The African Union Academy of Languages (ACALAN) Conference! Sunday 18, November 2018 in Kampala -Uganda at Speke resort ended an AU workshop on Harmonisation of Cross border vehicular languages attended by over fifty Doctors and Professors of languages and specialists in the development and use of Kiswahili, Ikinyarwanda, Somali, Luganda, Malagasy, among others.
These delegates from Uganda as the host country, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Somalia, Cameroun, Botswana, Mali, Nigeria, Gabon, Madagascar, Comoros, among others analyzed the importance of harmonising their use and related dialects to empower them towards playing their effective and efficient role of communication for sustainable development of African people and identity.
The Ugandan Minister in charge of Gender and cultural affairs addressing participants of this Continental workshop stressed the need for Africans to develop their languages particularly those vehicular cross border languages.
Honorable Minister Mutuuzo Peace Regis highlighted the fact that Africans were divided by colonialists but can no longer accept being left behind in development.
She deplored the fact that Africans were using European languages and in many situations children not able to communicate to their parents and vice versa, leaders enacting laws and using foreign languages strange to their own citizens which keeps them in desperate state of poverty in their villages!
Minister Mutuuzo Peace whose one of her parents a Rwandan speaking in perfect Ikinyarwanda, demonstrated that as a Mfumbira, Ikinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kiha, Kihangaza of Tanzania and other Ikinyarwanda speakers in DR Congo are just one people with same traditional and cultural heritage.
She stressed the collaboration and common understanding among Africans in developing Kiswahili not only as AU Official language but also make it a truly working language! Kiswahili is spoken by over 200 million people.
Prof. Pacifique Malonga
