THE LAST MOTHER-TONGUE GENERATION|©TheBrandCoach™

*THE LAST MOTHER-TONGUE GENERATION: What Kenya’s Changing Classrooms Teach Us About Identity, Adaptation & Thriving as a Brand|©TheBrandCoach™*

We are the last generation that learnt mother tongue as a subject in school.

Think about that.

There was a time — not too long ago — when a Kenyan classroom was made up of one or two tribes, sometimes an entire school sharing one language. Teaching mother tongue was straightforward. Natural. Expected.

But as Kenya modernized…

As migration patterns shifted…

As urbanisation blurred community borders…

As rural and urban spaces became melting pots…

Something remarkable happened:

A single classroom suddenly had more than ten tribes present.

And then the question emerged—

*Whose mother tongue do we teach?

Whose identity takes precedence?

Whose heritage becomes the “official lesson”?*

This was not just a curriculum question.

It was a cultural dilemma.

A Solomonic scenario.

There was no decision that would not cut someone somewhere.

And so — mother tongue slowly disappeared from the official timetable.

But the lesson is bigger than the language.

The bigger shift was in identity…

In belonging…

In how we fit into a rapidly changing world.

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