{"id":54810,"date":"2025-07-09T10:42:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T10:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-reaffirms-commitment-to-promoting-kiswahili-language\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T11:05:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:05:31","slug":"rwanda-reaffirms-commitment-to-promoting-kiswahili-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-reaffirms-commitment-to-promoting-kiswahili-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda reaffirms commitment to promoting Kiswahili language"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Rwanda recognizes the importance of Kiswahili in achieving inclusive and equitable education. Our government made a decision in 2017 to designate Kiswahili as one of the official languages of the country, alongside Kinyarwanda, English, and French,&#8221; Minister of State for Education Claudette Irere told the closing the 4th World Kiswahili Language Day celebrations in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This move was not just symbolic. It was a deliberate strategy to position Rwanda within the East African Community and the broader African linguistic landscape, while also strengthening African solidarity and fraternity,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Caroline Asiimwe, executive secretary of the East African Kiswahili Commission, said Kiswahili language is fundamental to building society, nations, and the EAC region.<\/p>\n<p>She emphasized the commission&#8217;s commitment to youth empowerment and digital innovation, urging young people to take ownership of Kiswahili&#8217;s digital future and use it as a tool for entrepreneurship and peace building.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let us build AI tools, dictionaries, and platforms in Kiswahili not only to preserve the language but to empower the next generation of African innovators,&#8221; Asiimwe said.<\/p>\n<p>Co-hosted by Rwanda and the East African Kiswahili Commission, the two-day celebrations were held under the theme of &#8220;Kiswahili, Inclusive Education and Sustainable Development&#8221; to examine relevant policies, best practices, and stakeholder engagement.<\/p>\n<p>The event drew more than 300 participants, including senior government officials, delegates from EAC partner states, academics, Kiswahili experts, and university students.<\/p>\n<p>The celebrations featured a regional symposium, youth engagement sessions, and an exhibition.<\/p>\n<p>Participants explored how Kiswahili, artificial intelligence, and inclusive education can advance a culture of peace and drive innovative initiatives.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-90620\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/a-54.jpg\" alt=\"The event brought together participants from different EAC countries. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-90621\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/b-48.jpg\" alt=\"The event drew more than 300 participants, including senior government officials, delegates from EAC partner states, academics, Kiswahili experts, and university students.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rwanda has reaffirmed its commitment to promoting Kiswahili language as part of the country&#8217;s efforts to strengthen African solidarity and fraternity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000090618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[235],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-xinhua"],"bylines":[{"id":235,"name":"Xinhua","slug":"xinhua","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":80}],"contributors":[{"id":235,"name":"Xinhua","slug":"xinhua","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":80}],"featured_image":{"id":2000090618,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/a-21.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/a-21.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/a-21.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/a-21.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/a-21.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/a-21.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000090618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54810"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54810"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}