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how we are gradually killing

How we are gradually killing our Native Speaking Culture

 

 

 If you’re a high-life music fan, you must have probably come across this musician, especially in the 80’s, funny enough he’s still trending.

Oh permit me to say this, this man is the Duke of African music, the defender of African Culture, the inventor of high life leg dance, yes a lot of people tried mimicking his leg dance, I remembered how my elder brother tried to mimic his leg works and fell fatally as well broke a tooth in the process.

gradually we are beginning to lose those things that made us distinct from others, our  language has been influenced in such a way that we need to stay woke

Bright Chimezie has something our generation needs to know, we have an identity that we are about to lose to modernity simply because we have been brainwashed, to believe that our culture is inferior.

Language is our identity, but most of us, are ashamed of speaking our language to the third person to avoid being called timid, especially among Igbos, how can you call your brother who tries to communicate with you in your local language Igbotic? I barely hear Yorubatic, what is the relationship between language and timidity? This misconception makes people shy away from it and use the general language. We re the architect of our own doom

Your language is your pride because it makes you distinct from others, when you speak people guess where you come from, language automatically place you in a group for reference sake, now when I talk about language I mean, your mother tongue, not the language of the colonialist

In one of Award-winning song “ Because of English,” he recounted his childhood story with his teacher, where he was beaten mercilessly because he spoke his mother tongue, the teacher gave an order that forbids student from communicating in their own dialect, he mistakenly fell a victim and was severely punished for that.

Each and every one of us as a Nigerian, particularly from the eastern part of the country, have had similar experiences so far. I recalled my classmate who was regularly disciplined, then because he often speaks Igbo language, my teacher thought he was a dump and would not be worth much in the future because, according to her, he would not be able to stand up to the globalized world if he could only speak Igbo and not good in English, master of English language is been used as a criterium to measure how successful you will be, but master of your local language is a direct certificate to failure

Why are we making Igbo language difficult for our children, and at the same time accuse them of not being proud of their language?

It’s a shame that some schools in the East have made Igbo language an optional subject for secondary school students, I learned this from my cousin who wrote his final exam last year. the issue is the structure and not the speakers, how can you expect a child to be proud of something he doesn’t value, if you beat a child in school because he does something, the only way to avoid being beaten again is to prevent such an act of repeating itself.

The circle keep moving, these  children grow  up and gave birth to kids they will transfer the unfortunate impression to, Some parent will make their kids speak English at home and public for them to be different from poor kids,  children can learn two without having any issue

Do you know what’s funny?  Some of these children will finally travel overseas England or the USA but, they get disappointed when they find out that, despite their English speaking skills they are nowhere close to speaking like the West, the bad news is, they are not fluent in their local language. this is always where the cultural identity crises begin, at this time, they already realized how important their language is but it too late to start from the cradle.

These sets of people end up giving their children a name like,  Angela Edward. Frank Patrick etc, when you finally meet one of these children and ask about their identity, they tell you  ‘I am  Ibo’ my Daddy  says so

You know one thing about other major tribes in Nigeria? They always represent, find them anyway, and you will always feel a torch of culture in them, the reason is not that they are timid, but they value their culture and are ready to sell them to whoever cares, 

Recently there has been an alarm on the probability of Igbo language going into extinction in the nearest future, and some people are doubting this, how do I explain the fact I asked you KEDU KA IMERE  and you respond with Fine? This was how the problem started when someone tries to communicate with you in Igbo, and you respond in English you are practically making his language of communication irrelevant

What do you think our lost brothers and sisters who were displaced several hundred years ago will not do to have their own language? They hate us with a passion cause they feel we sold them. Yet we deprive ourselves selves the right and privilege of our own heritage, of which language is the key.

If we must win this battle, then we must do the needful because language is your identity

ECHEFULA {do not forget}

7 thoughts on “How we are gradually killing our Native Speaking Culture

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