Reviving Vernacular Literature in East Africa
Yes—English may shape our image, but our mother tongues will forever tell our truths.
East Africa is home to more than a thousand tongues—each one carrying stories, songs, philosophies, and visions for living. Yet, every day, these languages are silenced in classrooms, erased in media, and abandoned in the name of progress. English and French have become passports to success, while our mother tongues—Runyankore, Luganda, Kiswahili, Lhukonzo, Lusoga, Runyoro-Rutooro, Ateso, Kinyarwanda—are pushed to the margins.
But here’s the truth: no nation ever rose to greatness on borrowed language alone. We must write again in the words that raised us—not as a nostalgic act, but as a radical tool for reclaiming our identity, dignity, and future.
The Crisis We Must Confront
Ask a child from Buganda to write a story in Luganda. Watch them hesitate. Ask a university student from Kigezi to compose a poem in Runyankore-Rukiga. Too many will say, “I can speak it, but I don’t know how to write it.” This isn’t their failure. It is our educational system’s betrayal—one that privileges colonial languages while muting the ones closest to our hearts.
We’ve made the absurd normal: children fluent in Lhukonzo or Lusoga being punished for speaking it at school. A Runyoro elder’s wisdom dismissed because it’s not “academic.” A brilliant Swahili folk tale rejected by publishers because “it won’t sell internationally.”
And yet—we wonder why our stories feel foreign, our youth unrooted, our solutions borrowed.
“Yes—English may shape our image, but our mother tongues will forever tell our truths.”
— EVer
The Languages Carry More Than Words
When an elder in Rukiga says “Obuhuta butakwisire bukuha obwengye” (A wound that doesn’t kill you, gives you knowledge), that is not just language—it is philosophy, resilience, a whole worldview in one line.
In Luganda, “Obuntu bulamu” (humanity is life) is not a phrase, it’s a moral compass—community first, always.
In Swahili, “Mti hauanguki kwa kelele za ndege” (A tree doesn’t fall because of noisy birds) reminds us of dignity, patience, and strength in the face of provocation.
And in Lhukonzo, Lusoga, or Runyoro-Rutooro—where proverbs, praise poetry, and ancestral memory are still alive—we find clues to climate care, kinship systems, land ethics, and leadership that we have ignored too long.
📚 Literature in Vernacular Is Not Optional—It’s Essential
We don’t just need more stories. We need vernacular literature:
To teach our children who they are, not just what they should achieve.
To preserve the indigenous science and climate knowledge held in oral traditions.
To document our histories from the inside-out, not the outside-in.
To resist the idea that knowledge must be dressed in English to be valuable.
Imagine if our children could read novels in Runyankore-Rukiga about heroes from their own hills. If folktales from Buganda were taught alongside Shakespeare. If we had poetry slams in Lusoga, short story awards in Lhukonzo, and love songs in Ateso circulating on the internet.
The Time to Act Is Now
We must write—and write boldly—in the languages that raised us. Not perfectly. Not academically. Just truly.
Here’s how:
✅ Writers, start now.
Whether you're fluent or rusty, start writing stories, essays, or poems in your mother tongue. If needed, mix with English—but let the roots be in your own soil. Enjoy it Vernacular (EVer) magazine has a big place for them!
✅ Elders, share freely.
Speak the proverbs. Tell the origin myths. Dictate that unwritten song to your grandchildren. Don’t wait for a “researcher” to come and record you. Go to Enjoy it Vernacular (EVer)
✅ Teachers, open your doors.
Use local languages in your classrooms. Encourage multilingual writing. Invite elders to teach oral literature—not as guests, but as keepers of the canon.
✅ Youth, stop apologizing.
Your language is not backward. It is powerful. Cool. Worthy of Instagram captions and book deals. Write it. Post it. Rap it. Claim it.
✅ Funders and policymakers, prioritize it.
Invest in local language publishing, school materials, and content creation. Support platforms like Enjoy it Vernacular (EVer) that are already leading the way.
Take Action Now
📣 Submit to our current call on the theme of Liberty in Our Languages — open to writers in all East African languages.
🌍 Explore our mission and projects:
A Region That Writes in Its Own Voice Cannot Be Ignored
From Kisoro to Kasese, Jinja to Kampala, Gulu to Mombasa, we are standing on buried libraries—wisdom locked not in books, but in tongues that still live.
To revive vernacular literature is not merely to preserve culture. It is to ignite a revolution—of thought, of pride, of possibility.
Let’s build a canon in our languages. Let’s publish books, launch magazines, host readings, and flood the internet with words from home.
Because when we raise the word, we rise the world.
With purpose and love
Enjoy it Vernacular (EVer team
Raise the Word, Rise the World