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Unima vice-chancellor calls for promotion of local languages

 

University of Malawi (Unima) vice-chancellor Professor John Kalenga Saka has urged Malawians to be proud of their local languages to enhance culture and promote development.

He said this on Friday at Chancellor College (Chanco) when he presided over the launch of a book titled The Phonology of Chichewa which has been co-authored by Professor Al Mtenje and Professor Laura Downing of Gothenburg University in Sweden.

Mtenje: Local languages
are important

“People should be proud of their languages. Let us inculcate in our culture the spirit of speaking our local languages and preserve them because that is what we are. That is what identifies us as Malawians,” he said.

Saka hailed the book launch as a necessity for any university in the field of research and discovery of new knowledge.

“The reputation of any university is largely determined by the quality of its leadership in research, which addresses problems facing a given society. Through research, evidence is generated to improve the quality of life of societies.

“Unless research results are packaged appropriately according to user needs and disseminated, new knowledge cannot inform the improvement of communities and societies. It is, therefore, very important that research outputs are made available to the key stakeholders who have a central role in shaping the quality of human life. The launch of the book today addresses that need,” he said.

On his part, Mtenje said local languages and cultures are very important in the socio-economic development agenda of the country. n

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One Comment

  1. Osanamiza wandu. What good will the study of Chichewa do to our economy? Help sycophants create colorful phrases of praise for the “Dear Leader”? Mxii! Uchindere.

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