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MOKIRE, MAGÎTÛKORA, MAGÎTÛOROTA, a Kikuyu poem by Ngartia
The poem is generally a story by a poor rural young person, criticizing the ‘They’. These are the learned elite who take pride in their origins and culture but blame the youth for abandoning their...
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Chronicles of language death : El Molo (Kenya).
I was saddened when stumbling upon the following tweet this morning : @gabrieloguda The last fluent #ElMolo speaker died last year. #PreserveOurCultures. It motivated me to find out more about the...
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Interview with linguist Oliver Stegen
Today, we speak with Oliver Stegen the man behind the Swahili translation of Bilbo’s Aragorn poem ! Oliver Stegen was born and grew up in rural Northern Germany where he found his calling at the age of...
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What place for African languages in schools?
I have thought a lot about the place indigenous languages should occupy in the education systems in Africa. The answer is of course not going to be straightforward nor uniform across the continent but...
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Music break: Iddi Achieng (dholuo + kiswahili)
Back from a 3-year contract touring Europe, Iddi Achieng performed last May in Nairobi, once again warming the hearts of music buffs with her unctuous melodies. Always full of vitality, she interprets...
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Tuesday update #1. Why is Swahili so underdeveloped in Uganda?
On 4th December, ‘The world in words’ podcast touched on some very interesting topics under the title ‘A comeback for Africa’s homegrown languages?‘. Two news items particularly drew my attention:...
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The politics of language: the silent masses are not silent at all
In many African countries, including Ghana, the public sphere is dominated by a minority language, spoken by only a small fraction of the population. We look at the politics of language and possible...
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Review: Wanawake wa Heri wa Winsa (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
Adapted in Swahili by Joshua Ogutu, a boisterous interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedy ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ was presented at the 2012 Globe to Globe festival before embarking on an India tour...
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Valentine’s Day multilingual anthology by Ankara Press: a real treat!
I generally don't celebrate Valentine's Day but an anthology released yesterday by Ankara Press gave me a reason to change my ways.
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