Shabait.com (Asmara)
11 August 2007
editorial
Asmara — The determination to lead a life free from colonialism and foreign domination emanates not only from the heartfelt affection to one's land but also from the attachment to a citizen's special identity, values and origin. Hence, this choice is an outcome of a major sovereign cultural drive. Living in a sovereign country under the umbrella of equality fostering harmony and unity while preserving and developing national heritages and striving for further development partaking at global activities is indeed a noble and successful road for advancement.
Therefore, free and sovereign people keen to attain development and prosperity need, as a pre-condition, to nurture a developed national culture in order to realize their objectives. A civilized national culture is not something that has to be innovated or invented. Rather either by incorporating or growing from the inherited cultural values it is eventually created by emboldening and refining the collective aspiration and anticipation of a given nation and society. Developing national languages holds a top place in this endeavor. Even though language is part and parcel of culture, since it is an instrument for information exchange it has a great role to play in creating a uniform ideological stance. It is also a power that steers the development of culture. Hence, the development of national languages deserves close attention.
In many countries that have a multiethnic composition the issue of languages is usually inflated to the extent of giving it a political dimension, and as such it has been a point of controversy on many instances. However, the Eritrean experience has clearly proved that if it is seen from a just point of view it can't be a matter of political issue. It is thus possible to cast an inspiring national culture that is unified, harmonized, strong and above all a culture that enjoys seamless and excellent features out of the traditional, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. And this Eritrean experience can serve as an example.
Even though the people of Eritrea speak different languages they have succeeded in forging this policy that has a capacity of leading a cohesive life. In Eritrea both scriptable and script less languages are given equal weight. And the policy of the Eritrean government allows everyone to make use of a language that is suitable to the concerned individual. Besides, it encourages citizens to learn and practice more than one language. In this conviction, understanding before hand the importance of education in the mother tongue and analyzing its cultural and psychological advantages, the EPLF has been promoting this from the early days of the armed struggle. And it still continues to uphold this virtue in the post-liberation era. Moreover from the outset understanding the decisiveness of information in expediting all-round national development and respecting the right of people to communicate in the languages they understand, the Eritrean mass media is currently disseminating informative and educational messages using all the country's languages. And in order to enable people enjoy the aesthetic, artistic and cultural productions, and thereby enable it to keep and develop its cultural heritages a lot of leverage is being exercised on different cultural occasions. No doubt, in all these activities the role of language is both vital and decisive. In line with this principle, seminars and workshops that focused on the development of national languages have been conducted from time to time.
As a continuation of these initiatives a two-day symposium titled, "National Symposium for the Development of the Tigre Language" organized by the Ministry of Information will open today at the Hager Media Hall. This symposium is mainly part and parcel of the great effort being made to develop a civilized culture which in turn will reinforce the nation-building process. Success to the National Symposium for the development of the Tigre Language!
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Shabait.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
