Apology to my Mother Tongue
By: Jimmy Spire Ssentongo
Institute of Ethics and Development Studies
Uganda Martyrs University - Nkozi
February, 2011

Dear Mother Tongue,
I write you this letter in apology for the desertion and humiliation that I have caused you. It is a long list of wrongs to you that I want to confess. Given how I have treated you, I know I don’t even qualify to address you as dear any more. I request you to know that, despite all challenges, you are still on my mind though you are less and less on my lips.

To some extent, I will blame my unbecoming attitude towards you on those who taught me in my early days. Back in primary school, I used to be punished severely for associating with you. I was caned in front of assemblies of all pupils; I was made to wear big cow horns around my neck for full days; and to clean the school compound for having spoken you. I was advised to reserve you for holidays, which were only three months of the twelve months of the year! Honestly that left me with little time to learn and love you.

Though I condemn the methods used, I believe the intentions of those who forced me to speak English (your sister/brother) were good. I have actually tasted many of the fruits of that night walk. As I was told, I have noticed that I need English (as the Language of Wider Communication) to expand my horizons beyond tribe and country. Of that I am grateful and would love to connect with more of your brothers and sisters such as Lugbara, Runyankore, Rukiga, Acholi, Lusoga, Runyoro, Langi, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and more.

What I regret is the fact that I had to associate with your brother English at your expense. I wish I treated you as equal to your other sisters and brothers. A lingua franca is a way of coping with linguistic differences, not a way of eliminating them. But I have failed to observe that. Since I was trained to shun you at school, I have grown up with a mentality that English is superior to you. Thus, I despise those who associate with you! I laugh at them. It is worse when they can’t speak English, even if it is not their fault that they can’t speak it.

I listen to people speak, sometimes only looking out for their imperfections in English. But I don’t mind (or even care) if they make mistakes in speaking you. After all, in my mind you are an inferior language not worth being spoken by ‘educated’ people like me. Sometimes, I plainly feel ashamed of associating with you in public! I admire people with British and American accents, but hold low those whose accentuation is influenced by their mother tongues!

In The Clash of Civilisations, Samuel Huntington says that following independence, the elites needed to distinguish themselves from the common people of their societies. “Fluency in English, French, or another Western language did this. As a result, elites of non-Western societies are often better to communicate with Westerners and each other than with the people of their society”. Reading these words, I shamefully see Huntington’s finger pointing at me. You must be feeling so much pain that even when I am talking to someone of the same mother tongue I prefer to use English! I was told you are not official, and I abide. But even outside office?

How come that even when I try to speak my mother tongue I prefer to unnecessarily fuse in so many English words! Even when they serve no better purpose! Okucheckinga, ndi pissed, toli serious ...! But I try hard not to export my mother tongue into English! Speech-wise, I am a nuisance to my friends who ‘never saw enough blackboards’. When I am pronouncing names of Ugandan villages and towns, I try to make them sound English! Did you hear me twist Kampala, Nakapiripit, Jinja, Mbarara...?

I am regaining my senses after making several observations as I associate with other people. Germans will speak to fellow Germans in German, not English. So do the British, the Dutch and the French. Why am I shunning my mother tongue! Why am I so quick to learn many other things apart from my own? Is this mental slavery, self-enslavement, an inferiority complex, neo-colonialism ... ?

I believe that it will take my will and courage to assess my choices and actions. Therefore, as I end this letter, I want to count myself forgiven on account of my humility in admitting my wrongs and committing myself to not only love you more but also ‘literally’ give you deserving ‘lip-service’.

Your prodigal son,

Jimmy Spire Ssentongo
Uganda Martyrs University - Nkozi