Nancy Kacungira regrets not being able to speak Ugandan languages

UK-based Ugandan journalist Nancy Kacungira said she regrets not being fluent in her parents’ Ugandan languages.

The 39 year old in a social media post blamed colonial education systems that made English the default in many African homes.

Kacungira, a BBC presenter and former news anchor, shared the reflection in a commentary on language loss in Africa. 

She noted that children in some schools are still punished for speaking their mother tongues, a practice she linked to colonial-era systems designed to promote European languages.

“Right now in schools across Africa children are still being punished for speaking their own languages. Children as young as five are forced to wear dirty sacks for speaking their mother tongues. Some schools use aprons that read, ‘shame on me, I was speaking vernacular,’” she said.

Kacungira said the system shaped her own upbringing. Her father and mother spoke different Ugandan languages, which led the family to rely on English as the common language at home.

“I live inside this too. I didn't learn my parents' languages until much later in life. My dad spoke one language, my mom spoke another; so English was a language they had in common and it became the default. It pains me that I still don't speak their languages well,” she said.

To course-correct, Kacungira says she is teaching her young son to speak his native languages.

"I am trying to teach my son our languages and that they matter, that they hold something that English doesn’t replace; but it is so clear how easy it is to lose them."

Born in Tanzania and raised partly in Uganda, Kacungira comes from a prominent Ugandan family. 

Her father, Clifford Kacungira, was a pilot with a charter airline in Tanzania. 

She has built an international journalism career, working with KTN in Kenya, NTV Uganda and later the BBC in London.

Kacungira said many parents support English-only schooling because it is seen as the language of opportunity. She argued that the system makes abandoning local languages appear practical.

“After all, English is the language of the exams, of the courts, of the jobs that pay. If your child doesn't speak it fluently, they fall behind. So the choice to deprioritize your mother tongue is not irrational, it's survival,” she said.

She added that colonial systems endure because they make compliance seem logical.

Kacungira urged families to actively preserve their languages by learning from elders. She said even small efforts could help slow language loss.

“So, if there is someone in your family who still speaks a language you did not learn, ask them to teach you something. It could be a simple phrase, a story, a song… a language that is spoken is harder to lose than one that is only remembered,” she said.