Yorubas are known to be Hospitable people...perharps the most hospitable tribe in Nigeria...little wonder their abode houses almost everyone from every single tribe in Nigeria..From the coasts of lagos to the rainforests of Kwara every Nigerian is made to feel at home. Unlike most of my Igbo folks i didnt grow up in SW Nigeria but in Northern Nigeria...even so, i still learnt yoruba(as i grew up in a predominant Yoruba neighbourhood). I've associated with yorubas from a tender age and still associate with them, i remember once while chatting with a Yoruba woman she asked me to fetch her a rock... She pronounced it as 'Okuta' amused i corrected her 'Okute, la'npe ni Igbo'(we call it 'Okute' in Igbo). It's no doubt that the trending habit amongst Igbos these days is to 'Train their kids with English'! A habit i so detest..especially when it's pidgin. During my prescience days in UNIZIK... I met this Igbo girl from lagos... her english was classic and superb...but her knowledge of Igbo was very minute! And to add insult to Injury she speaks Yoruba like it's her 1st language... On several occassions i tried to coach her in Igbo..but she'd always wave it aside questioning the Importance of the 'Local language'. The day she finally hammered a nail on my cranium was the day she told me boldly 'i wish i had been born yoruba','i just love their lifestyle and everything, Igbos are too backward and fight each other'! This statement completely took me off balance...in a fit of rage i called her an 'Efulefu'. For once i secretly praised fashola for deporting Igbos...if Giving birth to our Younger ones outside the SE means they'll grow up to emulate the culture of their hosts at the detriment of Igbo...then i'll enjoin fashola to deport more. most Igbos born In Lagos speak Yoruba fluently but cant speak Igbo... If this trend continues then i'm afraid that it's only a matter of time b4 our language goes extinct...THE STRONGER CULTURE ALWAYS DOMINATES THE WEAKER ONE!

you are right about one thing though.. Ndigbo can scream marginalization with one voice but leave them to decide their political and economic future, you will find rancor, bitterness and in-fighting. this is the sole reason we will always be a major minority

Hmmmmmn

Now I'm angry!!!
What you said is very true, OP.
It beats me to coma!!!!

You cannot discount the impact of the civil war and its aftermath, and how deeply it has eaten into Igbo morale.

nnenna.1:
You cannot discount the impact of the civil war and its aftermath, and how deeply it has eaten into Igbo morale.

Nwanyi oma... What has the civil got to do with Igbos not teaching their kids their language? I grew up in the north and do speak Igbo fluently and proudly...not minding the regularly taunts of 'Inyamuri baban doya' from the Hausas.

INNO18: THE STRONGER CULTURE ALWAYS DOMINATES THE WEAKER ONE!

I guess this is why. Whenever a strong culture and a weak one meet, the stronger one would always dominate the weaker one. Just as the Benin culture has dominated all the cultures from Delta to everywhere east of the Niger before the contact with the Yoruba's.

However, I won't call the Igbo culture a weak one, rather I would say it wasn't/isn't highly developed unlike the cultures west of the Niger river.

Shalom!

True talk

INNO18: Nwanyi oma... What has the civil got to do with Igbos not teaching their kids their language? I grew up in the north and do speak Igbo fluently and proudly...not minding the regularly taunts of 'Inyamuri baban doya' from the Hausas.

You are more of the exception, not the rule.

Without realizing it, you just mentioned a cultural obstacle to learning Igbo in the North (i.e. DESPITE taunts from hausa fulani).

I noticed that the last generation of Igbos with a near perfect grasp of the Igbo language was those born around the civil war era.

This is NOT a coincidence! People don't have a big picture POV of these things and dismiss the effects of the war on the collective psyche of the people.

nnenna.1:


You are more of the exception, not the rule.

Without realizing it, you just mentioned a cultural obstacle to learning Igbo in the North (i.e. DESPITE taunts from hausa fulani).

I noticed that the last generation of Igbos with a near perfect grasp of the Igbo language was those born around the civil war era.

This is NOT a coincidence! People don't have a big picture POV of these things and dismiss the effects of the war on the collective psyche of the people.

The taunts by the Hausa fulani does not apply strictly to those who 'speak Igbo' it applies to anybody that has anything to do with Igbo, even Ur name alone could fetch you taunts...do u suggest we stop naming our kids Igbo names simply to avoid descrimination? If the Blacks in the USA followed this principle they would never have gotten to where they are today.

I am very much for adoping Igbo names and culture.

I was only setting the record straight by educating outsiders about the reason for our present predicament.

You cannot compare Nigeria with America...in Nigeria it is politically correct and socially acceptable to be hostile to Igbos. This is much unlike the USA where racism today is covert and frowned upon in public. This has a profoundly negative effect on Igbo people. The only way to overcome our current state whereby we are brainwashed to believe that Igbos are bad and not worthy of sustenance is to believe that Igbos ARE worthy, good, hardworking, and possessive of a GREAT culture. One of the greatest in Africa, in fact.

When this belief trully sinks in, Igbo language and culture will resurface in leaps.

This is a no brainer.

INNO18: The taunts by the Hausa fulani does not apply strictly to those who 'speak Igbo' it applies to anybody that has anything to do with Igbo, even Ur name alone could fetch you taunts...do u suggest we stop naming our kids Igbo names simply to avoid descrimination? If the Blacks in the USA followed this principle they would never have gotten to where they are today.

nnenna.1:
I am very much for adoping Igbo names and culture.

I was only setting the record straight by educating outsiders about the reason for our present predicament.

You cannot compare Nigeria with America...in Nigeria it is politically correct and socially acceptable to be hostile to Igbos. This is much unlike the USA where racism today is covert and frowned upon in public. This has a profoundly negative effect on Igbo people. The only way to overcome our current state whereby we are brainwashed to believe that Igbos are bad and not worthy of sustenance is to believe that Igbos ARE worthy, good, hardworking, and possessive of a GREAT culture. One of the greatest in Africa, in fact.

When this belief trully sinks in, Igbo language and culture will resurface in leaps.

This is a no brainer.

Spot on

You can't bring back what never really had a well defined foundation. The only thing you can do is to re-invent it with the imperialism/colonisation of both the Yoruba and Benin cultures. With that, there might be a future. However, failure to do that would only continue the slow and gradual death of Igbo culture.

The whole thing about bringing back Igbo culture reminds me of some lyrics by my young don, Deej (free my nyggah). He said: "About tryna bring brikky back/you man are goons you lost already."

How do you think we can re invent it? Although i must commend the South eastern Govs for making Igbo a compulsory course for prospective students of Any federal or state uni in the SE! You need to see where Igbos born and bred in Lagos are learning Igbo like it's Latin...

^please take your vulgarity elsewhere, i find it repulsive.

and dont derail the thread.

i also do not need to know your views on whatever, so stow it.

^^^me too I find his talks repulsive and disgusting. Fulaman and Odumchi can you do something to that fellow.

i think maybe the environment he was raised in might have something to do with it.

he doesnt tailor his "talks" to his audience, so he just drops the disgusting stuff anywhere, maybe for shock value? [although perhaps he cant stop even if he wanted to].

nnenna.1:
I am very much for adoping Igbo names and culture.

I was only setting the record straight by educating outsiders about the reason for our present predicament.

You cannot compare Nigeria with America...in Nigeria it is politically correct and socially acceptable to be hostile to Igbos. This is much unlike the USA where racism today is covert and frowned upon in public. This has a profoundly negative effect on Igbo people. The only way to overcome our current state whereby we are brainwashed to believe that Igbos are bad and not worthy of sustenance is to believe that Igbos ARE worthy, good, hardworking, and possessive of a GREAT culture. One of the greatest in Africa, in fact.

When this belief trully sinks in, Igbo language and culture will resurface in leaps.

This is a no brainer.

This is most ridiculous thing I've read this month. Site an example where it was politically and socially acceptable to be hostile to the Igbos. Why is there this ridiculous idea that other tribes in Nigeria have a specific/unified hatred for the Igbos?? (Do not site the civil war, that's a different argument) No one tribe suffers tribalism more than the other. The Hausas do no discriminate against the Igbos more than they do the Yorubas neither do the Yorubas discriminate aainst the Igbos more than they do the Hausas.

Were you born in Nigeria?? What state did you live in?? The highlighted comment is preposterous!

shymexx:

I guess this is why. Whenever a strong culture and a weak one meet, the stronger one would always dominate the weaker one. Just as the Benin culture has dominated all the cultures from Delta to everywhere east of the Niger before the contact with the Yoruba's.

However, I won't call the Igbo culture a weak one, rather I would say it wasn't/isn't highly developed unlike the cultures west of the Niger river.

Shalom!

What are you saying?

@OP

This is a tribalistic abuse and it's disgusting. Moderator can u please hide this thread?

Every parts of culture are created as colors for coloring world, not as cars for pass through the other cars.

odumchi:

What are you saying?

I'll try as much as possible to be objective without undermining anyone or group. For a culture to be fully developed, it has to evolve from within into an advanced society - with different hierarchies. We can cite ancient Egypt and how they moved from just being a community into advancement - and later into the dynasty periods, which birthed the civilisations in which ancient Egypt is known for the today. Same for the Greeks, Romans, Ottoman, Persians, Great Britain, Oyo, Benin, Kongo, Dahomey, Akan, Songhay, Mali, Ghana etc.. However, Igbo's never had that.

The truth is that when you have a well-developed culture, it automatically becomes part of your consciousness and whatever external influence(s) come(s) afterwards would be swallowed and owned by your culture. Not saying the Igbo's don't have a rich culture, however, the Igbo culture isn't as deep rooted as the other surrounding cultures.

Shalom!

shymexx:

I'll try as much as possible to be objective without undermining anyone or group. For a culture to be fully developed, it has to evolve from within into an advanced society - with different hierarchies. We can cite ancient Egypt and how they moved from just being a community into advancement - and later into the dynasty periods, which birthed the civilisations in which ancient Egypt is known for the today. Same for the Greeks, Romans, Ottoman, Persians, Great Britain, Oyo, Benin, Kongo, Dahomey, Akan, Songhay, Mali, Ghana etc.. However, Igbo's never had that.

The truth is that when you have a well-developed culture, it automatically becomes part of your consciousness and whatever external influence(s) come(s) afterwards would be swallowed and owned by your culture. Not saying the Igbo's don't have a rich culture, however, the Igbo culture isn't as deep rooted as the other surrounding cultures.

Shalom!

I think basically you are saying that societies that didn't develop into kingdoms are not as culturally advanced as societies that did. I've heard that argument before, and frankly it just doesn't agree with what I know of history.

In ur examples you mentioned Greece and Rome. I don't know how much you know about Greek history, but at the time of Greece's greatest cultural achievements (before Alexander's conquests) Greece didn't have kings and hereditary nobles. And Greece was fragmented into many small polities. Many of these polities had a population of about 5,000 people. Only a few polities had much larger populations. There were only three social classes in Greece: the freeborn, the slaves and the strangers/immigrants. There were no royal and commoner classes; a freeborn was a freeborn.

Interestingly Greece had kings in the primitive stages of their social evolution; but as their society became more advanced, they overthrew their kings and established republican societies. The only important Greek society that retained its kingdom and hierarchies was Sparta. And Sparta was the most backward of the prominent Greek polities.

The social structure of Igbo society actually bears some parallels with that of the Greeks. There were in both societies A 'National' Assembly of all males and a council of elders. Both bodies in both societies discussed political issues at the market square. Both societies were politically fragmented. Both societies were stratified into freeborn or citizens, slaves and non-native free settlers.

There's probably some truth in your last paragraph. Its just the idea that kingdoms were neccessarily culturally "higher" than non-kingdoms that I disagree with.

I agree with Nnenna you can't discount the civil war when you talk of Igbo problems, especially politically. People like Stella Damasus had to change their last names to more neutral names. I even have some relatives that deserted Nigeria totally let alone Igboland after the war. My dad makes fun of David Mark that he must be Igbo for having two first names just to mingle with the political class, lol.

shymexx:
For a culture to be fully developed, it has to evolve from within into an advanced society - with different hierarchies. We can cite ancient Egypt and how they moved from just being a community into advancement - and later into the dynasty periods, which birthed the civilisations in which ancient Egypt is known for the today. Same for the Greeks, Romans, Ottoman, Persians, Great Britain, Oyo, Benin, Kongo, Dahomey, Akan, Songhay, Mali, Ghana etc.. However, Igbo's never had that.

I do not understand this part: "For a culture to be fully developed, it has to evolve from within into an advanced society - with different hierarchies."

What exactly does culture being "fully developed" mean? How does a culture "evolve from within into an advanced society"?

To me, your example of the Egyptian culture seems useless and misplaced because I don't see entirely how it relates to the issue at hand. All that I'm able to infer is that you're saying unless a people undergo some period of turmoil and later emerge as a kingdom or empire, then their culture would remain inferior to those that do. This statement itself is incorrect.

The truth is that when you have a well-developed culture, it automatically becomes part of your consciousness and whatever external influence(s) come(s) afterwards would be swallowed and owned by your culture. Not saying the Igbo's don't have a rich culture, however, the Igbo culture isn't as deep rooted as the other surrounding cultures.

Your argument doesn't make sense, in my opinion, nor does it have the knowledge basis to seem remotely convincing. I can bet that you possess no in-depth knowledge of the Igbo people(s) and their culture(s) (or any of the afformentioned cultures, for that matter) and therefore should not even be discussing them in such a manner.

The funny thing is that the same Ancient Egyptian civilization which you claimed was "well-developed" is no more.

Pls tell ur nollywood actors/actresses to bear their original names just like their yoruba counterparts do. Tell :-

ramsey noah.

Rita dominic

genevieve

stephanie

stella damascus

etc

Um, sorry...what's Ramsey Noah's name doin there?

And remind us again...what tribe does Desmond Elliot belong to?

Shall we talk about the English last names of the following Yoruba stars

Bukky Wright
Bimbo Manuel
Olu Jacobs

Is Yemi Blaq using his original surname

Arabic no be African language oh, so u might also want to talk about SAIDI Balogun's first name...the veneral Alafin's first name (LAMIDI) et cetera.

I think colonization has a lot to do with those families that took on English names. It's very common among the real/original Lagosians.

What a silly thread!

Ngokafor: What a silly thread!

How is it?

odumchi:
I do not understand this part: "For a culture to be fully developed, it has to evolve from within into an advanced society - with different hierarchies."

What exactly does culture being "fully developed" mean? How does a culture "evolve from within into an advanced society"?

To me, your example of the Egyptian culture seems useless and misplaced because I don't see entirely how it relates to the issue at hand. All that I'm able to infer is that you're saying unless a people undergo some period of turmoil and later emerge as a kingdom or empire, then their culture would remain inferior to those that do. This statement itself is incorrect.

I was alluding to developments in a structured way, with a solid foundation. And with that comes progression and, it evolves gradually into an all inconclusive society which will enable the building of an advanced society.

With ancient Egypt (most other cultures/empires that were able to build advanced societies), there was no turmoil before they got to that stage. However, their was gradual progression from primitiveness to advancement without outside/external interference. The advancement in ancient Egypt started with the dynasty period when everything we know them for today was built. But the turmoil started when the advancement peaked during the 25th dynasty, with the civil war and foreigners/invaders living among them at that period. Also, you will find out that, even after that, because the culture was well-structured and deep-rooted, all the foreigners/invaders who ruled ancient Egypt after that never touched the advancement and well-developed culture of the place. Rather, it absorbed them in

Your argument doesn't make sense, in my opinion, nor does it have the knowledge basis to seem remotely convincing. I can bet that you possess no in-depth knowledge of the Igbo people(s) and their culture(s) (or any of the afformentioned cultures, for that matter) and therefore should not even be discussing them in such a manner.

How do you mean? Igbo culture as we know of today is quintessentially Igbo per se, most of it was borrowed from neighbouring cultures. We can cite Aro and Ibibio. The Kingship from Benin. The dressing from the neighbouring tribes since almost the surrounding tribes dress the same way. The red and white wooly hats from the Europeans. And the many borrowed words in Igbo language itself. Evidently, it shows that the foundation wasn't/isn't that deep-rooted.

The funny thing is that the same Ancient Egyptian civilization which you claimed was "well-developed" is no more.

We all know why the ancient Egyptian civilisation is no more. That's because most of the people who built it had to migrate further into the African continent due to the never ending invasions. And the few who were left behind had to mix with the invaders, hence why the progression stopped. When the brain trust of a project leaves, what do you expect? It's definitely stagnation, or should I say, regression.

Shalom!