What language is spoken in Rwanda?
What language is spoken in Rwanda? Rwanda is one of the countries located in East Africa. It borders Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi. Like in any other country language is directly linked to the culture, ethnicity, and beliefs of the nations of Rwanda and each country can identify itself through various languages but there is always language or languages that majorly dominate and frequently used by the country.
In Rwanda 3 languages are spoken and these include Kinyarwanda, English, and French. All three languages are official and can be used anywhere in the country. However, in other parts of Rwanda for example in Kigali city, you will notice that some of the people speak Kiswahili.
The introduction of Kiswahili in Rwanda is the result of diplomatic ties that Rwanda has with other East African member states that are formalizing Kiswahili to be the official language of East African Community member countries. In Rwanda, Swahili is majorly spoken by trans-border traders. The choice of use of these languages in Rwanda is attributed to past times of colonialists, post colonialists and regional integration have influenced Rwanda to adopt the use of these languages.
Kinyarwanda is a Bantu origin language whose languages are spread and spoken in other countries including Uganda and Congo. Kinyarwanda is an official language in Rwanda and it is an ethnic language there and mostly spoken by the people of Rwanda. All three ethical groups in Rwanda and use Kirywanda and these ethnic groups include Hutu, Tutsi, and the Twa. Majority of Rwanda’s population over 90% Speke Kinyarwanda and it is a language that the people of Rwanda identify themselves with. It is used in daily transactions of business, in most of the media houses and sometimes used as an instruction language in schools and administrative offices together with English.
Rwanda was colonized by Belgium that was a French-speaking country and therefore they followed the footstep of their colonial masters by adopting the French as the official language. Besides this, French is only spoken by a few people in Rwanda especially those who have gone to school or are educated. The involvement of French in the Rwanda genocide made the people of Rwanda slowly detested French and started replacing it with the English language.
English is theme probably their official language of Rwanda ad it is spoken by 0.2 percent of the population in Rwanda. It was introduced in the early 20th century and was made as to the instruction language in schools in 2008.
On the other hand, Kiswahili was made Rwanda’s official language in 2017. This was after the request made by member states of the East African Community to make Kiswahili as an official language in these countries. It is believed that with time Kiswahili will be compulsory in Rwanda’s educational curriculum.
The languages spoken are crucial for communication between citizens of Rwanda, and also speaking or communicating with other states as well as aiding in translating languages to different generations through educational institutions. This means that visitors to Rwanda will have ease in communication if you’re speaking any of those languages. You can also get interpreters in case you feel like you are not understanding what is being communicated.