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Every year on February 21, the world celebrates International Mother Language Day, to promote linguistic and cultural diversity.

It also highlights the importance of preserving and promoting mother languages globally.
This year, the theme of International Mother Language Day said, “Multilingual Education is a pillar of intergenerational learning.”

Reports indicate of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world, nearly half are in danger of extinction and are likely to disappear in this century.  

Africa has at least 2000 of these languages, which accounts for one-third of all the languages spoken in the world.  

Nigeria is ranked highest with 522 languages, Uganda has over 65 languages, while Seychelles has the lowest number of languages in Africa, with just three.  

However, the languages are dying out, about seven languages are lost every year, according to researchers.  

The Indigenous Minority Groups, who make up less than 6% of the world population, speak more than 4,000 of the world's languages, according to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  

Some languages die with the death of their sole surviving speaker. Others are being lost gradually in bilingual cultures, as they get overwhelmed by the dominant language in other schools, in the marketplaces, offices, and in the media (including among other television, newspaper radio).  

In Uganda, some of the commonly recognised minority communities and languages today in the north East include Ik (Teuso), Alur, Tipenth, Karamojong clusters.  

In the North West, they are Lugbara, Luluba, Ma'di, Kakwa, Nubian. In the Eastern are the Benet (Ndorobo).  

In the mid-Western are Bagungu, Bakenyi, Bavuma, Ik (Teuso), and Soo; while in the South West are the Batwa (Abayanda), Basongora, Banyabindi, Bamba, and Bakonzo. Others are the Maragoli.  

The Bakonzo are just over 850,000, the Basongora little over 15,000, and Twa just over 6000, according to available government figures.  

In 2022, while speaking on the role of minority languages in conflict prevention and management in Africa during the gathering of Minority Rights Group International in Uganda, the woman member of parliament for Bunyangabu District, and Minister of State for Gender and Culture Peace Regis Mutuuzo, said to save local languages parents must speak mother languages while at home and teach their children the languages as much as possible, instead of using English at home.  

She says of late nearly all elite parents in offices of responsibility have no time for their children. “Parents of this generation of 30-50 have no time for their children. COVID-19 exposed us,” Mutuuzo said.

On her part, Barbra Mutambi Babweteera, the Executive Director Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU), emphasized that language is key for the survival of a culture, and transmission of the identity of a people, and this has helped Indigenous Minority Groups survive to date.

“A language is a tool for communication. It enables information exchange, supports peace talks, and dialogue between conflicting parties.”  

“A language can be used for social identification and association. It is often easy for a group of people speaking similar languages to come together to form a social group such as Luos, and Fulani,” Babweteera said.  

She said: “Language mobilises community. It can be used to communicate sensitivities through among others proverbs, and folklore.”  

Babweteera also said language helps in building relationships. “Language can be used as a tool of power; it can empower or disempower. It can be used to speak to those in power even through cartoons (drawings, symbols).”