More and more young men I know have found themselves in that space where they come to an awakening and feel the need to learn their tribal language.
The problem is they don't know where to go and how to start.
Many of them are in their late 20's as they start to chart their path into manhood.
Literary titan Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o put Kenya on the international map yet again. He was awarded the 31st Catalonia International Prize "for his distinguished and courageous literary work and his defense of African languages, based on the notion of language as culture and collective memory". He made history by accepting the award in his mother tongue, Gikuyu. But what should have been a celebration of culture, turned into a fight over what language he should have used.
It took me back to my discussions on language. I'm a city born and bred man with the languages I speak being English, Kiswahili, Sheng (maybe, perhaps, depending on who you ask.) What tongue I spoke didn't matter early on, until I joined university and suddenly I felt, or I was made to feel inadequate because I didn't speak my mother (which is usually in practice, father) tongue.
