World marks mother tongue day

Last week, the world celebrated the International Mother Language Day. The day, dedicated to reminding us of the importance of our mother languages, or mother tongues, is celebrated on February 21 every year.

The day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in November 1999. It has been observed every year since 2000.

The choice of February 21 was based on a very sad event that took place in Pakistan in 1952. On that date, innocent students demonstrating for the recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were fatally shot by police in Dhaka, the capital of the present-day Bangladesh.

Celebrating the day reminds us to respect our languages and, by extension, to respect ourselves. Appreciation of our cultural diversity leads to the respect and tolerance of other peoples’ cultures thereby promoting peace.

In Kenya, this year’s celebrations were held at the University of Nairobi from February 18 to February 20. The event was organised by the Department of Linguistics and Languages in collaboration with the Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL) and the National Commission for Unesco. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) also participated in the celebrations.

The celebrations comprised speeches, paper presentations, interviews, song and dance, and discussions.  

The two speeches delivered at the opening ceremony were from Prof Jacob Thuranira Kaimenyi, the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and Prof Peter Mulwa Felix Mbithi, the vice-chancellor, University of Nairobi.

Dr Evangeline Njoka, the director, National Commission for Unesco, read her speech in the closing ceremony and reiterated Unesco’s support for mother languages.

The issues covered in the presentations comprised mother tongues as the media for early childhood education, implications of the loss of mother tongues and the status of indigenous languages in Kenya and China. Other topics included the acquisition of Kenya sign language, the wisdom transmitted through proverbs and endangered Kenyan languages.

One of the most exciting presentations was on the wisdom portrayed through khangas. The paper, presented by Prof Rayya Timammy, was so informative that its usefulness to the participants was immediate. One of the participants, a father whose son is soon to wed, disclosed how lucky he felt. His in-laws had asked for khangas. Before listening to Prof Timammy, he had had no clue on what kind of khangas to buy and where to find them. After the presentation, he knew not only what to look for in khangas but also where the good ones could found. A paper on the use of mother tongues as media for instruction in the early years of school life was very topical especially in view of the fact that last year the government announced a policy requiring mother tongue to be used as the media for instruction up to and including Class Three. The policy is in line with the UN recommendations. In turn, the UN stand is based on the results of credible research by linguists, psychologists and educationists.

At the end of the deliberations on the issue, the participants understood the policy’s value. However, it came out clearly that implementing the policy has certain challenges that cannot be wished away. For instance, the country does not have adequate teaching material in the various mother tongues. Such challenges notwithstanding, we should not confuse the challenges of implementation with the essence of the policy. What we need to do as a country is to address the challenges rather than discard an excellent idea.

The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi