ONE of the most cruel legacies of colonialism was the brainwashing of indigenes not only to hate their language, but also ditch it in preference to a foreign one.
And the two tools they used – religion and education – we have to accept, though grudgingly, were very efficient.
Thus at one time blacks were ashamed to be identified by their vernacular names because they were despised as unChristian and therefore heathen.
In education, you could not proceed to the next grade unless you passed English language.
In fact, to this day, your ‘O’-Level certificate is considered invalid without the English Language.
In Africa, the net effect of this was admiration for the colonial language at the expense of one’s mother tongue.
Today, the official language in any country in independent Africa can be used to identify the nationality of the colonising power.
The most disturbing aspect is that this seems to be accepted enthusiastically by most African countries.
Zimbabwe is a notable disgrace.
Walking the streets of Harare, you will be forgiven for believing that most of the blacks, especially the younger generation, have English as their mother tongue.
Ask for directions in Shona or Ndebele, in most cases, the instructions are given in English.
Greetings are invariably in English.
Back home, admiration for English is ridiculous to the extent that you find a mother fascinated to hear her three-year old at a creche reciting greetings and other quotations in English.
We have been brainwashed by colonialism to the extent that anything African, including our own language and our rich culture, are considered primitive.
We were erroneously conditioned to believe that progress and therefore education is only possible using the English language.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rapidly developing countries like China, Malaysia, India, Iran, the list goes on, have instructions in their mother tongues.
Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry Botany, Economics and Law, among others, are all taught in these countries’ mother tongues.
In our case, we did not need an English architectural instructor to put up an awesome structure like the Great Zimbabwe.
In fact, in our previous editions we have articles that demonstrate how science can be taught in Shona.
This includes all the other subjects, our former colonisers would like us to believe, whose success could only be through the English medium.
The Mother tongue is richer and capable of being more effective in conveying meaning to both our children and adults.
You don’t have to be literate, for our language comfortably blends with our culture.
It is unfortunate that we still have a tendency to shun names in the mother tongue.
And yet most names in the vernacular tell a history related to your birth or members of your clan.
We have been so much Anglicised and converted to Christianity to such an extent that at one time ‘respectable’ names were those of British monarchs or those of characters in the Holy Bible.
The worst case scenario is the more recent trend of rendering names meaningless by attempting to shorten them.
Why resort to names like, Pipi, Ta, Kiki, Widzo, Chichi, etc when we have lots of meaningful names in our mother tongue?
As we clamour for a change of colonial names, be it on institutions, roads, bridges or farms, let’s take the initiative by giving names reflective of who we are to our new suburbs, streets, schools, among others.
Let’s be proud of our language.
It looks like we only tend to appreciate the beauty of our language when a whiteman is speaking it fluently.
We don’t have to wait for Heath Streak to give an interview over the state of our cricket in fluent Ndebele to realise how beautiful the blackman’s language is.