Batswana and other Tswana speakers are understandably over the moon with the launch of Google service in Setswana. How to know? Sign into your Gmail account from Botswana and what you encounter first are all the messages and direction that would guide you into Gmail, scholar, search and whatever else you do in Google all in Setswana. As a non-Tswana speaker, I’ve had to grope my way around the site and I consistently miss my Gmail link. I try to remember where the link is from the old days when everything was in English. And because I’ve never had to memorize this placement in the past, this strategy does not seem to work. So, I move on to my back up plan. What sounds very much like mail in (from my little knowledge of) Setswana, Kaedi? Wrong again. (I know, I know, I should have made an effort to learn the language, but let’s drive away the fox first before we blame the chicken for wandering too far afield). So I move from link to link until, thank God for little mercies, I finally happen upon English (that colonial language again) with palpable relief and then proceed to find my way around with renewed confidence.
From my little knowledge of Setswana, Batswana (citizens of Botswana, not Botswanans; take note Asians, Americans, Europeans and non-SADC Africans, especially Nigerians!) prefer the spoken to the written version of the language. My research assistant in a survey research I did in Botswana some time back insisted that we print fewer copies of the Setswana version of the study instrument because Batswana characterize the written version as difficult to read. And he did return most of the Setswana copies unfilled unlike the English version. It seems people prefer to be read the questionnaire items than reading and reacting to same. If this experience is anything to go, it may well be that after the initial feeling of national pride, at this Google’s public relations and marketing coup, Batswana may well want their (English) Google page back. Out of curiosity though, which (Setswana) spelling version does Google favour (Dumela, Dumelang)? Over to you Tswana speakers!
I have always maintained that the Tower of Babel biblical account must have taken place here in the African continent. Look at the multiplicity of languages all around us. While Google must be commended for the Setswana initiative as this is guaranteed to keep the language alive, what of the rest of the languages in the continent that are slowly becoming extinct because they are not Bible, Catechism, UN or official languages etc? May be it is about time we started to deploy IT in the task of preserving African languages and culture. I, for one, would be willing to buy an Ibibio language software package that can teach my children my language. A parental task, I must admit, my wife and I have failed at. I take solace in the fact that older couples from the same ethnic stock living far from home are in the same boat as yours truly. And the way today’s children have embraced IT, it will qualify as cool learning local languages this way.
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Postscript: I have since discovered the English button option and, of course, I have swung back to familiar terrain. In addition, I was in Dar es Salaam recently and I discovered that there is also google in Swahili. More power to google!
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