CJ, fix integrity of justice system before language of the courts

Tanzania’s Chief Justice Ibrahim Hamis Juma has been reported complaining that legal practitioners in the country have a problem with the English language. I do not know why our head judge has chosen this moment in time to alert us to this issue, but to my knowledge this is a long-standing reality with which we have failed to deal with.

The English language is to the legal profession what a plough is to the farmer, and legs are to a footballer. Given our history and the way we have evolved in legal matters, saying that our legal officers do not muster enough working knowledge of English is equal to admitting that you have too many people doing a job that is not theirs, just like if you went to the soccer ground to find people pretending to play soccer who have no legs.

Maybe I am exaggerating, but let me make my point. It is not necessary for every Tanzanian to speak or write English. In fact, there are millions of people in the country whose knowledge of English is comparable to my knowledge of Martian but whose lives are quite fulfilling; they do not need that foreign lingo one bit.

But they should not be anywhere near the legal profession, for now at least. It may be a rigged system we are operating under, but it so happens we are set up to operate our legal systems using this alien tongue, just as our medical experts use incomprehensible Greek and our engineers and architects dizzy us with their talk of ‘Vitruvian Man’.

Of course, our lawyers have to be cut some slack from time to time when they want to show off their gift of the arcane garb, especially when they discover they cannot dazzle you with brilliance and decide instead to bamboozle you with their BS, but that is all in a day’s work if you have to deal with some of these ‘learned brothers or sisters’.

But the necessity of having the ability to use the linguistic tools remains unimpeachable for anyone who intends to plead, to interpret or to adjudicate. Otherwise, how do we hold forth on laws that have been passed down onto us from London, via Delhi, down to our shores, all in the language of Chaucer if we cannot even digest Chinua Achebe?

An earlier CJ, Francis Nyalali, did actually opine that it would be salutary if our laws were all written in Kiswahili, but to date I do not know what has happened in the way of taking some action in that direction.

But now, whoever wants to deal with this knotty issue will encounter a new way of thinking that I have discerned among some of our younger people who have been told by some smart aleck that to not know how to use English is somehow proof of your patriotism.

To not know is just to not know, period, there is no glory attaching to ignorance.

It speaks to a new mental disease that some people would foist onto us, the cult of the ignoramus that would have us believe that if you cannot speak or write good English it somehow proves you are an achiever whose resistance against an imperialist language which has oppressed us for so long has born fruits that should be celebrated.

From not being able to speak or write good English, the next step is to not speak or write good Kiswahili, the national language, and then onto your mother tongue, be it Kinyakyusa or Kimakonde, until we are able to raise and showcase multilingual illiterates who we can now crown as our kings and queens in our beloved paradise that is best in the best of all possible worlds… But just how did we get here, and who is the genius who got us to this Nirvana?

Linguistic skills are part of the intelligences human beings are endowed with, and for which they are recognised and compensated. Most of us can make do with the basics of a language because we do not need to delve into its intricacies. But for legal officers the language is the substance, be it French, Urdu or Ukrainian.

Our CJ has his work cut out for him if he really wants to have his officers doing their work properly. Either he adopts strategies to identify those who have the basic competencies to serve in the capacities they seek, including the ability to use English, or he goes the Nyalali way and transition to Kiswahili. It does not help for him to tell us what we already know.

And, by the way, the language issue may not be the most burning problem the CJ may want to deal right now. He may want to think of the perception people have of the Judiciary and look into ways to make the Tanzanians start to believe that their courts are there to serve the ends of justice, not the dictates of those who have money or those who wield political power.

Once the issue of the integrity of the judges is settled, even a magistrate who can’t utter a world will be eloquent.

Ulimwengu is now on YouTube via jeneralionline tv. E-mail: [email protected]