Education Report - Working to Protect West African Languages and Culture

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Anahit	Educational	Experts	Gen	He	Lome	Togo	a	between	century
cultural	financial	generation	have	himself	is	language	of	our
people	reduced	rituals	second	through	today	uncivilized	unseen

estimate that half of the 6,000 languages spoken on planet will have disappeared by the end of the . In West Africa, academics are trying to protect the and rich cultural heritage of Togo.

At the University Lome, professor Nbueke Adovi Goeh-Akue studies video of Gen rituals. The professor is a cultural heritage specialist. He is a Gen, one of many ethnic groups in . He has made films of Gen cultural customs with assistance from the United States. He says the Gen an important place in Togo's history and culture. Gen show how its people see their world, the interaction the living and the dead, the seen and the . The Gen believe in many different voodoo gods. But , professor Goeh-Akue says fewer and fewer Gen children go voodoo initiation ceremonies. He says that increasingly, the new does not recognize the importance of these cultural traditions. says formal education and the spread of Christianity have their influence. Many young people think traditional practices are . And while the Gen language is widely spoken in , the professor says it is not taught in schools. is one of about 39 languages spoken in Togo.

Minasyan is a language specialist with the United Nations , Scientific and Cultural Organization. He says a language needs who speak it as their first language. She says language needs people who can speak it as their language. If there are not, she says, a language extinct. She says languages can die as a result increasingly globalization.

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