23 Feb 2020

Language has the ability to communicate unique ideas which address challenges  such as poverty, climate change, disease and conflicts.

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Tumiso Rakgare said this at the national languages commemoration in Selebi Phikwe recently.

Mr Rakgare said people should pride themselves with their languages in different ways such as dance and song.

He highlighted that Botswana was founded on different ethnic groups and therefore its relations with its neighbours was of paramount importance.

Gaza Trust Centre for Cultural Initiative director, Mr Hebert Pikela said language should be used to address challenges of today, saying once it failed to address them and lost its space in the official business it would cease to be relevant.

Thus, he advised that official business be done in local languages.

He added that language was a communication tool that communicated culture and cultivated cross border cultural ties with the aim to stimulate social economic development.

“Some indigenous knowledge has been faced out and therefore imported ideas from other regions should complement what we are already working on, within our context. When we import ideas like the education system then we cease to be ourselves. A person without a language is a person without a soul,” he said.

He lamented that indigenous and unique ideas had also been locked in archives and museums. “A language must speak the commerce of its speakers. It must also share the inventions and innovations of its speakers,” he said.

Further, he emphasised the need to have conducive policy environment for languages to realise their full potential, hence mother language education system was essential.

He added that the Zimbabwean government was now issuing out community radio licenses to each language community with the aim to promote local languages. ENDs