Almost always, it is quite a comical spectacle when athletes are interviewed after winning races. A case in point is Charles Lagong’ an athlete who cracked people up owing to his lack of mastery of the English language.
Perhaps one would wonder why these athletes cannot use a language that they are conversant with, even if it is their mother tongue. The journalists would then have to find a translator. And that would not be a source of embarrassment to these champions.
English has often been a language associated with intelligence. Someone should explain to these athletes that not being able to fluently speak the colonialist language does not make one any less intelligent.
The point of language is to communicate. It does not matter which language it is. Colonization brought about the feelings of inferiority to our people, where to appear educated one has to speak English.
It is time our athletes become proud of their heritage, and don the tribal colours quite positively in the international scene. It can be like the Maasais and their shukas.
In a world that local languages are getting extinct, our athletes can be great ambassadors of the tribe, where they can instil pride in it, that there is no shame in speaking your mother tongue.
#hivisasaoriginal