A SHONA FIRST IN SCOTTISH PARLY

A new Member of Parliament in Scotland plans to take her oath in Shona today. Maggie Chapman, MSP for the North-East, said :“Shona is the ma...

A new Member of Parliament in Scotland plans to take her oath in Shona today. Maggie Chapman, MSP for the North-East, said :“Shona is the majority language of Zimbabwe and I was born and brought up there.

“I am not a native speaker but it is the language of my country of birth so I am bringing a little bit of Africa into the parliament chamber – I expect it will be the first time the oath is done in Shona. My mum still lives in the house I was born in so it is still very much home, if you can have two homes.

“It is a wonderful thing to celebrate the different heritages of the different parliamentarians and it says something about our openness to the rest of the world as well.

“There is an opportunity here to bring something from the other side of the world into the chamber and that is really quite special.”

She added: “My mum is not the greatest at technology but I am hoping a friend can get her set up to watch Parliament TV. My partner will also be watching from home and can send it to her so, one way or another, she will be able to see it.”