Executive Dean of Bingu School of Culture and Heritage at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must), Atikonda Mtenje Mkochi, says mother languages are important.
She says the languages are key to making sure that young people access information and education services in digital spaces in their mother languages.
Mtenje Mkochi said mother languages promote inclusion, equity and sustainable development.
“Mother languages are instruments of liberation.
This is why Bingu School of Culture and Heritage promotes indigenous languages as a way of dismantling the colonial matrix of power that prevents people from celebrating their mother anguages,” she said.
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Mtenje Mkochi said this as, on Saturday, the country joined the world in celebrating International Mother Language Day, with a renewed commitment to promoting diversity and the decolonisation of linguistics in Malawi.
“Our languages define us, Malawians. They [languages] hold beliefs and values. In many ways, language carries our soul,” Mtenje Mkochi said.
And during a Unicaf hosted webinar titled ‘Every Language Tells a Story’, Mtenje Mkochi reflected on
Malawi’s language policy journeys and reiterated the importance of preserving and promoting “our indigenous languages for cultural continuity and inclusive development”.
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The celebration’s focal point for Bingu School of Culture and Heritage was the Bachelor of Arts in Language, Communication and Culture programme, one of the school programmes that teach students Tumbuka, Yao and Chichewa, among other Malawian languages.
This year’s global theme, ‘Youth Voices on Multilingual Education’, resonated strongly with the school’s vision for the decolonisation of education and promotion of diversity in academia and digital spaces.
Other creatives took time to express themselves in their languages by posting poems and these included Q Malewezi.
Malewezi shared his poem titled ‘Mawu’, which celebrates a mother language—with a focus on Chichewa.
