The National Steering Committee of the World Kiswahili Language Day 2022, headed by the Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala hosted the event on July 7, at KICC to create awareness of Kiswahili being the first officially recognized African Language by UNESCO.
The organized procession was part of celebrations to commemorate the World Kiswahili Language Day 2022.
Later today the Cabinet Secretary will host an event to celebrate World Kiswahili Day at the National Museums of Kenya.
Linguistic diversity and multilingualism are domains of strategic importance that UNESCO promotes in all fields of its mandate.
As part of the implementation of Resolution 71/328, on 23rd November 2021, the 41st Session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) General Conference proclaimed the 07th July of every year as the World Kiswahili Language Day.
This first celebration of the World Kiswahili language day will be held under the theme ‘Kiswahili for peace and prosperity. The mission of the annual celebration is to promote the use of the Kiswahili language as a beacon for peace, and enhanced multiculturalism.
The World Kiswahili Language Day will comprise of an official ceremony; a symposium on the theme; and a cultural evening to portray the rich Kiswahili culture engaging a multitude of stakeholders including Government entities, International Organizations; private sector, diaspora, Non-Profit Organizations and the academia.
All these are aimed at recognizing the global relevance of Kiswahili as a language of global communication built in the daily life of Africans in a constant enrichment of its multiculturality.
In the 1950s the United Nations established the Kiswahili language unit of United Nations Radio, and today Kiswahili is the only African language within the Directorate of the Global Communications at the United Nations.
The United Nations General Assembly, through its resolution 71/328 of 11 September 2017, on multilingualism, welcomed the implementation of a day dedicated to each of its official languages to inform and raise awareness of their history, culture, and use, and encouraged the Secretary-General and institutions such as UNESCO to consider extending this important initiative to other non-official languages spoken throughout the world.
In that regard, the 41st session of the General Conference of UNESCO adopted resolution 41 C/61 that recognized the role the Kiswahili language plays in promoting cultural diversity, creating awareness, and fostering dialogue among civilizations and noted the need to promote multilingualism as a core value of the United Nations and an essential factor in harmonious communication between peoples, which promotes unity in diversity and international understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
The resolution proclaimed July 7, of each year as World Kiswahili Language Day. Kiswahili is the first African language to the recognized in such a manner by the UN.
