Nations switching languages

Bujumbura, Burundi viewed from the Lake Tanganyika Beaches

I’ve always thought of Rwanda as a Francophone country. While I’ve been aware of the Rwandan government’s attempts to begin to switch the language of higher education to English, I was not prepared for the overwhelming Anglicizing that has happened here. Driving through the streets of Kigali, French is likely the third most prominent language, following English (probably 80% of all signage) and Kinyarwanda, the national language. While walking through the market today, most people addressed me in English. This country is in the midst of a major linguistic (and geo-political) shift.

Rwanda (along with neighboring Burundi) is a linguistic oddity in Africa. Both nations are linguistically homogenous with only one national language – Kinyarwanda or Kirundi – which are themselves mutually intelligible. They lack the linguistic mosaic that characterizes nearly every other African nation. Both were German colonies in the late nineteenth century and then came under Belgian rule from World War I until the 1960s, entrenching French as the language of education. With the uneasy relationship between Rwanda and France following 1994, Rwanda has made a strong move toward Anglophone East Africa, going so far as to join the Commonwealth.

I struggle to think of another recent situation in the world where a country has quite literally switched its major educational language. Certainly in the aftermath of 1991, the former Soviet republics moved toward reclaiming their national languages. Yet this was a political change. The populations, for the most part, already spoke their languages and most of them had been used to some degree in education at some point in the Soviet Union. This is not the case with English for most of the Rwandan population. I’m told that university professors and secondary school teachers are teaching in English while still learning English. Certainly this creates a bit of national linguistic dissonance.

The situation in Burundi is much more complex. Although the city is much more “Francophone” on the surface (I saw very little English signage, even at the airport, more like Francophone West Africa), it is clear that the professional and educated classes are increasingly learning English. Several universities are teaching in English, although seemingly with a transition at a slower rate than Rwanda. While Burundi has joined the English-speaking East African Community, it clearly intends to keep one foot in the French world as well. Interestingly, I saw nothing written about “Afrique de l’est”. Rather, it was always “l’East Africa”.

Listening carefully to several indirect conversations today, it was clear that Rwandans and Burundians are not unused to linguistic mixing. The predominantly vernacular conversations were peppered with Swahili, English, and French phrases. This is yet another place where identity – and language as a key marker – is very complex. 

I'd say in closing that both Kigali and Bujumbura and their surroundings were among the most beautiful places I have visited in terms of topography. Bujumbura, in particular, with the drama of the Lake Tanganyika shore, the climbing hills to the west and the dramatic mountains of Congo to the east, is a very striking place. Kigali was a more bustling city than rather sleepy Bujumbura. Both are worthy of much more exploration.