Milton Obete Speech Makerere University

7/23/2019 Milton Obete Speech Makerere University

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Milton Apollo Obote was the first Prime Minister of Uganda from the time of its

independence in 1962 until 1966 when he became President of the Republic of Uganda. In

1967 Obote gave a speech on language and nation building at a conference on nationalunity held at Makerere University.

The task of opening Seminars insofar as I am concerned very often gets me in trouble.

When I received your letter to open the Seminar, I had to take a quick decision and I had toconsider carefully whether to come here and discuss with you in the Opening Address what Iconsider to be important in respect to the issue.

I came to the conclusion that I should not at the Opening Address say too much that mightcreate an artificial atmosphere in the Seminar. I agreed to come to open this Seminar notonly because of my association with one of the organisations cosponsoring it but also

because of my interest in the subject matter of the Conference. I have a personal interest in

the subject matter and at the same time in an official capacity I have a very big interest inwhat you will be discussing here for the next four days.

I want to say briefly that Uganda finds difficulties in identifying herself, and that Uganda has

a serious language problem. Our present policy as a Government is to teach more and moreEnglish in schools. We are not unmindful of disadvantages inherent in this policy. We know

that English, before Independence, was the language of the administrator. It was thelanguage of the people who were rulers and by which Uganda was ruled. We know that

many of our people learned English in order to serve in the Administration, at least to serve

our former masters. It would appear that we are doing exactly the same; our policy to teachmore English could in the long run just develop more power in the hands of those whospeak English, and better economic status for those who know English. We say this because

we do not see any possibility of our being able to get English known by half the population

of Uganda within the next fifteen years. English, therefore, remains the national language inUganda when at the same time it is a language that the minority of our people can use for

political purposes to improve their own political positions. Some of our people can use it inorder to improve their economic status.

In spite of this reasoning, we find no alternative to English in Uganda’s present position. We

have, therefore, adopted English as our national language—in fact it is the political languageNo Member of Parliament, for instance, is unable to speak English and indeed it is a

qualification for membership to Parliament Those in the Seminar will understand the

challenge facing us. The Uganda National Assembly should be a place where Ugandaproblems are discussed by those best able to discuss them, and in our situation it wouldappear that those best able to discuss our problems are those who speak English. This is a

reasoning which cannot be defended anywhere; there is no alternative at the present

moment. We do also see that those amongst us in Uganda who speak English and haveobtained important positions because of the power of the English language, are liable to be

regarded by a section of our society as perpetrators of colonialism and imperialism; or at

least as potential imperialists. This, fortunately, has not yet become a public issue inUganda. Nevertheless there is a real possibility that as long as English is maintained as the

official language, spoken by a minority, a charge against its use could be made on theground that it is the language of the privileged group.

But the Government and the people of Uganda do realise that there are certain advantages

in our learning English. We could not, for instance, adopt Lugbara—one of our Northernlanguages as our national language. It is clear that the task of teaching Lugbara itself would

be beyond our capacity and ability and since language has an economic power in that



with the people in the neighbouring countries in broken Swahili but it is not possible for the

people of Uganda to communicate with the neighbouring countries in broken Luganda. If we

cannot communicate with our neighbours in broken Luganda today, how much more difficultwould it be to try and communicate in first class Luganda.

LANGUAGE AND NATION BUILDING

I do think also that Swahili has its own problems within the context of Uganda. It is possiblethat one can learn a language without taking the culture that that language expresses. But

the real question as I see it here is: Why should Uganda learn Swahili? or Why shouldKenya adopt Swahili as a national language, or for that matter, why has the Government ofTanzania announced the policy of the adoption of Swahili as a national language? I ask this

question because I am not quite convinced that having adopted an African language as a

national language, a tendency would not develop to discourage all other languages aroundthe country. If that tendency developed and became the official policy, are we satisfied that

my remarks regarding the inability of Luganda to express Dingidingi songs would be

satisfied by Swahili? I am not satisfied, and here we are trying to think about a possibleanswer to the question of why we need an African language as a national language? Do we

need it merely for political purposes, for addressing public meetings, for talking in Councils?Do we need it as the language of the workers, to enable them to talk and argue their terms

with their employers? Do we need an African language for intellectual purposes? Do weneed such a language to cover every aspect of our lives intellectually, politically,economically?

I would not attempt to answer that question but it appears to me that Uganda at least isfaced with a difficult future on this matter and the future might confirm that a decision is

necessary to push some language deliberately and to discourage the use of some otherlanguages also deliberately.

Swahili was taken out of schools in the past for political reasons but I think there were alsostrong cultural reasons.

When Independence came, Radio Uganda was broadcasting in English, Luganda,Runyoro/Rutoro, Ateso and Lwo. Today we have added another ten languages on the Radio

and this is a subject that interests me a great deal. Perhaps in this Seminar you will find ananswer as to what is the objective in having a National Radio. I am in Government and Ihave to take political feelings of the people into account in formulating policies. I would not

say that all our fourteen languages on the Radio are in every case necessary but I would not

also go as far as to say that they are there merely because of political reasons. I think tosome extent—much as we would like to have one language—there is advantage in

broadcasting in these various languages as things stand today. Our policy on Radio Uganda

is to inform the public and that is our first task, first objective. We want to inform thepeople of Uganda. We find it exceedingly difficult to inform the Karamojong in Luganda or inany other language except their own, so we have Karamojong Broadcast on the Radio. Then

we use the Radio for educational purposes and we find that to assist those who never wentto school at all, we must broadcast in their own mother tongues.

Then there is what is called entertainment which should actually be development of culture.

Since the Radio began broadcasting these various languages, there has been a new spirit inUganda, simple composition of songs, dance teams and various competitions around thecountryside. Every village is eager to surpass the other in its cultural activities with a view

that one day Radio Uganda recording vans will pass around the village and record the songsand the poems of a particular group. We find this useful although we are creating a problemof how to co-ordinate these activities in future.



The only aspect which I do not like on our Radio but which I cannot do anything about, is

the “Pop Song”. But I understand that there are people who like pop, so that too has tostay.

When it comes to news, our National Radio is in the same weak position as many national

radios in Africa. I will perhaps illustrate this, by telling you that I know of a Minister in theGovernment of Uganda who followed the Sierra Leone trouble by tuning to the B.B.C. and to

the Voice of America. He never tuned to Nairobi. He never tuned even to Kampala thoughhe was in Kampala. When I asked him why he did so, he said he got more news about

Sierra Leone on B.B.C. and the Voice of America. Certainly there was more news on the

B.B.C. and the Voice of America about Sierra Leone—more than Radio Uganda could give.What news was it? And in any case what is news?

Well, we struggled for Independence. We have got it. There remains a problem in thiscontext as to whom we should listen and what we want to hear. I find it extremely difficulthere in Uganda to give the people of Uganda what I consider news. I find it difficult

because, first, we do not have enough trained manpower to collect what we consider newsthroughout Uganda everyday and to present that news to the people of Uganda.

Secondly, we have tremendous difficulties in broadcasting what is news in Kenya, or what is

news in Tanzania—the happenings in Kenya or the happenings in Tanzania, or thehappenings in any part of Africa. What comes to us as news very often turns out to be ideas

of those they call “informed observers” and if you go to investigate as to who are the

“informed observers” you will find their position extremely interesting and disturbing. So weare not giving the right type of news to our people first because of our own inability to

collect the news within our territory.

This is because of lack of contact and lack of communication channels between one Africancapital and another. The O.A.U. has been talking about an African News Agency. This is the

age of talking. We, find it easier to talk about Union Government and to write the

Constitution of that Government, than to talk about African News Agency or to talk abouthow to finance it, and yet the struggle goes on as to who should control the minds and the

ears of Africa.

Today I have to, like all my colleagues in Africa, think in a foreign language in order toexpress myself to Africans on problems affecting Africans. When I move out of Kampala to

talk to the people, I have to talk in English. Obviously I have no alternative but I lose a lot

especially as far as the Party is concerned. The Party welcomes everybody and some of thegreatest and most dedicated workers are those who do not speak English and yet the PartyLeader cannot call this great dedicated worker alone and say “Thank you” in a language the

man will understand. It has to be translated. There must always be a third party, and that iswhy it is said there are no secrets in Africa. This is our challenge. We are a young countryand the vitality of youth should be able to lead us to greater days. I urge particularly the

people of Uganda to turn the weaknesses of today into the strength of tomorrow.

- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/1967-milton-apollo-obote-language-and-national-

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Milton Obete Speech Makerere University

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