Why mother tongue carries deepest cultural knowledge systems

The late Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o. [FILE]

The late literary luminary Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o, in a televised interview, once asserted that one who abandons their mother tongue in favour of a foreign language is, in essence, a slave.Language, he argued, is not merely a tool of communication but the vessel of thought, imagination, and cultural memory.

To forsake one's first language is to sever the roots that nourish identity, to inhabit a world filtered through foreign eyes. In contrast, one who embraces their mother tongue while learning foreign languages stands empowered, capable of navigating multiple worlds without losing the depth of their own.