"On his part, Prof. Mukoma wa Ngugi, an Associate Professor of English at Cornell University, and the co-founder of Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature, spoke about the importance of languages in the society.
"'The question is: what is a language? You could take a language to be transactional, but you could take language as something that carries an intrinsic value in the history of a people. As a co-founder of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize, I have seen just how deeply deprived African languages are. That’s why the Swahili Cultural Institute is here,' said Prof. Ngugi.
"The speakers’ presentations were timely as the Swahili Cultural Institute’s mission is to encourage more intellectual dialogue, build an inclusive knowledge society and inspire creativity while preserving African cultural heritage."
Read the full Diaspora Messenger article here.
Mukoma Wa Ngugi is Associate Professor of Literatures in English at Cornell University and the author of The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity and Ownership, the novels Mrs. Shaw, Black Star Nairobi, Nairobi Heat, and two books of poetry, Logotherapy and Hurling Words at Consciousness. Unbury Our Dead With Song (a novel about competing Tizita musicians) is forthcoming from Cassava Republic Press (May of 2021).
