Portuguese map of the east coast of Africa, 1630.
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The history of the coastal communities of east Africa shows how ethnic groups and their languages were shaped.
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By the 1950s a standard version of the language emerged, today spoken by an estimated 200 million people.
Students at Mtitu Secondary School in Kilolo district, approximately 500 kilometres south-west of Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar-es-Salaam.
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Students’ fears were not unfounded. I recorded many instances of laughter punctuating student responses in class.
The 2022 event was cancelled but then given permission to go ahead.
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The non-stop four-day dance party is always controversial – this year because of threats of terrorist attacks.
Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere, a Swahili advocate.
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Over two millennia, Swahili has built bridges among people across Africa and into the diaspora.
Walter Bgoya’s passion for reading goes back to the 1950s. But his worldview was shaped in the 1960s.
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Despite a succession of different challenges, Bgoya’s approach has been consistent.
Abdulrazak Gurnah during the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2017.
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The power in Gurnah’s writing lies in his ability to complicate the Manichean divisions of enemies and friends.
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There is something beautiful about African languages carrying science, fictionalised of course, into imagined futures.
In Ghana, “skirt-and-blouse voting” means to vote for different parties for presidential and legislative positions.
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A dictionary of African politics reveals the witty and insightful political terminology that people in different African countries use.
Early education based on a child’s mother tongue gives them a head start in their literacy and language learning.
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Research shows that mother tongue teaching is the most ideal tool for early child education.
Early childhood education can equip kids for later learning.
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Cost-effective, scaleable early childhood development and education programmes can make a huge difference.
Swahili is one of East Africa’s largest languages.
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Kiswahili will be easy for South Africans to learn compared to foreign languages from outside Africa.
Leaders use translators during the inauguration of President Mr João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço of Angola.
GCIS
Raising the status of the African languages to that of official languages in South Africa post-1994 led to an explosion of translation and interpreting work in local and foreign languages.
A South African Buddhist celebrates the Chinese New Year at Nan Hua Buddhist temple in Bronkhorstpruit, South Africa.
Reuters
Much of the recent commentary on Sino-African relations has a negative tone. But genuine cultural exchange holds the promise of mutual enrichment.