IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

How Igbo despise their Culture – Prof. Ikwubuzo 

Professor Iwu Ikwubuzo has expressed concern over the Igbo race, risk losing their language if that aspect of culture cannot be used in their daily interactions.

The author of the title:. “100 years of Literary Enterprises in Indigenous

Nigerian Languages: Trends, Challenges And Prospects,” which featured in the Journal of the School of Languages (JOSOL), Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo  State, alongside his other written works in Igbo Language said in a chat with this reporter  that Igbo language or language generally was the key to preservation of culture because language was an aspect of the people’s culture.

“Language occupies a prominent place when you talk about the people’s culture.
Language is also a conveyor of culture itself, expresses culture and very vital in the life of a people.

“The Diasporic children, which are children born in Diaspora are by my own definition not limited to those born outside Nigeria: U.S. and other parts of the world but also include those born outside Igbo land: Lagos and other places, who cannot express themselves orally in Igbo language. And if a people cannot speak their language, that aspect of culture is lost and it affects the preservation of the language.

“In fact to many, Diaspora children may not include other parts of Nigeria. They may limit it to foreign countries overseas. But for me and from experience, the problem we have observed with speaking of Igbo language is that, it is not only with those born outside Nigeria but also includes those born in Nigeria,” he said.

Ikwubuzo who is a literary authority on oral Igbo literature said that the issue of  Igbo language endangerment and extinction  was indeed a cause for serious concern adding that what  Igbo leaders needed  to do was to take a decisive action on that, and not paying mere lip service to it.  “I have heard a lot of people condemn the below par in the daily use of Igbo language and  also advocate the speaking of the language by Igbo people but for me, what they do is pay mere lip service to it because the people saying all these don’t live by example. if you have a child at home, and he doesn’t speak the language, the child is not to blame rather the patents are to blame. So, when a man says that Igbo language is dying or endangered, the man is the cause and the architect of it. Is he not the cause by the reason of his failure to speak the language at home?

“I know about the United Nations, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) concern about it; that Igbo language may not survive the next century. It is not only Igbo language. There are other languages that are also in UNESCO list. But I’m concerned with Igbo language. The problem is with the Igbo family.

Igbo language is suppose to be a medium of communication every day in every Igbo family, whether in Igbo homeland or in the Diaspora. It is the mother tongue and the first language, so they must speak it and write it.

“If parents fail to use it as a medium of communication, the children cannot speak it on their own. There are other socializing agencies but the family is the most important socialization agency. And it is the duty of the family; parents to make Igbo language their communicative tool at home. The only opportunity children have to speak or write Igbo language is with their parents at home. If they don’t speak the language to them at home, they cannot learn it in school because out there at school, they may not be taught the language. On the streets, they also may not be taught the language. When they get to school, the medium of instruction would be English language.

“So, if Igbo children born in Lagos for instance cannot speak Igbo language, it means parents are contributing to the endangerment of the language. But if all Igbo parents who have their Children in Lagos speak Igbo language to them, when they come together in the neighborhood, they can speak it, and when that happens, the language is preserved and would not go into extinction.”

He commended Igbo groups that built cultural centres for the preservation of the language and culture but also noted that no matter the number of such centres to encourage the use of Igbo language, if from home, parents do not play their little role by using it as a medium of communication when they speak to each other, we would not arrest the drift.”

He urged parents to introduce folktales in their homes as part of the efforts to preserve Igbo language, citing the Igbo adage that says; Ewu n’ta ngbe, nwayale eleya nonu (When mother goat chews cord, its lamb watches her mouth).

How equipped are our libraries with books on the teaching and writing of Igbo language? “Igbo language is studied at all levels of the institutions of learning: primary, secondary and tertiary. In tertiary institutions for instance, Igbo language over the years is studied up to PhD. I had my PhD in Igbo language in the Department of Linguistics, African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos. And in University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Ibadan and other universities in Nigeria, they study Igbo language up to PhD levels. So, they can’t be doing this without having the materials.

“We have the materials depending on the kind of materials we are talking about; we have materials on culture, language, and literature written both in Igbo language and English. But if you are talking about those that are purely written in Igbo language, we also have them. For instance, we have Igbo literature referred to as Omenuko, which happens to be the first Igbo novel that was published in 1933. People quickly make reference to the literary works when they talk about books written in Igbo language 86 years ago. But today, we have many novels written on various aspects of Igbo socio-cultural life.

“The only thing is that in terms of quantum, they cannot be compared
with works written in English language. Again, that is because of the general apathy of a people towards the use of their language; Igbo. We would have had more works but people are not conscious. Today many people write for commercial reasons. And when you write for commercial purpose, you look at the market first, and if the prospect is not there, when you write, spend money to publish, you are likely not going to get your money back. Some people are really not encouraged. At the 100 levels in the university, most of the courses we teach students are introductory. At this level, a book or material that is used to teach a 100 level student can also be used to teach students at 400 levels depending on the area of emphasis. So, the levels determine use of book, and as they advance, the lecturer also advances in approaches in teaching. Nonetheless, all the materials are available in the library for use at any levels.”

The Don denounced the way Igbo language is applied as tool for socialization and identity practices among owners of the language. He said, “Igbo people are not doing well in the use of their language in public spaces. There is no doubt that we like to speak English more than Igbo
language. It is more worrisome when you are talking to your fellow Igbo speaker in the language and he would reply you using English language. I think that is a problem with an Igbo man. You cannot find it with other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Igbo people are very imitative. In their earliest contact with a white man, that was his observation. If you read Professor Ernest Emenyeonu’s novel; “The Rise of the Igbo,” he captured in the book, a remark made by a white man about how Igbo despise their culture, and language, and their readiness to speak to you in English language. But when you meet a Yoruba man, he would speak to you in Yoruba language, the same thing with a Hausa man. But this cannot be said of an Igbo man even if he doesn’t know how to speak English language very well. Igbo have this tendency of saying that they can learn fast, and can also imitate. Sometimes in their bid to imitate, they want to show that they can do it better than the original owners of the language.

“We are not proud of our own language. This is the bane of Igbo society; our antipathy towards our language is really bothersome, Asusu bu ejiri mara nde (Language is the identity of a people).”

Furthermore, the Igbo linguistic, said, “Students’ enrolment dwindles. First, let’s look at the location of the institution; it is located outside Igbo land. Today many Igbo parents don’t encourage their children to go to the university and study Igbo language. In fact, if you mention Igbo language to some of them, it is like you are cursing them. It shouldn’t be so. Why do we have in the university of London or in a typical American university, Department of English, when in fact, English Language is their first language? Why do they go to university in UK or America to study English language when these countries speak English as their first language? So, what is responsible for the poor enrolment of students into Igbo language in the University of Lagos for instance is still the general antipathy towards the language. “Students are ashamed to speak their language. Even when you come to class, interact with them in Igbo, they find it difficult to speak; instead, they prefer to respond in English or keep quiet entirely. It is a problem but notwithstanding, we’re doing well. There are at times we have 20 students in a class while at another time you may not find up to 20. And when you compare it with Yoruba class, they have more students. Again, this is a university in the Southwest where Yoruba language is predominantly the first language. So, two things are responsible for the poor enrolments: parents and their wards don’t like to come to the university and study their own language, and the location. And if you contrast it with our love for foreign languages like Chinese language, which is another unit of the department, if not that there is restricted number of students that
are admitted for Chinese studies by policy, we would have been having over 100 prospective students every session, who embrace foreign languages and like it more than local languages, even their own mother tongue. Yet we graduate students in the Linguistics/Igbo every year. I believe that if we change our attitudes to our language, the enrolment would improve and we would have more writers in Igbo language.”

Noting that in Nigeria generally we don’t seem to cherish what is ours, Ikwubuzo re-echoed that “It is Nigerians attitude. We’ve been talking about Igbo language but if you interact with an average Yoruba person, he would tell you that the same antipathy we talk about in Igbo language is also experienced in Yoruba language. “Nigerians generally, embrace what is foreign. We tend to like and admire what is foreign than what is ours.

This foreign mentality appears we have surrendered to Western seduction. What is a Western appeal to us, and we try to show that we are more westernized than the westerners. And it is detrimental to our literary development because the country develops better when we use our languages.

“It has been proven that countries develop better in their indigenous languages. And Children do better at school, if they are taught in their mother tongue. So, this negative attitude towards our language affects us in several ways, people do not know this, it is something that should be discouraged. Have we really come up with anything indigenous technology, which can be explained in Nigerian languages? If Japanese invents anything or builds automobile, their manual is written in their language, the same with Chinese and others. Even though they are doing it for a larger market, they have their manuals in their language. And you want it to be interpreted; you have to look for people to do it for you. It borders on how we appreciate our own, or love our language. “What I’m saying is that if government policy and individual attitude towards the language is zero, there is little or nothing we can do.  Government pays lip service to encouragement of our languages. The three major languages that feature in the network of the Nigeria Television Authority are the much government can do about encouraging our languages. And any other programme in Igbo Language, you discover it is either sponsored or a slot created by an individual who would be going around, scouting for sponsorships.”

Asked if there is anything like central Igbo language in which authors can write? His responded in this way: “what you are talking about belongs to what we call a standard variety of language and the dialects. We have varieties in Igbo land and that is where dialect comes in. What we call central Igbo is what we refer to as the standard variety. It simply means that irrespective of your locality, or the community you come from, it is a variety of Igbo language, well spoken that you would understand it, the next Igbo person would equally understand it. “If you are from Ika, Agbo in Delta State, or Echi, or Ikwere in Rivers State, you would understand their language. That is what we call standard variety and it is used in writing novels like Omenuko. Those novels written by Tony Umesie, Tagbo Nzeako and other writers were done in standard variety of Igbo language. It is also used for casting news. Besides, every community or locality has their dialects. Our position is that nobody is saying that you must speak the standard variety, but speak your own dialect; it is still a dialect of Igbo language. “It is erroneous to believe that there is several Igbo language. We have only one Igbo language and several dialects. The one spoken in one community may be different from one in another community. So, you have your dialect, and I have mine but we have one single Igbo language. And that single language when it is spoken on radio, television or wherever you come from, when you listen to it, you would understand it.”

He called on government to continue to encourage the use of our indigenous languages, Igbo inclusive. He noted, “government have come up with polices in the past. We have national policy on education which encourages the use of mother tongue, the language of the immediate community and to be studies by children at school up to a level. So, there is already an existing policy, save for the implementation. Some institutions particularly, the non-government doesn’t even teach Igbo language.

“In Lagos State for instance, apart from few government institutions, I don’t think a good number of the schools teach Igbo language. If we must give Igbo language a pride of place; government has to take a number of steps by continued encouragement of the language. Not just coming up with policy but also ensuring that such policy is obeyed and implemented. There should be sanction for any school that violates such policies or directives. If we want to be serious about the promotion of our indigenous language, government must equally ensure that these languages are made compulsory at all levels. It is the only way we can achieve something; government should make all the major indigenous languages that are taught in schools compulsory in the primary, secondary and university levels.

“Once they are made compulsory, you would be amazed at the rate of interest that people would show in these languages. If there is a policy that if you don’t credit your mother tongue; there is no job for you, don’t you think people would study their mother tongue? Not just going to get somebody to give a, C, B or A grades but when you attend an interview, there is somebody that speaks the indigenous language that would interview you in the language to ascertain how much you know of the language, and to what extent you can speak it.

“If we just say it must be credit, people can get it without having the ability to speak the language. And those that have degrees or NCE in the indigenous languages should be given automatic employment. If government, states or federal comes up with policy that says all the graduates of Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa languages have automatic employment, in this era of unemployment, what do you think would be the response in terms of enrolments？ All the people would come up to enroll into the language because they know once they graduate in it, there would be employment opportunity for them.

“Every family should also make it a point of duty to make Igbo language their medium of communication on daily basis. We are not saying one cannot use English language because we happen to find ourselves in an environment where English Language is used, but it is one way we can help to preserve our own language as parents by speaking the language to our children.

“They may resist it by telling you that they don’t understand it, tell them that they would understand. We don’t have any other short cut to learning, writing, and preserving our language. It is not by setting up centre for promotion of and preservation of Igbo language. Yes, the centre may be there, but it cannot speak Igbo Language.

“Parents are the ones to speak the language at home. So, I urge Igbo parents to use their language as a tool and means of communication. When you find your fellow Igbo man or woman, speak in your dialect, if you cannot speak the standard variety. If you gather in a family or community meeting, speak in your language, and let the people in the neighbourhood know that these are the gathering of Igbo people. Of course, wherever we are, we are visible by number of our characteristics and features. So, we should not be ashamed of using our language because it is what defines our identity.  Eva Engholm said, it is the key to the heart of the people. If we lose the key, we lose the people. If we treasure the key and keep it safe, we will unlock the door to untold riches that cannot be guessed at from side of the door. So, language is the base of any culture and if we lose it, we lose our culture and identity. And those people that struggle to say they are not Igbo from South-South, one should not be bothered because what I know is that the immediate neighbours, the Benin, and other ethnic nationalities may not count them as one of them when the chips are down because they don’t speak their language. 

“It is those who speak same language with you would embrace you as their brothers and sisters because language is the identity mark that defines, expresses and conveys our culture, the totality of our being. It also occupies an important position and when spoken, cannot die and would not be endangered.”

 Prof. Iwu Ikwubuzo is former Head of Department of Linguistics, African and Asian Studies, University Of Lagos