Google Doodle is today celebrating a Kenyan Professor, Okoth Okombo who was the founder of the Kenyan Sign Language Research at the University of Nairobi.
The late Okombo died on November 1, 2017 and would have been 71 today.
Google described Okombo as an eminent researcher of Nilotic linguistics (from the Nile River region) and the pioneer of African sign language studies.
During his lifetime, he published over 30 scientific publications focusing on the structure, vocabulary and sociological aspects of the deaf in the country.
Okombo’s efforts saw the implementation of the Kenyan Sign Language in schools, hospitals, churches, media houses and churches.
He implemented similar projects in Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland, and South Africa.
Some of his works include a functional grammar of Dholuo, Reflections on Theories and Methods in Oral Literature and The Suba of Kenya: A case of growing ethnicity with receding language competence.
“As a member of the Omusuba tribe raised during a time of British colonial rule, Okombo witnessed firsthand how the elevation of the English language eroded his ethnic identity by pushing his mother tongue of Olusuba to near extinction,” states Google Arts and Culture.
He was inspired to have a lifelong mission to preserve indigenous African heritage.
Okombo attended Kaswanga SDA Primary School and Mbita High School in Homa Bay.
He caught an interest in languages at an early age and wanted to pursue a career as a teacher.
Okombo was awarded a scholarship to the University of Nairobi, where he received his B.A (1977), M.A (1979) and PhD in Linguistics (1987).
He pursued his linguistics doctorate at the University of Nairobi from 1981-1986, during which he also published ‘Masira ki Ndaki’ (“Misfortune is Inevitable”) in Dholuo.
‘Masira ki Ndaki’ is considered one of the first novels published in a Kenyan language.
As a professor of linguistics and literature at the University of Nairobi, he founded the Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) Research Project in 1991.
The project led to the widespread adoption of KSL across Kenya, allowing the nation’s deaf community to secure new opportunities in society.
Okombo was further elected by The World Federation of the Deaf as its international president from 1992 to 1995.
