Patricia "Trish" Kanana Mwenda and Candide Uyanze

In My Tongue is a multilingual interactive documentary that investigates different languages, and the relationships people have with the languages they speak.

VIDEO

https://vimeo.com/candideu/inmytongue

THEMES

The project’s website, www.inmytongue.net, houses a database of audio snippets which explore the many layers, nuances, and politics that reside within and between languages. Notable themes, keywords, and topics addressed include:

- Emotions: confusion, conflicted feelings, joy, regret, discomfort, loathing, frustration, relief - Memories: childhood, language learning, travelling - Social groups: family, friendship, ancestors, school, village, workplace, tribal/ethnic community, marriage - Positive elements: advantage, cool factor, “sexy” factor, beauty - Negative elements: dying languages, punishment, colonialism, language barriers, shame - Miscellaneous: immigration, spirituality/religion, Indigenous languages, dyslexia, slang/dialects, accents, music/singing, intelligence, media, class status, mixing languages (code-switching), intonation

BACKGROUND

A series of interviews were conducted from January to April 2021 with nine people from Canada and Kenya in several languages including Bemba, English, French, Kikuyu, Lingala, Meru and Swahili.

The project leads, Candide Uyanze and Trish Kanana Mwenda, conducted and participated in the interviews as part of their Interactive Documentary course at OCAD University. Trish, who is Kenyan, interviewed three participants: Mwenda, Roy, and Salome, all of whom are Kenyan. Candide, who is Canadian of Congolese descent, interviewed four Canadian participants: Lumenganu and Gabrièla, who are of Congolese descent; Vanda, who is of Polish and Nicaraguan descent; and Z, who is of Congolese and Zambian descent.

EXPLORE

Audience members can filter through the snippets on the “Browse” page, or listen to them all on the “Audio Snippets” page. Visitors are also invited to leave responses to segments that speak to them.