Debate & the Diminishing Voices of Our Youth Today

For the past three weeks, I have had the privilege of moving across all regions of this country courtesy of the leading debating society in Uganda (the Uganda Debate Society). While in the various regions that we went to, we held debate tournaments that attracted the higher institutions of learning within the area. I know for a fact that for every region, all universities there were covered and some of the other tertiary institutions. The assumption for purposes of this article is that those institutions brought their best or close to their best students and the other assumption is that given the nature and caliber of the tournament, those institutions put in a given level of effort that would warrant any serious tournament. I must say with all honesty that the level of engagement exhibited by the students was far below standard. The measure or yardstick that I employ in this judgment is basic command of the English language, basic argumentation, knowledge of basic information by any student of higher learning and ability to make a consistent argument for averagely five minutes. This is a fair bar of assessment in my opinion and one expected especially for students in institutions of higher learning.

Two causes of the problem in my opinion, either our institutions are not doing enough or probably as students we are also not doing enough to make ourselves better. I will not call into question the accreditation of some of our institutions but allow me examine the second limb of the problem cause and that is with the students. As a little boy in my primary five, I remember vividly the very first debate I engaged in, it was such a disaster. I couldn’t put together two sentences during the debate and yet I had no history of stammering, I was a relatively fine English speaker considering my age then. However, I noticed that perhaps out of fright or even being the first time, I needed to better myself. And for that reason alone, I went to work, I wanted to be a fine speaker, one who the result of the debate would depend on, but I knew for that to happen I needed to find a way of improving. I was better in my next engagement and I kept working, I am certainly much better now than I was 12 years ago.

With time, I noticed that for one to be able to speak, the most fundamental thing is that they must have read because it is very difficult to sustain an argument for more than a minute if you have no knowledge of the subject and you only get this knowledge through reading. I know that many arguments are made without reading and they are sustained with little knowledge but for an argument to be properly constructed, given good grounding and perfectly premised you must have read and have knowledge on the same. The greater part of me thinks (and I stand to be corrected) that the reason why the level of engagement/debate in our community is not improving is because we don’t give it time. I am a great admirer of fine speakers and for that reason alone I pay so much attention to the US Senators. Aside from articulation and language, they have so much knowledge on the subject which often guides their discussion. Perhaps we could say that many of our members of Parliament are not giving us an example but as a matter of fact, there are those who take time off to acquaint themselves with certain subjects and whenever they rise to speak, everyone settles to listen.

Debate just like any sport is supposed to be rewarding and like any sport it should be practiced and perfected overtime. I can tell without any fear of contradiction that when you stop training, like any sport you decline. I see athletes go the gym every day; they are trying to perfect their art and just like them, debate should be a daily practice. The only difference is that debating, if done well, will shape your personality, your intellect and your beliefs. Perhaps I can cut the students I saw some slack because many confessed to have only made their debut appearances during those tournaments. However, this can’t be an excuse for failing on every basic there is.

Our greatest misgiving as a generation is the failure to learn from our mistakes and the failure to desire to learn. We are without a doubt the majority but we stand a risk of not being heard if we can’t express ourselves even in the most basic of ways.