Museveni Calls for Swahili as a Unifying Force in East Africa

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has urged East Africans to embrace Swahili as a tool for unity and economic integration across the continent. Highlighting the similarity of tribes and clans in Africa as a unifying factor, Museveni emphasized the role of Swahili in bridging linguistic divides. He shared his vision during the graduation ceremony of 304 Kiswahili students from a free one-year course at Kyambogo University, a program championed by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretariat.

Museveni stressed the potential for Swahili to become a powerful international language, adaptable with vocabulary from various African tribes. “We can build a very powerful language by incorporating vocabularies from our tribal languages,” he remarked, citing words like “Emyooga”—skills such as carpentry and tailoring—as examples.

The initiative, driven by the NRM and leaders like Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, aims to ease communication across East African nations. Kadaga commended Museveni’s support for Kiswahili, dispelling myths that promoting Swahili would eliminate native languages in Uganda.

With over 200 million speakers, Swahili is an official language of the East African Community (EAC) member states, including Uganda. The Kyambogo University event marked a significant milestone in Uganda’s journey to make Swahili accessible to its citizens, with graduates poised to become Swahili ambassadors across districts and communities.

In his commitment to the program, Museveni contributed Shs100 million to the graduates’ SACCO, underlining his dedication to advancing Swahili as a core pillar of East African integration.