UoN to assist University of Cape Town teach Kiswahili

The University of Nairobi and the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa held a consultative meeting to explore the possibility of establishing Kiswahili language studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

The meeting took place in the office of the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Nairobi, on Tuesday, January 22, 2022. This collaboration will involve the setting up of a Kiswahili teaching unit at the University of Cape Town.

The University of Nairobi was represented by Prof. Ephraim Wahome, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Prof. Iribe Mwangi, Chairman, Department of Kiswahili and Dr. Basilio G. Mungania, Senior Lecturer, Department of Kiswahili.

The University of Cape Town was represented by Prof. Shose Kisse, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Mr. Daniel Munene, Senior lecturer in the Faculty of commerce, and head of the Centre for Higher education (CHED), University of Cape Town.

The two institutions recognize the growing influence of Kiswahili as an international language that needs to be taught all over the world. Kiswahili’s growing influence can be viewed in the following ways as it is the most widely used African language in Africa continent and in the entire world;it has been recognized as an official working language of the East African Community (EAC); it is a working language of the South African Development Community (SADC), of which South Africa is a member; it is a working language of the African Union (AU), and most recently, it was recognized by UNESCO, which set aside the 7th of July every year to be celebrated as the World Kiswahili Day.

Based on the foregoing, The University of Cape Town would like to take the lead in teaching Kiswahili in South African universities with the assistance of the University of Nairobi.

During the meeting, it was agreed that the two institutions begin negotiations whereby the University of Nairobi will enable the University of Cape Town to provide Kiswahili as a language that students can study at UCT and that UoN shall assist the UCT to come up with appropriate programmes for teaching Kiswahili at UCT by way of curriculum development.