The African Union (AU) Heads of States and Governments have approved Swahili to be one of the bloc’s official working languages.

The approval follows a request by Tanzanian Vice-president Dr. PhillipMpango, who presented that Swahili is one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa with about 100 million people within and outside the continent.

“Kiswahili is already in use in various communities including the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as well as a teaching language in many African countries,“ he said.

World Swahili Day

In November last year, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced July 7, 2022, as World International Swahili Day, making it the first dialect on the continent to be recognized by UN body.

“The UN has set aside a day to fete Kiswahili. The language will be celebrated on July 7 every year. The decision has been passed by all members of UNESCO without any objection,” Unesco said in a Tweet.

The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent. It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).

Swahili Wikipedia

Swahili is also one of the languages in Wikipedia, the free multilingual open-source wiki-based online encyclopedia edited and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.

Swahili Wikipedia is the largest edition of Wikipedia in the Nilo-Saharan language, followed by the Yoruba Wikipedia. As of February 2022, it has about 69,000 articles, making it the 87th-largest  Language Wikipedia.