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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Heritage Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Plain Talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
The 21st of February was celebrated as the International Mother Languages Day. When I received the UNESCO's report about this I was surprised, since I thought that it goes without saying that each country and people have their mother language and that there is no reason to underline such a fact.
The UNESCO document revealed that the decision to emphasise mother languages was a response to the process of globalisation. It is not, though, an anti-globalisation step, but simply a move to protect the rights of small countries and minorities to safeguard their culture as expressed in their respective mother tongues.
This decision, taken at the end of a millennium and at the threshold of a new one, has a significance deeper than is commonly assumed. On the surface it looks like a recognition of languages spoken across the world. Linguists are of the opinion that the number of vernacular or spoken languages in the world is in the range of 4,000 - 6000.
The UNESCO decision contains an implicit recognition of the importance of non-dominant cultures. And everywhere in the world, language is the medium through which culture or cultural attributes and aspirations find expression.
In spite of the dominance of Western cultures there is a discernible trend in countries of the so-called Third World to assert their cultural autonomy vis-a-vis the newly emerging world order.
This UNESCO decision reinforces the resolutions of the UNESCO Stockholm meeting in 1998 to bolster a multiculturalism capable of negating Samuel Huntington's much trumpeted thesis of a clash of civilisations -- a thesis that provoked a counter-hypothesis, the dialogue of civilisations, promoted by none other than Iran's President Khameni and strongly supported by the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Intrigued by the UNESCO decision to make 21 February International Mother Languages Day, I went back over this organisation's records to find out how the idea was born. I discovered that it was a Bangladeshi delegation that first proposed the idea.
It was on 21 February, 1952 that demonstrations by Bengali students, demanding their language, Bangala, be accorded official status, erupted in Pakistan. These language demonstrations resulted in the constitution of 1956, recognising the students' demands.
I remember the discussions that took place at the Stockholm Conference which centred around the rights of communities to uphold their cultural identities. There was a vehement speech by a Canadian delegate supporting autonomy for French Canadians. Many African delegates asserted their right to protect or revive their respective culture while the Catalans present distributed booklets containing samples of their literature.
The 21st of February, of the 21st century. What better time to celebrate the great diversity, the many different cultures, that make up mankind. The diversity of humanity is something in which we should all rejoice, and the UNESCO decision to underline the importance of mother languages will be a success if it underlines this fact, and draws peoples' attention to the traditions that often lie unnoticed on their metaphorical doorsteps.
In the end, of course, all the arguments boil down to one simple fact -- that the right to be different must be retained, that the impetus towards ever greater homogeneity must not be allowed to eradicate the inventiveness of peoples over the millennia. history
