Somalia to roll out Swahili across national school and university curricula

Analysis: Somalia bets on Swahili to anchor its East African future

In Mogadishu this week, amid tight security and a self-assured regional mood, Somalia’s president reached for a tool as old as nation-building itself: language. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said his government will speed up the introduction of Swahili into Somalia’s schools and universities, a decision aimed squarely at deepening the country’s new place inside the East African Community (EAC).

“The Somali National University, along with all Somali universities, must take the lead in promoting Swahili — the common language of the East African region,” Mohamud told delegates at the 2nd East African Community Cooperation Conference (EACON2025) in Mogadishu on Tuesday. The plan, officials said, will elevate Swahili as a working and instructional language alongside Somali, Arabic and English.

Why Swahili, why now?

Somalia joined the EAC in 2024, becoming the bloc’s eighth member alongside Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The EAC now spans more than 300 million people and an economy well above $300 billion. In that vast space, Swahili is the connective tissue. Spoken by an estimated 200 million people across East and Central Africa and recognized by both the African Union and the EAC, Swahili is as likely to be heard in a lakeside market in Mwanza as it is in a Nairobi tech hub or a Bukavu radio show.

Language choices in Africa often signal political turns. Rwanda’s pivot to English after 2009 aligned it squarely with the EAC. Tanzania’s nation-building owes much to the unifying force of Swahili. Somalia’s own history is instructive: in 1972, the country adopted a standardized Latin script for Somali, part of a major literacy push that was central to state-building. Today’s move is cut from a similar cloth. It is about trade and education, yes. But it is also about belonging — about declaring, in a region still working through its integration pains, that Somalia is in and intends to stay.

From lecture halls to shop floors

The immediate audience for this shift is higher education. Minister of Education Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir said Mogadishu is working with regional bodies to design a framework for bringing Swahili into classrooms nationwide. “We are working to enhance the study and use of the Swahili language in Somalia. We want to see Swahili become a language of communication, trade, and learning — even replacing English during our next conference,” he said.

That last bit — “replacing English” — was surely rhetorical flourish, but it captured the ambition. If Somali universities begin to graduate nurses, engineers and software developers who can navigate contracts in Kiswahili and pitch ideas in Nairobi or Dar es Salaam without an interpreter, Somali graduates will find a wider job market at their feet. For traders in Kismayo or Beled Hawo doing business across the border with Kenya, Swahili isn’t an academic exercise; it’s a daily utility. For small manufacturers looking to sell into the EAC common market, shared language lowers friction and builds trust.

Identity, pride — and the practical path forward

None of this diminishes Somali. It remains one of the continent’s most resilient literary languages with a deep oral tradition. The plan, as described, adds Swahili to a suite of working languages that already includes Arabic and English. That approach mirrors a wider African trend: embracing indigenous languages for cohesion and cultural pride while pragmatically keeping global languages for science, diplomacy and global commerce.

UNESCO’s designation of July 7 as World Kiswahili Language Day underlines how far Swahili has traveled from coastal origins to continental symbol. Across Africa, countries from South Africa to Namibia have started piloting Swahili in schools, betting that the language can unlock regional mobility. Somalia’s decision fits right into that arc.

The hard grind: teachers, textbooks and time

The challenge, as always, is execution. Introducing a language nationwide demands teacher training, curriculum materials, assessment tools and a realistic timeline. The government says its new National Higher Education Board is coordinating with the East African Universities Association and the East African Qualifications Framework. That’s a useful start; it ties Somalia’s education reforms to standards recognized in neighboring states.

But anyone who has watched education ministries wrestle with reform knows the hidden costs. Where will Somalia find Swahili instructors at scale? Can universities partner quickly with Tanzanian and Kenyan teacher colleges? Will radio, TV and digital platforms carry Somali-produced Swahili content that students actually want to consume? And crucially: how will schools balance Swahili with Somali mother-tongue instruction and the demands of English in science and technology?

There is a technological bright spot. In the age of low-cost smartphones, language exposure no longer depends solely on textbooks. Swahili music, film and social media content are abundant. Open educational resources, language apps and distance learning can help bridge the teacher gap — if bandwidth, electricity and funding cooperate.

Signals to markets and neighbors

This is not only about language. It is also a signal. For investors watching Somalia’s post-conflict transition, linguistic alignment with the EAC telegraphs intent: Somalia wants the rules, the markets and the social fabric of its neighborhood. A more Swahili-literate workforce in Mogadishu and Hargeisa — and yes, in the Somali diaspora — makes it easier to issue cross-border tenders, run joint research and grow regional startups that don’t stumble over vocabulary before they get to valuation.

There are geopolitical dividends too. EAC councils and commissions run on Swahili and English. Showing up fluent in the region’s lingua franca changes the dynamic in boardrooms and hallways. It reduces reliance on interpreters and creates those small moments of shared humor and understanding that lubricate diplomacy.

A test of integration’s promise

Ultimately, this policy will be judged not by the number of Swahili banners on campus but by outcomes: Are Somali students landing internships in Arusha? Are Somali traders closing deals faster in Goma? Are Somali researchers co-authoring studies with peers in Kigali and Kampala? In a region where free movement of people and capital is still more aspiration than reality, shared language is the low-hanging fruit that can make the rest possible.

Somalia’s leaders have cast the move in those terms. It is an invitation — to the region and to Somali citizens — to imagine a future where the borders on the map matter less than the bridges built between classrooms, clinics and ports. The question now is one for educators, parents and students: Will they seize Swahili not as a replacement for Somali identity, but as an addition to their toolkit for competing, trading and telling their stories in a bigger East African conversation?

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.