The East African Education Publishers have underscored the importance of upcoming literature writers authoring their work in African languages for posterity of their communities' culture and local languages.
The E.A.E.P,Chief Executive Officer James Kiarie has challenged literary writers whose books are in the market to consider translating their work into their local community languages, to ensure their work connects with their community members with ease in terms of interpretation and application of the messages in the literary works.
Speaking at Kisii University on Monday where the accomplished Kenyan literary icon Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o was giving a public lecture on ethnicity and devolution in the country, Kiarie observed that having African writers relay their literary messages through the medium of the local African languages will ensure all members of the society benefit from the messages presented in various literary works by African writers.
Kiarie underscored the centrality of language in the promotion of the African languages for posterity from one generation to the other, describing language as a tool of social, political and economic development in any given society.
"As publishers of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's literary work, we belief that language is central to the African culture, and if all the literary works by our African writers is presented and translated to the local African languages, it will ensure posterity of our communities' languages for the benefit of future generations," stated Kiarie.
Kiarie regretted that over-reliance on the western languages by African writers in packaging their African culture literary messages was pushing African languages to extinction, translating to a disconnect between the current generation and the future generations.
His literary publishers,E.A.E.P has called on African writers to either write their works in African languages or have their published literary works translated into African languages for posterity.(Photo/Ben Oroko)