The North West Department of Sport, Arts and Culture will on Friday, 25 February 2011 at Embassy Hall, at 09h00 hold the celebrations of International Mother Language day.
The day has been observed yearly since 2000 throughout the world to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
This year marks the twelfth anniversary of the International Mother Language day with the celebrations based on activities aimed at building capacity, raising awareness, encourage creative writing and reading, support for language related projects and dissemination of information.
The focus is on Setswana, Nama, Gujerati, Sesotho, Xitsonga and English which are spoken in the province. The event will be preceded by the adjudication of the annual provincial finals of the Wordfest competition on the 24 February. The competition features mother tongue reading and poetry, discussions and other artistic spoken word performances.
The activity of the mother tongue will include various presentations by mother tongue experts, plenary discussions on language development strategies, cultural and poetry performance by different language groups, book exhibitions and the awarding of the provincial winners of the Wordfest.
The proclamation of the International mother language day followed a proposal from Bangladesh at the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation(UNESCO) General Conference in Paris on 17 November 1999 to declare 21 February 1952 as an international day on the grounds that on that day many had sacrificed their lives for their mother tongue. Several students belonging to the Bengali Language Movement were killed by Pakistani police and army during the peaceful protests organised. Students called for provincial strike following the declaration of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Governor of Pakistan that Urdu would be the only official language of both West and East Pakistan.
Media is invited to the event that will be held as follows:
Date: 25 February 2011
Time: 09h00
Venue: Embassy Hall, Mahikeng
For more information on this project please contact:
Shirley Montsho (Director: Communication & Marketing)
Tel: 018 388 2763
Cell: 082 345 9525
Source: North West Sport, Arts and Culture
