Share   Print  Save   Become a Fan

The civil war in Somalia has brought large scale catastrophes, among them is the systematic killing of the Somali language. All schools are taught in foreign languages such as Arabic and English. There are also few schools that teach French and Italian. All the school curriculum was borrowed from foreign countries who have set these curricula to suit their national goals. Besides that our Somali literature has stopped growing due to destruction of national literary institutions. New poetry in Somali is hardly emerging anywhere in this country and our poets and singers are scattered all over the world after they ran away from the tribal conflict whcih swept across the their motherland.

Since we have no national goal or vision at all we were succumbed to the adoption of foreign languages that bring alien cultures to our children and more seriously, murder our language in cold blood. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has stepped in at international level to save some languages from perishing but I don't know how well will their plans help Somalis protect their language.

Poetry is the shield of any language
Without poetry a language is just a victim
It can easily be swallowed by other languages

Poetry is the beauty of any language
Without poetry a language is just colorless
It can't reflect the images of life

Poetry is the protection of language roots
Without poetry language has no identity
It can be claimed illegally by anybody

To preserve the environment you need trees
You can not otherwise stablize the sand
To preserve the language you need poetry
You can not otherwise save it from dying