Independent consultant and blogger in Dar es Salaam
Hear ye, hear ye: The Democratic Republic of Congo deposited its Instruments of Ratification on its accession to the East African Community Treaty on Monday, the 11th of July, 2022.
Although the DRC became a member of the EAC on March 29 this year, it sounds like the event of the 11th of July made the relationship as formal as signing a marriage certificate.
Just like that, Kinshasa is the biggest city in the EAC, clocking in at a respectable 17 million inhabitants.
Congratulations, EAC. Congratulations, Africa. Congratulations DRC! Mombasa to Matadi on one travel document, in one fell swoop!
As milestones go along the dreamways of the United States of Africa journey, this one is a honking big one. With the EAC headquarters in Arusha one might think that Tanzania would totally be ecstatic, but we were our usual selves: Happy, welcoming, distracted and mildly self-absorbed.
It was a public holiday, we were trying to get ourselves to the best tables possible for the afternoon meal and cracking jokes about biryani.
Honestly, the purest Tanzanian reaction I saw that day was a laconic note from a dark-humoured friend in a chat group that simply read, “A few decades later this will be a point with which to answer Civics exam questions about the demise of the Second EAC.”
It is with this dry quip that I would like to welcome our Congolese sisters and brothers to the Community in our Community language: Karibuni sana.
It’s a scraggly gang you have joined but the Secretariat is passionate, committed and absolutely believes in what it is doing. The rest of us indulge them because it is nice to have Big Dreamers amongst us. After all, would the International Space Station exist without international co-operators who dreamed big too?
Tanzania is neither as nice nor as dormant as we present to the world. We are hardly strangers — are we, DRC? Beneath the charming self-effacement is a solid spine and a determination for things to Remain Calm.
We’ve been through a lot and we are well familiar with the Eastern, Central and Southern parts of Africa through long relationships. While it has been pretty good all around to be the nexus of the geographic pan-African encounter, I can see how the DRC might be able to take on some of that burden by connecting us all farther west to the Atlantic, literally centering the EAC geographically and stretching to distant lands like Angola.
Put simply, Tanzania borders eight countries and belongs to Southern African Development Community as well as the EAC. The DRC borders 11 countries and now belongs to the EAC.
I see a lot of potential there: in terms of experience with diverse neighbours, I think we have a lot in common. Let’s share knowledge as well as networks.
Let’s also get one thing out of the way — language. As you know, Kiswahili was celebrated globally on the 7th of July, and this might become a recurring theme.
Essentially, the nefarious plan of the EAC is to establish it as the lingua franca of Africa and the African Union, starting obviously with East Africa and the Swahili Coast. Pretty cool, right?
The complication is that there isn’t one Kiswahili, there are several. Tanzania and Kenya are low-key trying to establish themselves as the supreme authority on Kiswahili Fasaha. I can’t begin to tell you of the pomposity this is engendering, but you will find out soon enough. This is an area in which I think you can help us all.
You see, DRC speaks Kiswahili. Or rather, DRC speaks a dialect of Kiswahili which challenges the rest of us to consider “what, even, is a language?” because it is so very far removed from what we are used to.
My suggestion to you is that you should bring your Congolese Kiswahili unvarnished to all of our big cities. It will make the Zanzibaris cry. It will confound and irritate the Baraza la Kiswahili (BaKiTa) pedants and it will excite working linguists.
It will relieve the Kenyans from Tanzanians’ teasing and it might make us forget that Uganda is being unusually uncooperative about the Kiswahili Agenda. Since you have strength in numbers, you have an upper hand. Use it.
These are early days and I know that the DRC, like South Sudan, comes bearing “baggage,” hence the apropos quip about the impending demise of EAC 2.0.
Don’t take it personally: we only tease the ones we love. Let us see how this newly and vastly expanded EAC goes with the inclusion of the Congolese and hope, always, for the best.
Soyez bienvenue, and good luck. Behold the EAC: from sea to shining sea.
Elsie Eyakuze is a consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report: E-mail: [email protected]
