Kizazi Kipya – Tanzania’s Lost Generation?

Kizazi
Kipya – Tanzania’s Lost Generation?

Dada
Mzalendo (U.S.A.)

Where
do I begin? I feel like giving you a development of my thoughts over the years,
lakini that would be too private, akin to sharing with you a page of my diary.
And I don’t think you want to read that. Nevertheless, elements of my personal
life will pop up here and there. And I will try my best to put some structure
into this because my brain is, currently, a chaotic place.

So,
I really don’t know exactly what I’m going to say but I’ll just ramble on and
hopefully we’ll get an interesting conversation going and figure out what to do
with this renewed, revived, ever-present hunger for Tanzania. I like using
‘hunger’, I recently adopted it and I can imagine you can relate to it. Like
me, you might be an individual who has grown up in Tanzania and lived or
studied abroad.

Anyway,
as I said, I don’t know what I’m going to say. In fact, I don’t know much about
anything concerning Tanzania. And the realization of this has been recurring
since high school. The realization has become stronger after coming to the US.
Mixed with feelings of homesickness, wonder, awe, shame, fear and
embarrassment, I have been thinking very hard about my particular experience
and how it has influenced my ‘Tanzanianness’.

If
I could sum up in one paragraph my current thoughts, feelings, hopes, and
aspirations for Tanzania, it would be as follows. First and foremost, I feel
there is a significantly large lack of education among middle and upper
classes. Yaani, watu ambao hatujawa na shida ya maisha kwa kiwango ambacho
maskini wanakuwa nacho, tunakuwa wapumbavu. I am speaking of myself here.
Because of my comfortable circumstances, I have become a product of societal
conditions that have rendered me to feel superior, all knowing, and, above all,
separate from, yet still belonging to, Tanzania’s society at large. I felt this
all through primary school, secondary school, and in high school.

One
of the moments that taught me otherwise was when I partook in an Intercultural
Dialogue Camp that a friend organized in Tanzania last year. It was like a
conference, a joining of various youths in Bagamoyo for a night. The main idea
was getting to talk about culture, the role that Tanzania’s youth play,
politics etc. For a while I had realized that the smartest people, the people
who knew most about society, government, and current affairs were poor
people. 


Kila
mara Baba alikuwa ananiambia nisome magazeti lakini hata sikufanya lolote.
Kisa? Nilikuwa naona uvivu. Niliona ni bora nikae tu au niangalie sehemu ya Grey’s
Anatomy au Big Bang Theory. Na niliweza kufanya hivyo kwa sababu
nilikuwa na laptop na nilienda shule ambayo tulikuwa tunapeana filamu n.k. What
I am trying to say is that; I feel as though the better circumstances you have,
the more opportunities you have to mingle with money or other countries and
worlds, the less you care about what is happening in your own backyard. This
may certainly not be true for many. And I am not saying this is always the
case. In some cases, it makes you want to care MORE (after some maturity of
course).

Namna
nyingine ambayo nimeona kuna upungufu mkubwa miongoni mwetu (middle and upper
classes) ni lugha. Kwanza kabisa niseme tu kwamba ni aibu kwamba sijui
Kimachame wala Kimarangu zaidi ya kusalimia. Ingawa ni vizuri Tanzania hatuna
ubaguzi wa kikabila, ni kwa sababu hii hii wengi wetu ambao tunaishi mjini,
tunapoteza cha kwanza, lugha; pili, maadili na tatu, ujuzi wa ujumla wa
historia ya wazazi wetu. Sawa, mara kwa mara, wazazi wetu wanatuhadithia kuhusu
utoto wao lakini haitoshi.

Nakumbuka
miaka kadhaa iliyopita Baba alinipa kitabu cha Petro Itosi Marealle, Maisha ya Mchagga hapa Duniani na Ahera. Needless to say I haven’t finished reading it. Lakini nataka kusema ni kitabu
ambacho, kama kinavyoitwa, kinaongelea mila na desturi za Wachagga, kuanzia
maelezo ya taratibu zinazofanyika mtoto akizaliwa mpaka maelezo ya mchakato wa
kubalehe kwa vijana. Mpaka leo, natamani kuishi muda ule.

Pamoja
na changamoto nyingi ambazo wazazi wetu wamepitia, ninaona kama maisha yale
yalikuwa bora kwa sababu kulikuwa na uwepo mkubwa zaidi wa utekelezaji wa
kawaida wa mila na desturi. Lakini sina maana kwamba sasa hatuna mila na
desturi za pekee lakini zaidi na zaidi kuna tabia ya kwenda uzunguni.
Simaanishi tu kuondoka Tanzania kimwili, namaanisha haswa kimawazo. Na mwisho
wa siku ninafikiri hizi tabia zinavuma zaidi miongoni mwa vijana wa middle and
upper classes. Would you agree?

Pamoja
na upotezaji wa lugha za asili kwa kizazi hiki, kuna upotezaji wa lugha ya
Kiswahili chenyewe. Desemba mwaka 2006 wakati wa Kipaimara changu, nilizungukwa
na familia, marafiki, ndugu, na jamaa. Muda ukafika wa kutoa hotuba yangu.
Nilianza kusalimia na kumshukuru Mungu kwa Kiswahili kwa sababu nilizoea sana
sana maneno hayo. Kisha nikasema, “I will switch to English because I’m more
comfortable speaking in it.”

EBO! Mpaka
leo nikiwaza siku hiyo natamani sakafu ifunguke inimeze. Eti nini? Sawa, ukweli
ni kwamba kwa kuwa nilikuwa kwenye mfumo wa shule ambapo Kiingereza kilivuma,
uzoefu wangu wa Kiswahili ulikuwa umepungua lakini nilikuwa sioni hata chembe
ya aibu. Na kwa sababu lugha ya Kiingereza imekuwa mojawapo wa lugha zetu za
kitaifa; na kwa kuwa kihis[her/ha]toria wakoloni walichochea wazo kwamba wako
juu yetu, basi Kiingereza nacho mpaka leo kinawakilisha maisha fulani ya juu.
Haiishii hapo, mtoto wa ubatizo wa wazazi wangu naye kwenye ubarikio wake
alisema vivyo hivyo. Kipindi hiki nilikuwa ninaelewa zaidi juu ya upuuzi wangu
na nilimuonea aibu kwa hali ya juu kabisa.

Mwaka
jana nilikuwa na hasira sana kuhusu hili tatizo na nikaanza kujiuliza maswali
magumu. Hivi, je, umeshawahi kuwaza ni kwa nini tunatumia Kiingereza kila
tukitumiana ujumbe mfupi wa simu/meseji (texts/sms) au tukiwa tunaongea kwenye
simu? Bila shaka, tunatumia Swanglish lakini mara nyingi ni Kiingereza. Sawa ni
rahisi na (haraka) zaidi kuandika Kiingereza hasa unapokuwa unatumia simu zenye
huduma za kisasa (smartphones) lakini hali hiyo pia inaonesha kwamba tunatumia
Kiswahili mara chache na tuna utegemezi wa Kiingereza.

Kwa
hiyo, niliamua kuanza kuandika meseji za simu kwa Kiswahili tu! Binamu yangu
mmoja akanijibu, “Why are you speaking like that?” That ndo nini? Si ni
lugha yetu! Nikahoji, “kwa nini WEWE unaongea kama hivyo?”


About
three years ago I was keen to learn about how law works in Tanzania. So, I
asked my dad to accompany him to one of his court appearances. You cannot
imagine the utter shock I experienced when I walked in and heard everyone
speaking in English. Before we left, I literally had to pick up my bottom jaw
from the floor. Outside, I asked my dad, “kwa nini wanatumia Kiingereza?
Mtu akija ambaye anaongea tu Kiswahili inakuwaje?” He replied, “there
are translators” or something like that. I simply could not believe what I
was hearing. How exclusive it is to have English as the medium of communication
in court when a majority of the country is not proficient in it. Halafu
nikafikiria Bunge. Mbona saa nyingine huwa nasikia Kiingereza na saa nyingine
Kiswahili? Na tunapenda sana kuwacheka watu
waki“chemsha” kuongea Kiingereza. Tunacheka na tunatumiana hivyo
virecordings n.k. Just sad.

Hivi
karibuni nilipokuwa nachati na rafiki yangu mwingine, kama kawaida nikaanza
kuongea kwa Kiswahili kitupu. Kwanza, akasema kuwa ameushangaa ujuzi wangu wa
Kiswahili; pili, akaniomba niongee kwa Kiingereza kwa sababu ilimpa changamoto
kusoma Kiswahili. Huyu rafiki ni Mswahili fulu! Hana mchanganyiko wowote na
amekulia Bongo. Bila shaka, alisoma sekondari ugenini na cha muhimu zaidi ni
kwamba ni mtoto katika familia yenye uwezo.

Nilishawahi
kumueleza Mama kuhusu hiki kitu. Unajua alinijibuje? Alisema, “ndiyo hivyo
hivyo watu maskini watakuja kuwapindua nyie middle class”. Na ninamwamini
kabisa. Ingawa wengi wetu tunasikia wajibu na tunaelewa umuhimu wa kujifunza
kuhusu Tanzania na kuwa na uelewa wa jamii na lugha yetu/zetu, nahisi kama bado
kuna wengi ambao tunakimbilia maisha bora nje ya nchi au hapo hapo Bongo na
tunakosa picha nzima.


Hali
hii inaniogopesha lakini najua nina hamu zaidi ya kujitambua na kufanya yale
ninayosisitiza ni sawa, yaani kutumia uwezo wangu kujiboresha kifikra na
hatimaye yeyote ninayemzunguka.