Rwanda marks International Mother Language Day
Rwandans have been urged to embrace the speaking of Kinyarwanda, their mother tongue, without mixing speech with foreign languages, in the latest effort to preserve the language.
Officials and scholars made the call Feb.24 during celebrations to mark this year’s belated International Mother Language Day, in Rwanda’s capital Kigali.
The celebrations featured question and answer sessions in Kinyarwanda for students as well as poems in which winners walked away with prizes.
The event organized by Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy drew scholars, researchers, policy makers and students.
Rwandan Minister of Youth and Arts speaking at the event, Jean Nepo Abdallah Utumatwishima, said for Rwandans, Kinyarwanda language carries a critical value beyond acting as a means of communication because it is an essential pillar of their identity.
He reminded Rwandans that it is important to use Kinyarwanda in their daily lives without mixing it with foreign languages during speech in order to keep their culture vibrant, strengthen communities and transmit it across generations.
It is everybody’s responsibility to properly use Kinyarwanda, preserve it as one of the pillars of national development based on our cultural heritage, he said.
