Liberia’s former Minister of culture, National Structure of ACALAN, (Focal Point) in Liberia, Hon. Louise Warmenwoah said that the country’s local languages played a crucial role in winning the battle against Ebola.

She made the declaration yesterday while highlighting the importance of African languages in Africa’s development, at the ongoing meeting of the African Academy of languages with National Structures and Member States of the African Union, in Lome, Togo.

She emphasized the need for greater usage of African languages.

According to her, national languages were used to educate the people on Ebola.

“Most parents in Africa do not teach their children the national languages. A case in point, Liberia suffered the war and the Ebola epidemic.

“When Ebola struck Liberia, they turned to a cartoon character that spoke English, that did not work, I call that a recipe for disaster. At that time I was minister for Culture. I told the WHO that we would like to change that into our national languages and that singular move, helped Liberia to be Ebola free quicker than any other country.

“We took the cartoon character with the approval of the President and transformed it to our national languages and the result spoke for itself. This tells us just how important our languages can be".