Kwa nini Viboko Hawana Nywele (Why hippos have no hair), in Kiswahili
Why the hippo has no hair and never strays far from water: an animal tale read aloud in Kiswahili.
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Mitsitsin Iri: Labarin Wangari Maathai (A Tiny Seed), in Hausa
The life of Wangari Maathai, from a girl on the slopes of Mount Kenya to the woman who inspired millions of trees, told in Hausa.
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Kiswahili and World Kiswahili Language Day
In 2021 the General Conference of UNESCO proclaimed 7 July World Kiswahili Language Day. UNESCO describes Kiswahili as the first African language to receive this kind of United Nations recognition. According to UNESCO, Kiswahili connects more than 200 million speakers across East, Central and Southern Africa and beyond. The day celebrates its literature, music and history and its role in bringing people together across borders.
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Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), born in Nyeri, Kenya, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 ‘for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace’. The Nobel Prize organisation records that she was the first African woman to receive the Peace Prize. In 1977 she started the Green Belt Movement, which encouraged women to plant trees against deforestation and helped plant over thirty million trees. She was also a leading voice for democracy in Kenya.
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Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, with an area of about 69,484 square kilometres, and the chief reservoir of the Nile. It lies mainly in Tanzania and Uganda and also borders Kenya. Among the world’s freshwater lakes, Britannica notes that only Lake Superior in North America is larger. The lake fills a shallow basin on the plateau between the western and eastern branches of the East African Rift.