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In this interview I chat with the phenomenal Toltu Tufa the founder of Afaan Publications. Here is a little bit about Afaan. The Afaan dream started from the frustration of a weekend schoolteacher who made hand-drawn classroom worksheets to teach children their heritage language. Although the language, Afaan Oromo, has more than 40 million speakers, Toltu Tufa spent more than 10 years struggling to find high quality, accurate and engaging tools that revitalise heritage language learning for children. Part of the reason why Toltu struggled to find appropriate educational materials was this: the Oromo language was hidden from the world for more than 100 years. So one day after discussing her struggles with her brother-in-law, they developed a plan to rebuild the Oromo language by using the voices of their local communities. They developed a business plan and joined with tech savvy, artistic and passionate professionals to create the first ever Oromo children’s literature collection! In 2012, the first textbook and poster series was created with the collective help of local and global Oromo communities. To make the Afaan dream come true, the current plan is to involve everyone in revitalising access to Afaan Oromo, the 4th most widely spoken language in Africa. THE WORD AFAAN MEANS “LANGUAGE” For many people living in the western world, we’ve never known what it’s like to have our identity or our language forbidden. Where do you think you would be today if you had to move and settle in another country with no access to read or write your own language? What language would you speak? What would your children learn of your history? How would you keep your language alive? These questions are a stark reality for many Oromo families. When you ask Oromo parents about the first thing they want to teach their children, most of them will tell you “to speak Afaan Oromo”. They know the importance of teaching and passing on a mother tongue language to children. Even though there are more than 40 million Oromo speakers across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Eritrea; the number of quality children’s publications are almost non-existent. Most attempts to build the language have not been focussed for children. In the Oromo language, the word Afaan has multiple meanings. It is translated as “language”, but it also means ‘mouth’ and ‘speech’. We chose to use the word Afaan and all of it’s meanings to reflect our pride and commitment to revitalising the Oromo language. Check out our websites here: http://www.afaan.com.au http://arabicmadeinchina.com And don't forget to Like on Facebook and subscribe! Afaan Publications https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCizg3kx04Zdp7mux4sKik4g https://www.facebook.com/afaanpublications Arabic Made in China https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUSKK-SMKjrHCrLmxfHJewg https://www.facebook.com/arabicmadeinchina