Official Statement by H.E. Amb. Minata Samate Cessouma,

1 It is my pleasure as the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development of the African Union Commission, to take part, in the celebration, of the 2nd edition of the World Kiswahili Day, today, July 7 2023 under the theme ‘’Unleashing Kiswahili’s Potential in the Digital Era”. [...] In February 2022, the African Union Assembly on its 35th Ordinary Session adopted the Assembly Decision/AU/Dec796(XXXIV) to make Kiswahili a working language of the African Union and a language of wider communication in Africa. [...] More recently, the use of Kiswahili in the South African school curriculum lends credence to the great potential of the language to enable Africans to speak with one voice. [...] The theme of this 2nd Edition, as mentioned above is relevant to the Language Plan of Action for Africa, as the blue print of the African Union’s language development programme. [...] I would like to sincerely thank UNESCO on behalf of the African Union Commission, and the East African Community for complementing the African Union’s programme of empowering Kiswahili as a language of social cohesion, a consolidation of peace, security, democracy, commerce and trade, integration and development.