Dec 01, 2015

Oromo: BBC to Broadcast in Afan Oromo in the Horn of Africa


After having received a petition from the Afan Oromo Global Coordinating Committee, that garnered more than 30,000 signatures during a month-long campaign in September 2015 to urge BBC radio to start broadcasting in the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, BBC released a statement approving the request. Despite this positive step towards the recognition of the Afan Oromo language, AGCC calls on speaker of Afan Oromo and supporters of linguistic equality to continue to work to obtain the official recognition of the language in Ethiopia. 

 

Below is an article published by Gadaa.com:

 

The Afan Oromo Global Coordinating Committee (AGCC), the group that lobbied through a successful petition for the inclusion of Afan Oromo in BBC’s upcoming Horn of African service, has released a statement announcing that “the BBC Trust, the BBC Executive Board, and the Government of the United Kingdom have decided to start broadcasting to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in Afan Oromo, the single most widely spoken language in Ethiopia.” The AGCC petition garnered more than 30,000 signatures during the month-long campaign in September 2015.

The following is the full statement posted on the AGCC official Facebook page; in the statement, AGCC also calls upon speakers of Afan Oromo and supporters of linguistic equality to mobilize resources to make Afan Oromo one of the Federal Working/Official Languages in Ethiopia, where it’s spoken by more than 50% of the population; despite this figure, however, Afan Oromo has been deprived of an official status in Federal institutions in Ethiopia.

Photo courtesy of Support BBC Afaan Oromo