Include indigenous languages in the curriculum

This a cause that all foresighted Ugandans should endorse...as our local languages a facing a threat of extinction. In a world run by the 'survival for the fittest' jungle law...Africans should not merely become spectators in their own fate, but active participants in their struggle for cultural, language, economic, political and social independence...!!!

It is 50 YEARS NOW AFTER INDEPENDENCE From Our Colonial masters, but very few regions of Uganda have DEVELOPED their rich local languages....Take a leaf from China, Madarin, will soon be the language to pride in....So what is wrong with developing our own indigenous languages?!?

It is high time the African mind was freed from the vestiges of colonialism...!!!

Time to Decolonize the African mind is now, and one of the instruments to effect this change is priding ourselves in the EXCLUSIVITY and RICHNESS of our local language. There is nothing wrong with the local languages, some are even richer than the English language....in many ways!!! Proverbial, Semantic, Depth of rendering concepts etc......What is wrong with mastering and priding in our own local languages? However much you master the English language, you CANNOT be english if you are born Ugandan with African skin colour! Time to EMBRACE OUR ROOTS and PRIDE in them!!!

--Barbra Natifu--Researcher, University of Oslo.

Every true African at heart must see to it that they prevent their local indigenous (and very rich languages at that), from extinction!!!

How can we claim to be free, self reliant and independent from foreign colonial domination, when we DO NOT Even Eloquently SPEAK Neither WRITE in our NATIVE TONGUES?!? 50 years after independence the vestiges of colonial domination and colonized minds still control the African folks. Time to reclaim pride in what is authentically African...That is, our indigenous local African languages!!!

Yes, since no man is an island, we no doubt, can master foreign tongues for purposes of international networking, but that should not be at the Expense of Mastering our Our Local Mother Tongues...!!!

It is high time the UGANDAN EDUCATION POLICY Changed to address this important Need and Looming Threat!!!

-Barbra Natifu--Researcher, University of Oslo.--

Let the government (Ministry of Education and Sports) think twice. The language teachers in Uganda have persisted and endured despite the many challenges (inadequate supply of textbooks, resources, failure to be put on the government payroll etc). 'If we despise the language of a people then by that very token we despise that people. If we are ashamed of our own language then we must certainly lack that minimum of self-respect which is necessary for the healthy functioning of society'- Armstrong, R.G. (1963).

The move to scrap off the teaching of local languages in Ugandan schools is shortsighted and embarrassing to say the least. Uganda is the only country in the East African Region that has two 'non indigenous' languages as the national language- i.e Swahili and English. While it is good to embrace modernity, read abandoning our traditions and languages, I think it is suicidal for us to neglect and not fight for the promotion of indigenous languages alongside the Western and other African languages that are considered to be regional languages like Kiswahili. Local languages should be taught and promoted because that is the root of our culture and the means of our expression.

#1: Misah - NO knowledge of our Indigenous Languages, no real creativity, innovation, new inventions,& devt

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

― Nelson Mandela

The conditioning of our minds to assimilate, emulate and glorify that which degrades and see;s no value in  our own culture tradition and heritage must be put to an end in Uganda period. This post colonial syndrome that the government is not ashamed to even debate must be fully diagnosed and acknowledged as a mental disorder that has dis empowered both the old and  the the new generation, by uprooting their genuine truth and spirit of expression from their hearts to adopt to the submissive ideologies of this so called english culture which so many ugandans even those who have never step foot in Great Britain claim as their first language. We must educate and teach our children the truth of our land these indigenous languages are a apart of who we are and the spirit within them carry the truth which our ancestors spoke with, to see those in power debating or even plot to put an end to this indigenous wisdom in institutions definitely sums up why the majority of Ugandans especially upper class and middle class are confortable with raising kids in Uganda who pride them selves of not speaking any indigenous languages because of the colonial conditioning of their parents and their desire to fit in the so claimed prestigious class of the elites. Whats is so elite about educated fools who have no self pride and lack the communicating capacity to understand their own community. this foolishness must not be tolerated by any Ugandan - each tribe and all people desrver true liberating education designed to empower them to fully represent their land and their people with the encouragement to particpate in dertemining their destiny. This imposing foreign ideologies and using institution to validate them is a false and unacceptable approach. All Ugandans must awaken and claim their right to exercise, practice and preserve their indigenous expressions, and make sure that we demand all institution to acknowledge the importance and power in our demand, so that we can fully restore and reconnect our youth to this powerful uniqueness that is usually traded for no value due to the standards set by the colonial education that hasn't change for the past 50 year. - You can't love or have any self pride for you self you community or your nation if you have been conditioned to hate  and not love your own language. No man or woman who knows him or her self can  be a slave - but we have seen Uganda breed a slaving generation due to the western assimilation promotion by all institutions for these 50yrs of it's indipendence. This is a time in uganda's history for  the awakening  of it true sons and daughters. The desire and spiritual awakening to reconnect to our true sense of self - worth as we progress forward. Thank you to every one supporting this petition, and i want to thank  those who have created the platform to bring the awareness and inspire us to act....Ugandans Wake UP!!!! . ....