Af Soomaali

During the Obama visit to Kenya and Ethiopia in July a lot went down (big things that I’m sure have been written about), including Kidero's grass that my mum tells me some guy formed a song about  and that Kidero says he planted the grass in preparation for the pope’s visit so everyone should just shut up.I watched only one of the Obama speeches because 44 minutes on you-tube over really slow internet cannot be easy and to make up for all the missed speeches I watched Julie Gichuru’s ariririri so many times.

Obama unleashed this line about people and their  identities....... 'And at that airport, as I was trying to find my luggage, there was a woman there who worked for the airlines, and she was helping fill out the forms, and she saw my name and she looked up and she asked if I was related to my father, who she had known. And that was the first time that my name meant something. (Applause.) And that was recognized.

Then there was this spelling mistake by the Ethiopians(one Ethiopian?)

 A spelling mistake on such a high profile visit was a huge over-sight, but that’s not the main point,have you ever met any Ethiopian who does not speak Amharic/Tigrinya/afan oromo or all, even the guys with PHDs will have a distinct Ethiopian accent and call me village but I’m worried for a lot of people I know who only know how to say hi in their ‘languages’ and the rest is just too deep for them to speak and they will sit in their houses and converse in English, and what worries me the most is peeps with young ones who they take to fancy nursery and KGs (this is most definitely a good thing) and talk to them in English at home (the not so good part).25 years down the line they might have those big degrees and fancy jobs but they will wish they spoke their language because I know a lot of people in this predicament including my brother(no fancy schools involved) wishes he learnt Somali because the big rollers that are in his area of work(Isli) speak Somali and there is no way you will tell an old rich man,Adher bank with us and convince them, when half the time you are telling each other say that again?  And he works with a really big bank and they expect him to bring in these big customers how? you ask, Taking them for chai and selling business products in Somali.

With this said I think that probably in the next 25 or even less years there will be a very big confusion in what language is my language considering the number of inter-marriages happening and people having babies with people from other tribes and cultures, maybe the kids then should speak both the language of their mother and father :-) or some hybrid languages say Meru-Maasai (Miss Sharon and Lonina :-) :-) ),Kalenjin-Kikuyu, Kamba-Kalenjin, Luo-Kikuyu……………………………………..

English is one of those things you’ll learn whether in KG or Primary school, it’s a must, wether you speak it flawlessly or with a heavy accent bottom line is you’ll learn it so why start when you are 3 years only.................So classes in own languages should be introduced ama?

Like I found out there are Af Soomaali classes.