Women who went French and why

The origin: The date of March 20 was chosen to celebrate the anniversary of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT) that was born on March 20, 1970 in Niamey, Niger.

This agency marks the first step towards Francophone cooperation, which will become the International Organisation of La Francophonie a little later.

20 years of French
She is currently the head of department of French at Gayaza High School. Irene Nambi Ssebugwawo has taught French in secondary school  for close to 20 years. 

Commonly referred to as Nambi, she was introduced to French at the age of 13,  when she had joined Makerere College School.  Nambi took it on as a dare because her classmates seemed to have a better command of the language and she did not want to be left behind. Her teacher, however, went to France and returned  after nine months.

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The peer pressure of being taught by a teacher  fresh from France kept her on her toes to master the language and impress everyone. 

She went ahead and  studied the subject at  A-Level, alongside History, Economics and Geography. They were two students of French but shortly after,  her peer  dropped out and Nambi remained alone until another student from  another  school joined her in Senior Six.

Dropping French

Fast forward, at Kyambogo University, Nambi pursued a diploma in French (double main) but along the way she attempted to switch  to  Business Studies. Nambi’s mother stopped her and  her  teacher urged her to stay and carry on. Nambi feels that  the move paid off.  She entered a competition of 13 students  to be picked for a trip to  France. 

“I won third place in the all- paid trip to France where we were picked up in limousines. When I return from France, a party awaited me back in the village and many came to welcome me.  Flying was for the privileged those days,” Nambi says.

She was smitten by the sights. Nambi started befriending people who spoke French to improve her command of the language. She also upgraded to a bachelor’s degree.

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Another competition came through and the French embassy needed only one student. Nambi took part and out of the five, she got  the opportunity.

The teacher

She started teaching at Vienna College Namugongo and later Taibah International School.  Being international schools, going to France was not a big deal.

“I wanted to teach Ugandans that were in the same spot I was in before going to France and getting the exposure. So, I  got a placement at Gayaza High School in 2019. The girls  did not know a word in French, apart from few international students,” she recalls.

“However, I realised they were fast learners. By Senior Four, we would hold a conversation in French,”  she says.

She started reviewing her progress when some of her students had gone past Senior Six.

“When the students are in their Senior One, I ask them about their  future ambitions. One  said she wanted to be an auditor. I followed her up and in A-Level, she refused a subject combination without  French. She emerged the best student in the whole country doing Mathematics, Economics and French,” she beams as she recounts. 

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After opting for a business course at university,  her student won a Master’s  scholarship in France  “she is going to be an international auditor”.

Because some parents could afford trips to France, she started an exchange programme after her proposal was seconded by the French Embassy and they got her a school with which Gayaza High School now has a partnership. Gayaza High School students go there and the French students come to Uganda once in a while.

“They were at first scared of coming to Africa thinking they were going to sleep in trees and had no idea of the political status of the country.  The first eight French we hosted could not believe what they saw and suddenly more want to come to Uganda,” she says.

Dream 

I envision a girl from a humble ground at Gayaza High School who has a passion for French like mine; getting a scholarship because of her  brains, travel to France and make her parents proud. Just like I did.

Agatha Tumwiine Magezi- French came calling

Agatha Tumwiine Magezi is the president Association of the Teachers of  French in Uganda and also an assistant lecturer of French in the department of European and Oriental languages at Makerere University.

After transferring her to Seseme Girl’s School in Kisoro, a young girl who had grown up around Bakiga all her life, she was suddenly in a new place with new languages.  Since French was taught at Senior One, she was learning two languages at ago: French and Rufumbira. 

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Tumwiine fell in love with French and, she pursued it after High school. She landed a scholarship for a diploma in French (double main) in Secondary Education.

At the end of the course,  an opportunity  awaited her to travel to  Paris for  a whole new experience, different  from the one she  had in Kisoro and Kampala. She got the urge to advance her French.

“I used my diploma results to get into a diploma holder scheme for my Bachelors of Arts in Arts with French as a major and International Relations as a minor at Makerere University and got there on government sponsorship in 2001,” she says.

She immediately got another scholarship  at the University of Artois in France to study online.
In 2017, she was recruited as a teaching assistant at Makerere University and after her master’s, she got permanent  work placement.

The importance of  learning French
Based on her recent experience, Tumwiine says she has reaped a lot from learning French.
There is a forthcoming  webinar of the European Union that presents opportunities for research grants for Africans. The people who wish to attend have to register online. I have registered  through French Portal because the English one  was full,” she recalls.

She adds that even if her colleagues would want to attend the webinar, it might not be possible if they do not know French.

She says Uganda needs a functional foreign language policy that will allow Ugandans in schools from upper primary to have an opportunity to learn French or any other international languages. In that case, there will be future Ugandan doctors, lawyers, and journalists who are bilingual  who can  work anywhere in the world.

“Let us make Ugandans more marketable. There are soft skills where being able to communicate in different languages can give more opportunities for a person seeking a job,” she says. Tumwiine says she was impressed when she landed a job advert from a tourism company that required one to know a second international language.

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She also encourages mothers to groom children who know their local language so that it becomes easy for them to always have a reference or comparison when trying to understand other languages.

“Leaving a community where I knew Rukiga and a bad command  of English, I went to a place where there was only Rufumbira and I had to learn it alongside French. That ended pretty well and now I am not only a translator in French, but also in Rufumbira,  and Ikinyarwanda,” she says.

Tumwiine is also doing a Master’s in Translation Studies and her aim is to translate folktales from Runyankole-Rukiga into European languages  such as  French and vice versa.

Magaly Losange- Learn  a  language through music
Magaly Losange is French of  Carribean origin and is currently the head of courses at Alliance Francaise. Before coming to Uganda, Losange had to put in extra effort to learn Swahili and English since she wanted to be relevant to her prospective  work  environment.

In 2019, she started teaching French in the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) . Coming from teaching in Mexico, Losange says she was impressed by how quickly Ugandans recognised sounds and caught up really quickly.

“The beauty of Uganda is that the people are exposed to many languages and they are familiar with recognising the sounds easily. When I was trying to learn English, we would focus on grammar which was not very effective and one would still get stuck if they travelled to an English-speaking state,” she says.

Learning skill 
“I went to a special school to improve my English because I struggled for  long to master it,” she reveals.
Her teacher asked Losange  what she enjoyed and she told her music. She was also asked about the genre and her favourite musician. Figuring  out that she only knew the beats and did not understand the songs, the teacher printed out lyrics and advised her to sing along and they would later figure out what the song was about.

“I realised that the connection with the language was more natural and it was easier for me to remember some of the sentences and words,” she says.

She adds that the best way to connect with a language is figuring out what interests one and that will help one to not only  remember the words, but also improve their pronunciation of the words.  That can include music, watching films, and reading. That, of course can be complemented by practising with people who know the language one is trying to learn.

Advice 
Things are changing and women have many opportunities but the reality is that it is always harder for a woman to make a difference. A company will ask more from a woman when applying for different jobs. 

“Knowing more than just the expertise and high grades, an extra language or two can make you irresistible,” she says.

“As much as I do not want to tell people to go abroad and leave their country, it is important for women to be exposed to different countries to be able to see how other people are doing different things,” she adds.

Losange believes, learning an extra language will make it easier for them to travel, experience different cultures, learn more about themselves and come back empowered to do more for their country.

UNESCO says

The French language has always had an important place among languages. First a symbol of culture and creativity, it was then a vector of democracy and humanism, values ​​that UNESCO intends to promote. UNESCO loves, speaks and promotes French - one of its six official languages ​​and one of its two working languages. But more broadly UNESCO celebrating the Francophonie celebrates the cultural and linguistic diversity that makes up the world.

Celebrating La Francophonie is recognising the potential of language and culture to unite people, to create spaces of solidarity and mutual understanding, to reflect together on our common future.

UNESCO and the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) share this common vision that places culture and language at the heart of any lasting effort for peace. and development- en.unesco.org