by Ignatius Mugabo and Mark Krzanowski

Few people know that 21st February is International Mother Tongue Day. The Day was officially declared by UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organisation) to celebrate language diversity, multilingualism and pride in one’s native tongue.

The significance of the event i! s linked to the tragic events of 1952 when many Bangladeshi people, most notably students, died in order to defend Bangla, the language which symbolised their national identity, against the imposition of Urdu as the language which was meant to suppress the language of the Bangladeshi nation. The unified effort to preserve one’s culture and the beauty of one’s national language is nothing new.
 
The Polish nation is known to have preserved its language in its purest form from circa 1795 until 1918: in those years Poland had been partitioned by three superpowers, and it seemed as if Polish as! a language would eventually die out. This was never the case, as Poles had never forgotten what made their culture unique, and proudly waited over the centuries until 1918 when the country, the culture and the language re-appeared on the map of Europe. This is the reason why in Poland (which has around 40 million people) all the people speak with the same accent: as a gesture of defiance against those who wanted to crush their national pride, and eliminate its language.
 
Perhaps the best modern example of what it takes to defend one’s native language is the attempt of the Kurdish na! tion living in Diaspora for the last 80 years: 35 million people dispersed in at least five countries, with no national state to hold on to, have been doing their best to preserve the beauty of their language. Their mother tongue played a major role in uniting Kurdish people despite their religious differences, which in itself is a remarkable act.
 
A similar struggle has been taking place in many African countries: Rwandans of Tutsi extraction spent more than three decades scattered around the world stateless but managed to hold on to their culture and mother tongue, Kinyarwnda.  
 
Luckily, given the incredibly high number of indigenous languages in Africa (e.g. Nigeria has more languages than India although the latter has a much larger population), it was impossible for colonialists to wipe out African indigenous languages but many of them are in danger of being forg! otten or suppressed.
 
The linguistic diversity of Africa will be the subject of a two-day conference to be held in London from Saturday 4th to Sunday 5th March 2006. The Conference, organised by the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and sponsored by The British Academy, will be held at The University of London in Central London.
 
The event will bring together applied linguists, language teaching practitioners, translators and interpreters, writers, poets, educators and all those interested in promoting, developing and preserving African languages. Confirmed speakers are from Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia as well as UK-based African professionals.
 
Conference information is available at www.mkuked.co.uk