Kuku to introduce their language in school syllabus

Schools in Kajokeji County, Central Equatorial State, could soon be teaching local Kuku children in the Kuku language.

Addressing the Kuku congregation in St. Phillip Church in Khartoum, Prof. Thomas Monoja of Juba University in Khartoum said that local community elders and academics worked together to draw up the plans. According to Monoja, the best way for children to succeed in school is through the use of their local language in lessons. He added that many children were unable to use their local language. Unless the situation is tackled, the language will die out quickly.

One of the major challenges will be translating English language texts into the Kuku language, partly because of the shrinking numbers of living Kuku speakers. Monoja promised that committees of elders will be formed in Khartoum, Juba and Kajo Keji, as well as among exiles. They will work to bring people in to work on the project.

Even so, the project will not be an easy task. Engineer Barnabas Dumo, also a lecturer, said a similar translation of educational material from English to Bari (a language related to Kuku) took from 1917 to 1977. With many Kuku starting to move back to the South, following years of wartime displacement, they now hope to rekindle their shared culture and language, which was starting to be diluted in the diaspora.