Call To Preserve Multiculturalism

 This was during activities to commemorate the Mother Tongue Day in the country yesterday.

Six days after the 19th edition of the International Mother Tongue Day, Cameroon has concluded its activities in commemoration of the day with a call for its citizens to preserve and promote its multilingual diversity for multilingualism is the rule rather than the exception.

The call was made by linguistic experts in Yaounde yesterday, February 27, 2018 during an event chaired by the Minister of Basic Education, Youssouf Hadidja Alim. Activities to observe this year’s Mother Tongue Day were placed under the theme; “Linguistic Diversity and Multilingualism Count for Sustainable Development.”

The event was an occasion for the Minister of Basic Education to outline measures taken by the government to promote the use, and the teaching of the different mother tongues in the country. One of such was the creation of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism by the Head of State.

With the teaching of the mother tongue in primary schools, Youssouf Hadidja Alim said it has helped children to better understand their culture, interact with others and fit to develop certain competences. The Director General of SIL Cameroon, Bert Visser said there are talks of some languages that are dying while some are vibrant. “The vitality of Cameroon’s languages will depend on Cameroonians, not on outside linguists,&r...