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Posted on March 20th 2014
Students create book for Ugandan children
21 March 2014
Until very recently Lugwere was only a spoken language and children have never been taught to read and write it. The first Lugwere dictionary was only published in 2011 and the only text currently available is part of the Bible.
“Education in Uganda is done in the mother tongue in the first few years of primary school but there are no texts available to support students in learning how to read and write,” said Jennifer Coates, Emeritus Professor of English Language & Linguistics at the University of Roehampton.
Professor Coates, who volunteers at our academy once a fortnight, is using her linguistic expertise to help our students get to grips with basic Lugwere. They will then write picture books – simple stories set in a typical Bugwere context – for the youngest children at the local village primary school.
“Fantastic challenge”
Lugwere, or Gwere, is the language spoken by the Gwere (Bagwere) people in the eastern part of Uganda. There are about 400,000 native speakers. “This has been a fantastic challenge as I know little about African languages," says Professor Coates, "but the Year 9 students and I are making progress with Lugwere nouns and verbs, and next term we will start writing the book!”
Professor Coates helps Year 9 students Julie and Shawite master Lugwere nouns and verbs.
Our students will write the first ever children’s story book in Lugwere, a local language of Uganda.
