Ethiopia has called on African Union (AU) member states to support its proposal on the inclusion of Amharic among the official languages of the union.
The country made the appeal to the union through its newly appointed Foreign Minister Taye Atskeselassie during the opening of the 44th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the union on Wednesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
At the event, FM Taye expressed his country’s proposal of the inclusion of Amharic, Ethiopia’s working language, among the official languages of the AU.
In alignment with the AU Agenda 2063, and the goal for empowering indigenous African languages to contribute to the continents’ development, Taye said, “I wish to propose the inclusion of Amharic as the official language of the union.”
For him, realizing this aspiration has the potential further empower indigenous African languages in the fruition of the continent’s progress.
“Adopting Amharic as one of the official languages of the union would honour Africa’s linguistic diversity and strengthen our collective identity as Africans,” Taye said.
The FM said: “It is worth noting that the OAU charter was signed in four languages including Amharic.”
In addition to many Ethiopians, renowned Africans like Nigerian journalist and film director Rahmatou Keita have been advocating for the inclusion of Amharic language as official language of the AU.
Keita has been campaigning for the adoption of the language among the AU official languages underlining that Africans must protect and utilize their treasures in which Amharic is among them.
She recently elaborated the rationale of her campaign noting that Amharic is the indigenous language of Ethiopia which is the seat of the AU, and is widely spoken in Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Kenya.
Amharic is widely spoken in Ethiopia since the 9th century and is currently the working language of the country.
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