The Development of the Swahili Language

Extract

At a time when so much has been said of self-determination and of the inalienable right of nations to maintain their own traditions and institutions and to build up distinct types of civilization and culture in response to the impulse of their own national spirit and genius, the importance of national and racial differences in temperament and character needs no demonstration. But the maintenance of national rights is only one aspect of the matter. It is not even its most important aspect. No one race or nation may claim that its own attainments in all branches of philosophy, art and science, can exhaust the possibilities of human accomplishment. On the contrary, it is becoming more generally recognized that each nation and race has its own special contribution to make to the intellectual and spiritual life of humanity. From this point of view, nothing would be gained by the existence of two nations identical in traditions, capacities, and temperament. The contribution of the second would merely duplicate that of the first. For the sake of peace and fellowship there is need of a general similarity in fundamentals, but the intellectual and cultural wealth of nations is derived chiefly from the development of a diversity of special gifts and aptitudes. It is to the special aptitudes and attainments of Palestine, Greece, Rome and Arabia, that the modern world owes more than can be calculated. There is also much to be learned from India and China, and who shall say that Africa has no special contribution to make to the sum of human attainment?