Kiswahili is a language that speaks to both past and present.

We consider this as Tanzania's gift to the world,' said Professor Kennedy Gastorn, Tanzanian's Permanent Representative to the UN headquarters in New York, in an interview with UN News - Kiswahili.

Why 7 July?

According to Professor Gastorn, the day was chosen because on 7 July 1954, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU)-the ruling party of then Tanganyika-led by Julius Nyerere, declared Swahili as an important tool in the fight for independence.

In the 1950s the United Nations established the Kiswahili language unit of United Nations Radio, and today Kiswahili is the only African language within the Directorate of the Global Communications at the United Nations. The United Nations General Assembly, through its resolution 71/328 of 11 September 2017, on multilingualism, welcomed implementation of a day dedicated to each of its official languages in order to inform and raise awareness of their history, culture and use, and encouraged the Secretary-General and institutions such as UNESCO to consider extending this important initiative to other non-official languages spoken throughout the world.

In that regard, the 41st session of the General Conference of UNESCO adopted resolution 41 C/61 that recognized the role the Kiswahili language plays in promoting cultural diversity, creating awareness and fostering dialogue among civilizations and noted the...