ỌHA NZE NA ỌZỌ ABBA AMA-ANỌ - Nwangele LGA, Imo State, Nigeria
ỌHA NZE NA ỌZỌ ABBA AMA-ANỌ - Nwangele LGA, Imo State, Nigeria
Longman contemporary English dictionary describes culture as the beliefs, way of life, art, and customs that are shared and accepted by people in a particular society.
For Goggle, in one of its paragraphs defines culture to include the customs, social behaviour of a particular people or society.
The above definitions if expanded are very broad. In a simplified manner and for the purposes of this write up we could define culture to include language, name, dress, food, religion, rituals, music etc
Starting with LANGUAGE, the question is how far have we faired? Have we been able to hold it fast irrespective of the influence of the British in our lives? Did we rightly act as indians who though were colonised by the British never abandoned their languages; rather accepted the language, education which added to what they had before the coming of the colonialists?
The above questions are germane because of what is happening among the igbos of today. In various homes especially the latter generations and the so called the educated, children are thought English language first instead of mother tongue just like putting the cart before the horse.
I had in my quest asked my wife who has PhD in English language as the advantage of this, and she told me that it is a misnomer. She stressed that it is better to start a child with her mother tongue and later introduce her to the second language. According to her, a child takes bearing In terms of language from her mother's tongue. Atleast most of us who went through these rudiments speak and write better than these generations that have abandoned igbo totally.
In most homes, igbo language has been lost even in this heart of igbo land called owerri and other places. Parents proudly and ignorantly communicate with their children in English both in and outside their homes. This situation has put igbo language in a very precarious situation that UNESCO had to cry out that igbo language will go into extinction. This is true because of the attitude of most of us who have forgotten that the language is the vehicle through which many other components of our culture are expressed.
In most homes, igbo language has been lost even in this heart of igbo land called owerri and other places. Parents proudly and ignorantly communicate with their children in English both in and outside their homes. This situation has put igbo language in a very precarious situation that UNESCO had to cry out that igbo language will go into extinction. This is true because of the attitude of most of us who have forgotten that the language is the vehicle through which many other components of our culture are expressed.
Infact I could liken these generation that have abandoned their mother tongue to embrace in exclusivity the English language as bat (usu). They are neither igbos nor the English man whose language they have embraced in total disregard to theirs.
Should we allow this to continue? If we do, the UNESCO alarm will come to pass. If my english speaking son marries a woman who is also english speaking, They will give birth to children that are English speaking; which means igbo language is dead in that family.
Do we fold our hands and allow this to happen? For me i say no.
In our various families especially those in diaspora we must endeavour to teach our children our language. Those children are our tomorrow. As you give birth to them your journey along the rout to the departure lounge has commenced. So we must not allow our language to die. Even with grown up children we should let them understand the importance of a people's language. If I do it in my family and you do same in your own, i think we have started from somewhere. Let us all sit up in our comprehensive effort to revive our culture.
Unu anwuchule
Nze Dr CKC Anyanjo-Ewuzie Nkunyiriuguru Abba Onye ishi Nze na Ozo