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International Mother Language Day
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International Mother Language Day has been celebrated every year since February 21, 2000. UNESCO created this commemorative day to remind people of the importance of linguistic diversity. As an organization for education, science and culture, Unesco sees great potential in languages as a way to promote prosperity, social change and sustainable development.
What is the historical background of International Mother Language Day?
International Mother Language Day dates back to 1952. At that time, it was decided to make Urdu the only official language of the Pakistani province of Bengal, although around half of the inhabitants there spoke Bengali. With the intention of preserving the language, there were uprisings. However, this activism failed to lead to any significant success. In March 1971, East Bengal finally became independent and as the newly formed Bangladesh, Bengali was again made an official language.
Language diversity in Tanzania
In Tanzania alone, up to 130 different languages and dialects are spoken. With a total population of 58 million, this East African country has some of the greatest language diversity in the world.
Kiswahili (Swahili) is recognized as an official language; English is mainly used in higher education, although Tanzania has been declared independent of the United Kingdom in 1964.
However, the widespread use of Kiswahili, the “language of the coastal dwellers”, threatens to displace the unique dialects of smaller tribes in everyday life. But even languages which are spoken by a higher percentage of Tanzanians, such as Sukuma (12 %), Chagga (6 %) or Maa (3 %), might sound unfamiliar to most of Europeans already today. The different ethnic groups often live in specific regions of Tanzania: The Sukuma, for instance, close to Lake Victoria, the Chagga near Kilimandscharo massif and the Massai, who use their dialect “Maa” to communicate, can be mostly found in the environment of the adjacent Kenia.
On a global scale, UNESCO estimates that 50 percent of the 6,700 or so spoken languages could disappear in the long term: a great loss of a “cultural and intellectual heritage”.
Kiswahili is the predominant language in Tanzania
Kishwahili is a Bantu language. It is made up of a group of 500 languages within the language family of the Niger-Congo languages. As the official language of Tanzania, Kishwahili is dominant in almost all areas of society.
It may sound astonishing that only about 70 to 80 percent of the Tanzanian population understands and speaks Kiswahili at all. For several million citizens, the lack of language competence actually means indirect exclusion from social life: Media use, for example, and thus the right to information, market attendance or participation in religious services are significantly more difficult or even impossible for this group of people.
Despite the lack of universal education in languages within Tanzania, Kishwahili also enjoys a high status in some other countries south of the Sahara. In total, about 80 million people can communicate with each other in this way.
Education is the cornerstone for language preservation
As early as 1953, UNESCO called for every child to be provided with a uniform and fair start in life. To support basic literacy, the organization advocated that every student should begin their schooling in their native language. We address education as the key to sustainable development in “The Story of SDG4: Quality Education“.
For sure, the high diversity of languages, as is the case in Tanzania, complicates the demands of UNESCO. The more languages spoken, the more intensively teachers have to be trained. Furthermore, there are additional costs in the production of teaching materials. International Mother Language Day therefore focuses on the advantages of linguistic diversity every year to counteract this.
When everything fits, the motto is: thumbs up. And everyone understands this universal sign language – whether you’re a child, an adult or a student in Tanzania or in Germany.
And especially children know that there is a solution for (almost) everything. In other words – Hakuna Matata – there are no problems.
Written by Muriel Burke & Teresa Mönks[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]