THE SILENT DECLINE OF OUR NATIVE LANGUAGES
Now that the festive season has passed, I find myself reflecting on an unsettling reality I encountered in rural communities: many young people cannot speak their native languages, and in some cases, this inability is celebrated rather than questioned. For some parents, their children’s fluency in English, often acquired through private schooling is treated as […]
JUNE 16, 1976: THE DAY THE CHILDREN ROARED
“History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.” Each year, as June 16 approaches, our nation stirs with memory, pain, and a yearning to understand. The date, etched in blood and fire, is more than a memorial. It is a mirror—of what was, what is, and what still must […]
A TRIBUTE TO PROF NGUGI WA THIONG’O
“Keepers of African memory must do for their languages what all others in history have done for theirs“, Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o, at the 2003 Steve Biko Annual Memorial Lecture in Cape Town, South Africa. Of the many encounters I’ve had with Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o, personally and through reading his transformative books, his Steve […]
AFRICA MONTH: CELEBRATING 62 YEARS OF THE AFRICAN UNION
The African Union (previously known as the Organization of African Unity) commemorates its 62nd year since it was established. Over this period, numerous developments have been undertaken, considerable setbacks have been interrogated, corrective courses of action applied, and new resolutions have emerged having political and commercial facets. One of the most significant moments in the […]