The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has settled on 7th July to celebrate the Kiswahili language. This makes it the first language in Africa to have its own day of celebration.
According to UN, the decision was arrived at after all its member states came to a consensus during a conference at its headquarters in Paris.
Kiswahili is recognized as one of the official languages used in Africa with the East African co-operation using it as its official language.
In September this year, People’s Daily, a Chinese online news website joined a list of international media organizations broadcasting and publishing news content in the Swahili language.
The Chinese state-owned media giant headquartered in Beijing launched the Swahili version of its website, Swahili.people.cn. Also unveiled alongside the Swahili website by the company are the Italian and Kazakh online news platforms.
This is part of a continuing ‘effort to expand its worldwide programming to target new regions, groups, and content categories.’