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Early 2011: launch of a blog on the Mpongwe language, Gabon
Those familiar with the Sorosoro website know a lot about Mpongwe, this language being the first one ever filmed by our crews at the very beginning of the project, early 2009.
As months went by, a dozen videos made their way online complete with comments and various information: a variant of Myene (Bantu group), Mpongwe is mainly spoken on the outskirts of Libreville and counts under 5,000 speakers nowadays: highly challenged by the presence of French, Mpongwe is threatened with extinction.
These videos online gave us the chance to meet Angela Ontchanga, a sparkling young lady of Mpongwe origins willing to safeguard her language and culture. Among other initiatives, she had created a Facebook group (Go Ntche Mpongwe), a space for young Mpongwe from all over the world to meet, strengthen their ties and gain awareness from as many people as possible.
Angela has just written again, this time to inform us that she has created a blog entirely devoted to her language. That way she’s hoping to « make [herself] useful towards those of the Mongwe community who wish to recover their own culture ». Online as we speak: different sections, a series of daily life expressions and a very interesting article published in Gaboneco: a warning bell sounded by professor of linguistics Daniel Franck Idiata, with whom Sorosoro has collaborated in Gabon.
Based on a study conducted in the country’s main cities on a panel of 3,000 children aged 7 to 12, Daniel Franck Idiata worries about the serious setback suffered by the national languages to the benefit of French. Blame parents, who no longer speak anything at home but French, but also the public authorities, who do not support the transmittal of mother tongues to children anymore. The scholar points out for example the total absence of broadcasts in vernacular language on public television channels.
Standing up to what he qualifies as a « cultural genocide », Daniel Franck Idiata pleads for state-supported community centers, and national language associations and academies so this culture under threat can be revalued and preserved. A great initiative, hoping Angela Ontchanga’s blog on Mpongwe will contribute to the long venture ahead!