Tswana language oppression
I seldom listen to my country's broadcasting stations, be it over radio or on television. While the country is undoubtedly mine (I would fight to the death to keep it that way) the language on the airwaves is not. Tswana language is as foreign to me as English language. I have, however embraced the English language for two reasons:
1. As the language of my erstwhile colonial masters, English had to be learnt by all my forebears in the last 200 years.
2. The English language is so widely spoken in the world that one is guaranteed to be understood at least by someone in virtually every country in the world.
Neither of the above reasons applies to Tswana language. Added on to that disadvantage is the fact that Tswana language speakers have become oppressors of my language, therefore oppressors of me, the speaker of that language. They use my tax to improve their language; they build broadcasting stations which broadcast ONLY in their language. They forced me to learn their language at the expense of mine, at a primary school built through my parents' taxes. And now they propagate the lie that because I can now understand their language, I have become them; and therefore I have no separate identity from them. "The end justifies the means", they say. What a load of rubbish! Since the same "desirable" result could have been achieved by them learning MY language, and therefore becoming me, why was such such a pursuit not undertaken? Fact is, what is encroaching on our people is not creation of a shared nationhood, but a wholesale ethnic subjugation.
Because the country is mine, I cannot afford to tire in my efforts to correct it, to rid it of the ethnic oppressors. It is for this reason that I strongly urge my fellow citizens, especially those whose ethnicities are under threat from the Tswanas, to suppot the Bahurutshe of Manyana in their battle to get rid of the notion of Tribal Territories (TTs). These TTs are after all the root cause of Tswana ethnic bigotry. Had it not been for the colonisers carving out these TTs and making guns available to the Tswanas in order to suppress uprisings within them, these TTs would not form part of our country's map today. Furthermore, I challenge all news reporters paid from my taxes to always state the geographical coordinates of the village or town from where they are reporting. Every village has a kgotla. Every town has a civic centre. The coordinates of the kgotla or civic centre should be synonymous with the name of the village or town. Until proper Districts, devoid of ethnic oppression are drawn, the Tribal Territory or "District" where the village or town is located should not be referenced, as it represents ethnic oppression.
1. As the language of my erstwhile colonial masters, English had to be learnt by all my forebears in the last 200 years.
2. The English language is so widely spoken in the world that one is guaranteed to be understood at least by someone in virtually every country in the world.
Neither of the above reasons applies to Tswana language. Added on to that disadvantage is the fact that Tswana language speakers have become oppressors of my language, therefore oppressors of me, the speaker of that language. They use my tax to improve their language; they build broadcasting stations which broadcast ONLY in their language. They forced me to learn their language at the expense of mine, at a primary school built through my parents' taxes. And now they propagate the lie that because I can now understand their language, I have become them; and therefore I have no separate identity from them. "The end justifies the means", they say. What a load of rubbish! Since the same "desirable" result could have been achieved by them learning MY language, and therefore becoming me, why was such such a pursuit not undertaken? Fact is, what is encroaching on our people is not creation of a shared nationhood, but a wholesale ethnic subjugation.
Because the country is mine, I cannot afford to tire in my efforts to correct it, to rid it of the ethnic oppressors. It is for this reason that I strongly urge my fellow citizens, especially those whose ethnicities are under threat from the Tswanas, to suppot the Bahurutshe of Manyana in their battle to get rid of the notion of Tribal Territories (TTs). These TTs are after all the root cause of Tswana ethnic bigotry. Had it not been for the colonisers carving out these TTs and making guns available to the Tswanas in order to suppress uprisings within them, these TTs would not form part of our country's map today. Furthermore, I challenge all news reporters paid from my taxes to always state the geographical coordinates of the village or town from where they are reporting. Every village has a kgotla. Every town has a civic centre. The coordinates of the kgotla or civic centre should be synonymous with the name of the village or town. Until proper Districts, devoid of ethnic oppression are drawn, the Tribal Territory or "District" where the village or town is located should not be referenced, as it represents ethnic oppression.
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