools will begin teaching the Swahili language to further strengthen relations between Tanzania and the country, Russia’s Ambassador to Tanzania, Andrey Avetisyan, said.

Making the revelation in Dar es Salaam early this month, Ambassador Avetisyan further said Russia has become the first European country to teach the African language after Chinese in public schools countrywide.

“Learning this language will cement relations and motivate Russians to visit Africa, particularly Tanzania to interact with the people, invest and promote businesses, which will make all win in their activities.

He noted that the drive as a pilot study is in line with supporting the Tanzanian government’s goal of promoting Kiswahili internationally so that both sides learn a lot about the culture of one another and promote what brings them together with ease.

He added: “We have a long history of studying Kiswahili in Russia and currently students at five major universities in Russia can master Kiswahili upon graduation and can write or communicate with ease.

“The next important step was made when several Moscow schools introduced Kiswahili into their curriculum. It is a kind of pilot project and with time, Kiswahili will permanently find its way into the country.

“This September all public schools started teaching Kiswahili after Amharic and of course, students who now start studying Kiswahili in their primary schools will easily know where Tanzania is and what it means in business, tourism and boosting ties.

The language will also enable them to easily get jobs on the African continent,” he noted. In a related development, he noted that as Russia also promotes teaching its language and culture in Tanzania at the Russian Cultural Centres, the drive will make both countries further understand one another, adding that with easy communication even bilateral relations ties will be enhanced.

World Kiswahili Language Day – 7 July

In November 2021 at its 41st Session in Paris, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared July 7th as the World Kiswahili Language Day. By Resolution 41 C/61, Member States recognised the critical role played by Kiswahili in promoting cultural diversity, creating awareness and fostering dialogue among civilisations.

The event served as a platform to promote the potential of Kiswahili to achieve both the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. UNESCO Director General issues a message to commemorate World Kiswahili Day In recognition of World Kiswahili Language Day this year, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay made the following statement.

Kiswahili is a language that speaks to both the past and present. With over 200 million speakers, it is one of the most widely used African language, encompassing more than a dozen main dialects.

Over the centuries, this Bantu language has emerged as a common form of communication in many parts of subSaharan Africa, in addition to the Middle East. As a lingua franca, Kiswahili has also incorporated words from other tongues, notably Arabic, while enriching these languages in return.

For example, the English word ‘safari’ comes from the Kiswahili word for “journey”, which originated as the Arabic verb for ‘travel’, safari.

This linguistic exchange highlights the important role Kiswahili plays at the crossroads of world languages. Kiswahili, not only tells a story of dialogue between languages but also of dialogue among peoples and countries. Indeed, because Kiswahili shares words and concepts with other African languages, it has an impressive unifying power.

This is why the African Union, East African Community and Southern African Development Community have all chosen Kiswahili as one of their official languages. In this way, Kiswahili will play a role in ensuring the African continent achieves its full potential – a goal that UNESCO also works towards, through its Global Priority Africa.

In addition to being a language of trade, diplomacy and unity, Kiswahili is a rich source of cultural expression. For it includes concepts such as ‘amani’, or peace, a common utterance in daily interactions. ‘Amani’ is not only understood as the absence of conflict but also as a state of serenity or tranquillity.

As such, it is something to continuously work towards – a vision that resonates with UNESCO’s own conception of peace as an ideal for which to strive.

This power to foster communication and peace must be preserved – especially in the face of the digital revolution.

That is why UNESCO is committed to ensuring that the potential of Kiswahili is also realised online and why, in our efforts to design guidelines for the regulation of digital platforms, we highlight the importance of linguistic diversity in content moderation, to better combat hate speech and disinformation, while promoting freedom of expression and human rights.

On this day, let us celebrate our linguistic heritage and the cultural richness languages convey. Let us commit to protecting the diversity of languages to express our values and vision of the world at a personal level and to foster peace and facilitate cooperation at the societal level.