Comfort Yakubu
In 1789, Olaudah Equiano who was captured in Igbo land into slavery described his home town in his memoirs as a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets, He said, every great event is celebrated with public dances, accompanied with songs and music ”
Comfort Yakubu
Penetration of the Europeans into Africa began in the 1450s when Portuguese colonialists discovered African arts and crafts, the desire by the Europeans to exploit resources drew their attention to Africa and the coming of the Europeans marked the beginning of the decline of African culture.
Chinua Achebe perhaps saw this coming when he wrote, things fall apart in 1958. The story’s main theme concerns pre- and post-colonial life in late nineteenth century Nigeria, it highlights the fight between colonialism and traditional Africa.
Africa has suffered cultural imperialism for over 400 years, yet still rich in culture, however, African languages are at a high risk of extinction.
For example, it has become a common trend among the younger generation of Nigerians to alter the spellings of their names, spelling it as pronounced by Europeans making a meaningful name become meaningless, Ayomide is a Yoruba name spelled as, Heryhomiday, Opeyemi is spelled as Horpheyhemi, Bukola is spelled as Bhucholar, and Olamide is spelled as Holhameday, and Abisola is spelled as Herbeeshola amongst others
More worrisome is the preference of the English language to the indigenous African languages, many parents do not have the time to teach their children their mother tongue, they prefer English, schools do not help the situation because those who speak “Vernacular” are punished; this makes younger generation resist African languages because of the impression that they are a primitive culture.
Falsification of European accent has worsened the situation, where an African wants to sound like a European; pronouncing words in a correct diction is ok, but faking an accent is a problem, and the media seems to be promoting this anomaly. Presenters, both television and radio prefer to fake an accent which is irritating, if the situation is not checked, our languages will go into extinction.
According to the Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, there are four main types of causes of language endangerment.
There are those causes that put the populations that speak the languages in physical danger, such as Natural disasters, famine, and disease.
There are those causes which prevent or discourage speakers from using a language, such as:
Political repression This has frequently happened when nation-states working to promote a single national culture limit the opportunities for using minority languages in the public sphere, schools, the media, and elsewhere, sometimes even prohibiting them altogether. Sometimes ethnic groups are forcibly resettled, or children may be removed to be schooled away from home, or otherwise have their chances of cultural and linguistic continuity disrupted.
cultural/political/economic marginalization/hegemony. This happens when political and economical power is closely tied to a particular language and culture so that there is a strong incentive for individuals to abandon their language in favor of another more prestigious one. This frequently happens when indigenous populations in order to achieve a higher social status, have a better chance to get employment or are forced to it in school, adopt the cultural and linguistic traits of a people who have come to dominate them through colonization, conquest, or invasion
Sometimes more than one of these causes act at the same time, as poverty, disease, and disasters often affect minority groups disproportionally, for example causing the dispersal of speaker populations and decreased survival rates for those who stay behind.
Experts have said that cultural, political, and economic marginalization are the major reasons languages are endangered
In Nigeria for example, some languages have been considered superior to others, Speakers of endangered languages often adopt the dominant language which is associated with social and economical progress and modernity, this explains why a larger percentage of communities in northern parts of Nigeria prefer to speak the Hausa language neglecting their mother tongue, ironically these same population cry of being marginalized by the Hausas and Fulani, when they willingly gave up their mother tongue
Immigrants moving into an area may lead to the endangerment of the autochthonous language
Examples of some already extinct languages in Nigeria are Ajawa in Bauchi, Basagumna spoken in the Kainji area, and Anyokawa spoken in Jigawa; among many others.
A survey carried out by a group of linguists led by Prof. Ahmed Anfani showed that, on average, twenty-five percent of Nigerian children of nursery and primary school ages eleven 11 and below do not speak their parent’s languages.
According to Dr. Adeosun, of the linguistic department university of Ilorin, African countries as Colonies and Neocolonies came to be defined and define themselves in terms of the language of Europe, ‘English speaking’ ‘French-speaking’ ‘Portuguese speaking’ African countries.
Nigeria adopted her former colonial language ‘English’ as the language for administration and educational purposes. From the pre-primary level of education, English is the medium of communication to the children who are just coming from complete mother tongued homes and neighborhoods.
In connection with this school, a conspicuously written phrase such as “no vernacular speaking in school” is usually displayed in such schools; a child caught speaking his mother tongue would be given corporal punishment.
‘’Another barrier to the poor performance of a Yoruba child in his mother tongue is the habit of the parents; this is usually a fall out of colonization. It is ironic that most Yoruba parents prefer their children using English, to using their mother tongue. This has turned abnormality into normality. The colonialist started with deliberate dissociation of the language of conceptualization, of thinking, of formal education, and of mental development from the language of daily interaction in the home and in the community. Therefore, since English has been perceived as the language of modernity and elitedom, the parents derive joy in hearing their children speaking it fluently; even if they cannot pronounce a word correctly in the Yoruba language.’’
This translates into a gradual but consistent erosion of the culture of the less dominant cultures by powerful nations over the less endowed ones; brings about a loss of identity to citizens of such environments.
Many students find it difficult to write effectively in their mother tongues because most Nigerian languages have not been reduced to writing, and most of those which have been reduced to writing is not taught in primary and secondary schools.
According to Mr. Oluwaseun Akanbi, a Banker based in Ilorin, Many of us Nigerians have paid little or no attention to this issue and many things that bothered on our national heritage.
Some of our unique features as a nation is our language, culture, belief system, and so on.
These are the things that distinguish us from the rest of the world but sadly they’ve become obsolete.
In this generation speaking and dressing like people of the western world is more like a status symbol by which we classify the elite and uneducated.
I also think that our value system is not given any serious consideration because it is obvious that we’ve made the foreign languages primary while ours have become secondary.
It’s so bad that people get more recognitions and attention if you can adorn yourself with the western world lifestyle.
I think the western world has done such a good job by penetrating the other nations with their ideologies basically because it’s helping them gain much influence in the world.
I don’t think we”re looking in that direction in this part of the world that by speaking and teaching others our cultural values, languages we can influence so many people and restore and fortify our pride’’.,’ ’It’s a shame on any Nigerian who cannot speak any of the indigenous languages. When I see such people twisting their tongue and never able to “come home” and flow. I ask myself where are your pride and heritage?
Interestingly, some foreigners are coming to the point of learning our languages now maybe be for studies or out of shared interest I can’t tell.
On the contrary, we ourselves don’t want to be identified with any of our languages
Recently a colleague of mine was to mention a place in Ilorin know as ABAYAWO ….. he kept on embellishing it to sound foreign at that point he threw his audience off as they were all trying to correct him: It’s good that we are educated and in tune with global happening but not at the peril of losing what is originally ours.
Our value system which encompasses the whole subject of discussion is what we need to reconsider and resuscitate else things will go even worse in the next couple of decades when technological advancement would have doubled its current achievement
Mr. Edward Magayaki who is based in Jos said ‘’I was first confronted with this problem when in my village 10 yrs ago when I discovered my uncle speaking Hausa to his children instead of our language, part of the problem I discovered is the desire to conform to certain standards set by the society where everyone wants to belong.
People adopt this out of ignorance of its implications, ; History of the people is forgotten, cultures and values keep dying: We’ve lost almost everything to western values
For instance, my culture has been taken over by western and biblical pattern, cultures become isolated and are buried in the dustbin of history.
Mr. Obinna Onwuna a businessman based in Abuja, says It’s a bad omen to our culture and tradition. We have given up entirely everything of our identity, total loss of identity, Not just our indigenous language but what we eat, wear, religion, and so on.
‘’I think the problem is the foundation, the family which is the basis of training, they often speak borrowed language as against their indigenous language.
I think they should go back to the drawing board, start afresh, speaking their language to their children, a man without language cannot trace his root.
