Levi Kabwato writing in This is Africa:
Our courts are European; we are not. Time to rethink justice in Africa.More hereThe lecture was on how the English language has assumed its powerful status in Anglophone Africa and how the justice systems in these countries, premised on English codes, may actually be miscarrying justice by virtue of their language design.
How many Europeans have adopted any of our uniforms?
The crux of Ngugi’s arguments is: “In nearly all Africa, European languages, though a minority, occupy positions of power in the market place, administration, education and the judiciary. In the courtroom you hardly ever come across a [lawyer who speaks an African language] arguing a case in [his/her mother tongue].
“Quite apart from anything else, all Acts, including the fundamental Law of the land, the Constitution, are all in English.
“Our judicial system, the most consequential in all our lives, in our court system, has no room for African language speakers. The defense, prosecution and the judge occupy a linguistic sphere totally removed from the person whose guilt or innocence is on the line, if he/she happens to be an African language speaker. This was the way it was during the colonial era; this is the way it is in the postcolonial era.”
