As is the case across Africa, posters in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, warn citizens to practice safe sex, but here they carry the message trilingually.
Rwanda is one of the few countries in the world where both English and French are official languages, next to the national tongue, Kinyarwanda. But unlike Canada, where a linguistic feud is entrenched in the national psyche, not to mention the statute books, or Cameroon, a marriage of formerly separate colonial territories, one British, one French, Rwanda has very recently adopted the English language, and did so rather painlessly.
The introduction began in 1994, when Tutsi rebels trained in Anglophone Uganda took power in the former Belgian colony at the end of a devastating genocide.
Until then, Rwanda was firmly one of Africa’s French speaking countries, but these new leaders changed that. This was not just a matter of habit but also a deliberate ploy to distance themselves from the ousted Hutu elite and their close friends in France.
Paul Kagame, the leader of the rebels and now the president, never speaks French in public and speaks English as if it were his mother tongue. At first, pessimists predicted problems. Rwanda proved them wrong.
”There is no rivalry between French and English. On the contrary the two languages complement each other,” explained Thierry Mesas, a French consultant working in the Rwandan ministry of youth, sports and culture. ”There is no language war in Rwanda. Bilingualism is an advantage for the country, given its geographical situation,” he added.
On one side of the small, landlocked central African country lie Anglophone Tanzania and Uganda, on the other French-speaking Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ”It is true that some French-speakers felt threatened when English was declared an official language but today they realise that they were wrong,” said a Rwandan teacher.
”Those who make a lot of noise on one side or the other forget that very few Rwandans speak French or English,” he added. According to government figures, less than 20% of the population speak anything other than Kinyarwanda.
”The rivalry is a false problem. Bilingualism is actually good for us because it opens doors,” explained an official in the education ministry.
”Our children learn both languages from primary school. Later they could work or study in any country, which wasn’t the case before bilingualism,” he pointed out. These days, Rwandan students are as common in Britain and the United States as they are in France and Belgium.
Kagame himself has urged the youth of Rwanda to learn both languages, and encouraged English-speakers to overcome their reluctance to learn French. In government, parliament and the army headquarters, English and French speakers work side by side. Rwanda’s passport and the official gazette are in all three official languages.
”There shouldn’t be any rivalry between English and French in a country where everybody speaks the same (first) language (Kinyarwanda). These second languages are tools we should use,” said a young musician.
”If you do not make an effort to speak both, you will simply be left by the wayside,” he added. – Sapa-AFP