By Ben Leshau
In a bid to boost and preserve the Maa community culture, a Maasai Mara University don David ole Munke, has written a book on the Maasai language.
The Human Resource lecturer at the varsity while unveiled his book entitled: ‘The Maasai Language’ said he was triggered into writing the book by the Maa community living in the urban areas who cannot speak fluently in the local dialect.
“The idea of writing this book was born after I realised that there is a growing segment of youth in urban areas who cannot effectively speak their language,” said Munke.
He added: “This book is for people with a clear disconnect from their roots and who desire to learn their language and understand their culture but lack such basic resource to develop their vocabularies”. The don describes the book as an introductory text or a beginners’ guide to the Maasai Language and culture.
“It may not be an A-Z of the Maasai language but rather an attempt to bring the conversation to the fore on the importance of vernacular languages and their role in contemporary society”, he said.
Renowned writer from the Maasai community Henry ole Kulet who has 10 books to his name was the guest of honour during the launch of the book at Oltalet Mall grounds and had praises for the budding writer.
Kulet who has written books such as; Is it possible?, Hunters, The Daughter of Maa, The elephant dance, Moran no more among others said the Maasai culture has a lot of content to be written about and challenged young writers to explore them.
Kulet has, however, challenged young writers to up their game to win the confidence of the mainstream publishers.
Other scholars led by Deputy Vice Chancellor Maasai Mara University Prof Almadi Obere and his communications counterpart Prof Tabitha Sewe hailed the author for his works and challenged him to do more.
