How to roll back Chirwa (Setswana) language

 There are several practical steps that can be taken to successfully roll back Chirwa:

1. Chirwa language should immediately lose its “official” status to the English language.

2. Ability to speak Chirwa language should immediately cease to be a requirement for one to obtain Botswana citizenship.

3. Chirwa, just like other “indigenous” languages, should cease to be a compulsory subject in schools. Where possible, scholars should be encouraged to study any other languages spoken in the country, including Chirwa. Only English should be retained as a compulsory language in schools.

4. Knowledge or proficiency in Chirwa should immediately cease to be a requirement for one to get a government Department of Information and Broadcasting job. Instead, that requirement should be replaced by consideration of THE TOTAL NUMBER OF “INDEGENOUS” languages that the applicant is proficient in.

5. Government should move to legalise community radio stations which will have the latitude, though not the compulsion, to use local languages. In these stations, the status of Chirwa language should be no different from that of any other “indigenous” language.

6. The village parliament or Kgotla, should conduct proceedings in the language spoken by the majority of the villagers. Any official, such as the village chief or the tribal secretary, who is not proficient enough to do his/her job in the language of the majority should be fired!

7. Any public gathering, including Parliament that is not averse to the use of Setswana language, should not be averse to the use of any other indigenous language.

8. As long as our country continues to be officially referred to as “Botswana” the notion of a “Tswana” culture should be severely discounted, because it is simply not possible to have a culture encompassing ALL nations present in our country. This is not to say that a Tswana culture does not exist; rather the culture falsely lays claim to our misnamed country!  


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