The Russian government is considering the introduction of Yoruba language into the Russian school curriculum alongside Swahili and Amharic.
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This is according to Russian news agency, Sputnik.
Yoruba, a language spoken primarily in South-West Nigeria, is being considered for introduction alongside Swahili and Amharic languages.
It was revealed that the development is part of a “new special programme” aimed at strengthening Russian-African ties.
Swahili, is the native language of Swahili people who are predominantly found in Eastern Africa. It is one of the three official languages of the East Africa Community (EAC), with English and French being the others.
Already spoken by over 200 million people in the world, Swahili alongside Amharic, which is predominantly spoken in Ethiopia, will now be introduced in four schools within the Russian federation starting from September this year.
Director of Moscow-based Institute of Asian and African Studies, Alexei Maslov, was quoted as saying during a roundtable on Sputnik that from Russia’s perspective, “an abrupt turn to Africa requires a completely different type of specialists who could work directly with the economy and would realise that Africa is not just one big continent, but in fact, a patchwork of diverse national, religious and linguistic traditions.”
In addition to being spoken by more than 50 millions people in Nigeria and a few other countries in West Africa, Yoruba is also spoken in Cuba and Brazil and in the African diaspora communities in the United States and United Kingdom.
