On the initiative of OBSERV’ communication agency and Kukubaka NGO, the second edition of the International Languages Fair (SILANG) was held from November 15 to 17 in Abidjan Republic of Côte d’Ivoire under the theme: “the ICTs in the service of languages in danger.”
The opening ceremony marking the official launching of the second edition of the International Languages Fair (SILANG) took place on Tuesday, 15 November 2016 from 2.30 PM to 6 PM within the premises of the CAISTAB building at Plateau (administrative neighborhood of Abidjan) in the presence of His Majesty, Nanan Amon N’Douffou. V, king of the Agni Sanwi of Côte d’Ivoire, official promoter of the event.
Were present, the following personalities:
- Karim OUATTARA, Representing Mr. BANDAMAN Maurice, Minister of Culture and Francophonie;
- Professor Charles Binam Bikoi, Executive Secretary of CERDOTOLA;
- FRANCISCO Léandre, Representative of the UNESCO Office in Côte d’Ivoire,
- The Chancellor André Marie EGUE, permanent Secretary of the Chamber of Kings and traditional Chiefs of Côte d’Ivoire.
- Professor BOGNY Yapo Joseph, Representative of the Director of the Applied Linguistics Institute (ILA)
- Honourable BROU Marguerite, Parliamentarian of Abengourou.
The public attending the opening ceremony was mainly made of researcher-teachers, promoters of the Ivorian and African culture, editors, journalists, artists and university students.
The ceremony has been enhanced by the effective participation of CERDOTOLA whose delegation was headed by its Executive Secretary Pr. Charles BINAM BIKOI.
After a series of artistic shows conducted by different groups built up around the “abondan” danse from the kingdom of Agni Sanwi, Mr. Armel AKONDA, general Commissioner of SILANG had the honour to warmly welcome all the participants of the second edition of the International Languages Fair of Abidjan. He expressed his gratitude to all the personalities whose support helped organising this great cultural event.
Many addresses followed from high-rank invitees such as Professor Charles BINAM BIKOI, Executive Secretary of CERDOTOLA, his Majesty Nanan Amon N’Douffou V, king of the Agni Sanwi and Mr. Karim OUATTARA representative of the Minister of Culture and Francophonie.
The Executive Secretary of CERDOTOLA, from the very beginning of his speech, gave the reasons of his participation at the International Languages Fair. This participation, he said, is a response to the solemn invitation presented by the organisers of SILANG who set on making this fair, a tool of rehabilitation and promotion of the African languages and cultures. CERDOTOLA, constant on its mission of developing the African pool of culture, could not refuse such an invitation, for this initiative carried by the will of African youth, deserve the support of all those who believe in Africa and who, through their action, are the living testimony of the fact that Africa needs not to claim its place in the history because Africa is the on-going history itself.
The Executive Secretary of CERDOTOLA highlighted, concerning African languages that Africa has the duty to assert itself, care about itself because the systematisation of alienation and debasement of the African let people thing that African languages are mere dialects, “recluse parlances”. This situation negatively impact on the black person in his speech to defend the matter of his languages; therefore, history teaches that there are no cultures without a language: “No language, yields no culture; no culture, yields no humanity”.
Professor Binam Bikoi invited all Africans, in a new geopolitics context marked both by doubt and hope, to promote life according to their feeling of the world, to quit the different inferiority hang-ups which inhibit their energies, slow down the walk towards progress and competitivity. On that score, he sent out a call to men and women of Africa to commit in using their African languages as a tool of development of their humanity within the vast and divers human Family.
To close up his address he recalled the role of CERDOTOLA which is to work in putting in place a strong project of documentation of African verbal practices without exception so as to professionalise the development of the African pool of culture, and also accompany the policies of States as well as public or private initiatives institutional or common. The relationship between mother tongues and the Technics of information and communication, theme of SILANG 2, lies within this perspective, and it is the reason why CERDOTOLA put in place in Yaoundé and important project of numeric Archives called “ALORA – Archives of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa”. With this tool, African languages nowadays have an appropriate infrastructure to ensure the safeguard, the development, the promotion, the improvement of languages and patrimonial cultures of people in the continent.
Taking the floor after, Nanan Amon N’Douffou V, king of the Agni Sanwi kingdom said he was honoured to be patron of the International Languages Fair. The choice of the Agni people as invitees to the event, gives them a unique opportunity to present to the world the agni language which embodies the genius and the world view of a people whose history started in the ancient Egypt era. The languages, he said, carry all the aspirations of the people who use it. Thus, all should be done to develop and protect them. He commits the Agni community to use the initiative of SILANG to spread the agni language through a massive alphabetisation.
Mr. Karim OUATTARA, Representative of the Minister of Culture and Francophonie closed the series of addresses. He congratulated the organisers of SILANG for this happy initiative. He said the Minster is determinated to support this action which aims at enhancing the stained image of Ivorian and African languages in a view of making them the tool in the service of development. The governmental action to draw up an inventory of the Ivorian material cultural pool should, for him, lay on the linguistic diversity of the people keeper of these patrimonial wealth.
At the end, he wished great success to the session and declared opened the second edition of the International Languages Fair of Abidjan.
The programme of the session scheduled from November 16 to 17 laid on the following themes:
- The twists and turns of the speech in Agni country;
- Ethnic and language concept;
- The necessity of using local languages;
- Information processing in local languages;
- Playful and educative function of tales in agni country;
- Youth and mother tongues in Côte d’Ivoire;
- Numeric Archives of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa, an infrastructure for the safeguard and the promotion of African languages;
- Mother tongues facing the challenge of globalisation.
November 16 was marked by the presentation and demonstration of the numeric Archive of CERDOTOLA by Dr. Emmanuel NGUE UM in charge of this project within the Institution in Yaoundé. Participants to the International Languages fair of Abidjan showed curiosity, interest and smite towards the living illustration of the link between Information and communication technics and mother tongues
Dr. KAKOU Foba Antoine
CERDOTOLA Antenna, Abidjan