It is no secret that our people are no longer able to speak English fluently. This form of acquired illiteracy is most evident among Kalanga-speaking ministers or should I say "deputy ministers" as that is where most of the hand-picked Kalanga political surrogates end up.
You see, Kalangas have to contend with learning two foreign languages - Tswana and English, whereas Tswana speakers only have to learn English. The result is an unbearable load of an unnecessary language. There is nothing wrong in learning a national language such as Kalanga or Tswana or Mbukushu, as long as the aim is to be able to converse/communicate with fellow citizens in our country, but it is quite unacceptable to be required to master that language, unless it is your own language. What I am saying is that non-Tswana speakers should not be required to learn Tswana at all, unless they want to be professional linguists. There should most certainly be no requirement that to get a job at Botswana Television one should speak Tswana, let alone be "fluent" in Tswana!
We Kalangas can win this fight for our language, for our right to bring up our children under our cultural tutelage, by not only refusing to speak Tswana at official gatherings, but by speaking our language at any gathering where a Tswana speaker uses Tswana. If a Tswana speaker rises in Parliament and speaks in Tswana language, then let a Herero rise and address same Parliament in Herero, let N-Khwa rise up and address same Parliament in Tjikhwa, let a Subiya rise up and address same Parliament in TjiSubiya. Let the people refuse to bow to this insane imposition of Tswana culture on them.
Why is it that in the South African Parliament one can speak Zulu or Tswana or Afrikaans without adverse repercussions? We non Tswanas must throw off this yoke. This is after all our land! We cannot, and we should not expect any political party to have the courage to advance this course on our behalf. It is our fight.
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