EA Kiswahili Body To Get Land for Permanent Seat in Zanzibar

AFTER operating in rented premises for years in Zanzibar, the East African Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) can now sigh a relief.

The Isles government has finally assured the regional organization of land to construct its permanent. headquarters.

The assurance was made by Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi on Thursday last week when he graced the Kiswahili International Day.

"We will avail land for the purpose",, he said, noting that this was among the support it will extend to the  institution.

EAKC was established over  a decade ago and tasked to promote the use of Kiswahili language in the region and beyond.

This is to be undertaken through research, teaching, learning and development of the language through policy formulation and knowledge generation, among others.

The East African Community (EAC) Treaty,unveiled in 1999, recognizes Kiswahili as a community-wide language (lingua franca) among the populace of the region.

However, efforts have been underway to elevate it to a working language of the EAC whose official language has been English.

The effort paid off only months ago when the EAC Council of Ministers, a powerful organ of the Community, made a decision to the effect.

President Mwinyi said Zanzibar will extend full support to the Commission not only for land to construct its permanent seat.

Given that Tanzania is the home of the language, the Commission would also enjoy technical support from the local Kiswahili experts.

The inaugural Kiswahili International Day was held locally in Zanzibar on Thursday with a series of activities, including  a symposium.

The decision that July 7th each year  be marked as an International Kiswahili Day globally was made by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in recognition of the international status of the language.

Although it became operational in 2015, the Kiswahili Commission has been without permanent premises due to budgetary constraints.

It has spent a lot of cash to pay rent and as late as last year it was forced to cough in a staggering $ 265,021 to renovate its rented building.

Speakers at the first International Kiswahili Day in Zanzibar included the deputy secretary general of the EAC Steven Mlote.

He said a special meeting will soon be organized by the Community for all its seven member states to discuss the development of the language.

"The onus of the meeting is on how to improve the usage of Kiswahili and allocation of a budget for the purpose by each country", he said.

In Arusha, the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Pindi Chana said Kiswahili would also be streamlined in the development of the hospitality sector.

This will begin in earnest later this year during the 6th Edition of Swahili international Tourism Expo (S!TE) in Dar-es-Salaam in October.

The annual Expo aims at drawing the tourism and travel professionals from around the world as well as the business captains in the sector.

Tanzania's tourism will benefit through promotion and linkage to the international markets and companies from other parts of the world.

Although the Expo has a character of a business networking  for the tourism industry, this is blended with social and cultural dimension, a key component in the travel sector.