The cultures today that have grown out of assimilating the valuable aspects of other cultures are cultures of war and conquest.. The key is not that they assimilated other cultures valuable aspects, but that they were weilding the upper hand of force and brutality.. The evidence is thick with the extensive history of colonialism beyond just africa even into asia and the americas that were all tasked to enriching the europeans..
When they needed more land to prevent the pitfalls of overpopulation, it was not ingenuity or casual assimilation of other cultures lands. It was hostile and very prejudiced take over with aftermaths of genocidic disqualities..

Europeans learned gun powder from china and it was by the tasking of that powder into their predisposition to kill and conquer, that they made the gun and turned it even into chinas face with intent to colonize to any extent possible..Also India, africa and the americas...
The romans, greek and arabs were also conquerers in their own time and the residue of their conquest into europe actually gave Europe a spring out of its dark ages after the collapse of rome and the rise of christianity to power and then islam following soon after.. Christianity was a political power that reached from a spiritual foundation, so was islam and that nature continues in them today..
Africa was never sucessfully built into the empire of its conquerers such as Europeans or Arabic muslims.. There is a lot of islam in africa but also the states as imposed by europe under christian influences.. And note how many actual european colonialist ever really moved into africa..Very few.. Only south africa had an european colony grow for europeans to move and settle into.. The rest of africa may have been ruled but not colonized in the sense of towns of europeans moving in.. They could not move in as even the great mungo park team of expeditionaries could not survive the diseases and wilds of the land.. Too harsh for the european body... South africa is a different climate more suitable and so it was really colonized...

The dark ages of europe were a time after parts of europe were colonized by Rome.. Rome took over europe as far as into England and their language traces are found in france, spain/portugal and england.. The alps and cold protected the Dutch/germanic and nordics from roman colonization.. When rome collapsed, the europeans were all used up by rome and it was a very long time in Dark ages before Europe rose to its own makings using the ingenuity residue from romans and others in history..Feudal wars carried on in europe though right into the world wars 1&2. The musilms also colonized parts of europe such as in Spain.. That explains arabic influence there..

Africa has been all used up by europeans like Europeans were all used up by rome, and now that europeans have left, it will take time in terms of many generations just as europe took time through dark ages to enlighten and grow even though it grew into a colonial genocidic parasite which then turned around its ways after world war 2 of hitlers attempt to brutally colonize all of Europe just as they were all holding colonies in africa and the americas and beyond as far away as in asia, austral asia and the pacific..

They tasted through Hitler, the harsh reality of their own ways of treating others in other continents and decided after recovering from World War 2 to repent and agree to let the colonies declare and have independence and then move into a United nations atmosphere of helping each other.... One thing europeans never did was to repay what wealth they gained off of enslaveing and colonizing nations to extract wealth for their own nation while leaving the colonies inadequate to do service to the native people of the lands...
The European way of life rose and stands on the foundation of genocide and forceful taking from others to grow itself... It is not a sustainable way even under peace and unity.. It is a way that requires so much displacement for so little replacement.. Displace land for resources and replace it with waste products and poisons to the water and land and air... It adds up over time and eventually the earth itself cannot bear the injuries any more and it fails to provide safe climate or air to breathe or water to drink... The physical state of the world is quite dire while we distract ourselves with modern organized city products, the foundations of earth and its ecosytems are suffering and all humanity will suffer when it reaches a critical point... Already Many are suffering and dying daily... Cancers and pollution/toxicity related suffering and death..

Without a doubt, the simple ways of the majority of earths cultures before european impositions (ie AFRICANS AND OTHER INDIGENOUS PEOPLES), would never be so effective at destroying the ecosystem of earth and removing the very basis of surviveability of life on this planet... Some sins are so bad and accumulated for so long, the punishment will take very long to build up in intensity before pouring out its recourse... Even so the sin so bad for so long that even repentance would take many generations of repenting and changeing ways and giving up the luxuries grown so attached to because they were never naturally sustainable or good for the whole well being of earth and all its inhabitants plants and animals and we the people...

The world is full of the ruins of many fallen great civilizations as the environment changed around them by their own makings and also natural changes.. The world of today is as grand a civilization as ever in known history and the pitfalls of man made and natural made collapse are even more pronounced..
After every great civilization collapsed, humanity remained and it always came back to simple people living in simple tribes in wild lands by fitting into the natural order rather than building over it whatever and however they decide...
It always came back to "the meek inheriting the earth" even farther back than 2000 years ago when jesus was to have said "the meek would inherit the earth"...
When you think of the brutal scourge of colonialism under france/belgium, spain/portugal, England, and you realize they all have language based in Latin, brought by the roman colonialist that colonized them long before rome collapsed, the same rome that was the scourge of jesus christ to nail him to a cross... We can clearly see it is that roman spirit of brutality and self supremacy that was inherited by europeans and carried forward and the same lessons jesus gave about the ways of the romans against him and simple natives of their jewish lands, it applies the same to europeans against the simple natives of their own lands in Africa, americas, Australia and where ever else in the world people are nailed to allegorical crosses by evil people without knowing what they are really doing and without mercy and empathy...

ChiSun27: All these continents you mentioned all have a common language spoken and understood by her citizens.


Which common language do you have in Nigeria? Pidgin English


So my friend...the fight should first be: which of the languages spoken in Nigeria should Nigerians adopt as a common language? And until that is done...we will still remain at our average level.


But then the big question is: Will other languages willingly go down for the one that will be adopted?

How did the union between Tangayinka and Zanzibar come up with theirs? Without a common language we could as well project our various regional languages, simple!

Sure that's our only lifeline.

Think about this all great powers study in their language.

The Chinese, the Russians, the French, the swedes, the Germans, the Koreans, the Japanese,

They have domesticated science and technologies. Hence they apply these to their local challenges

SkyRider1: Sure that's our only lifeline.

Think about this all great powers study in their language.

The Chinese, the Russians, the French, the swedes, the Germans, the Koreans, the Japanese,

They have domesticated science and technologies. Hence they apply these to their local challenges

You have spoken well

iamswizz: Ileya on ma mind

shey u don buy RAM, abeg go buy urs before d price is high

Nice talk but how many of our Yoruba students can successfully read and write in Yoruba?
We find English easier and at times feel proud of not even understanding our own mother-tongue.

chinex276: Africa=COPY COPY

So also Japan, South Korea and China....copy copy...and are not superpowers.

LadiesPet: Do you expect me to read all this stuffs ??

Please, someone should read & summarize

Eediot.

This mentality you have is one if the problem the OP addressed. Serious issue and you're joking about it.

I see most people saying corruption corruption, corruption isn't a problem, dont forget even the Arab and European are more corrupt, I think superstition and religion actually is playing a negative role on y Africa culture cant develop, imagine substitution of logical reasoning and scientific reasonings for some religious talk,now instead of people simply understanding the law of nature, they have substitute this for believing in some imagical being, imagine people believing in scared forest, how will dat help in developing agriculture, when people are scared of going into the forest to work,confucius said lets leave the old way of thinking and adapt, another main problem, we have not been able to adapt, I guess dat s y no cultural Renaissance

SkyRider1: Sure that's our only lifeline.

Think about this all great powers study in their language.

The Chinese, the Russians, the French, the swedes, the Germans, the Koreans, the Japanese,

They have domesticated science and technologies. Hence they apply these to their local challenges

After 500 years Africans have still not learned who the enemy is, 500 years after the oyibos came here to enslave ALL of Africa and steal ALL Africas minerals, 500 years after the oyibos took over 25 million Africans into the most brutal from of slavery to ever exist Africans still dey siddon look. Looking in the sky for god. How many Nigerians/Africans do you know of with oyibo names such as Rose, John, Sarah, Joseph? I bet it is a lot. How many Asians or whites do you know of called Chibueze, Emeka, Ngozi or any other African name? I already know the answer, 0. This is the main problem for me as it shows a lack of self awareness, most Africans don't even know about slavery, or colonization, all they know is that the whites have all the money and the Africans are poor but they do not know or care why. I cant understand how a man or woman can have a baby in their village and decide to name their child after the oyibos that came here to kill and destroy for 500 years, but will go to war with another black tribe because they don speak your language.

The white American government only classed blacks as human in the 60's after the civil rights movement. We even sing our national anthem in English instead of making one that includes Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba, we allow the descendents of the whites who came to steal and plunder Africa to come and create big business here instead of supporting other Africans, how many African countries mine all their own minerals? How many own their own oil? Why are there European(mainly french) military bases in Africa? Until this changes everything will stay the same.

Sad piece

Maybe we should ask the Alaafin of Oyo who was in London promoting British tourism and being proud of it

SkyRider1: Sure that's our only lifeline.

Think about this all great powers study in their language.

The Chinese, the Russians, the French, the swedes, the Germans, the Koreans, the Japanese,

They have domesticated science and technologies. Hence they apply these to their local challenges

Most Americans are descended from people whose original language was not English. Infact, 31 million Americans speak Spanish, and there are a variety of other languages spoken.

How about multi-lingual societies like Indonesia, and India?

And Russia is not a nation of just Russians...there are several tribes (one of which is Korean!). Japan has 3 million Koreans and several thousand Ainu people, as well as Okinawans.

I doubt the problem is language...it is something deeper.

Fulaman198:

All I can say to this is, a walli jam e mon bandirawo, ada selli? I enjoyed reading this entire passage and i do believe that it deserves some front page attention. You would definitely make a great leader one day in Africa with this kind of progressive mindset that you possess.

Fulaman,
shey you dey see wetin I dey see?
The Op is so on point.
Our cultures are dieing cos of western culture.
Last Bullet
Too much western culture influence is affecting our education, entertainment industry & way of life.
Nobody's saying we should neglect western culture, but its influence should not overcome ours.

ChukwuCantDie: After 500 years Africans have still not learned who the enemy is, 500 years after the oyibos came here to enslave ALL of Africa and steal ALL Africas minerals, 500 years after the oyibos took over 25 million Africans into the most brutal from of slavery to ever exist Africans still dey siddon look. Looking in the sky for god. How many Nigerians/Africans do you know of with oyibo names such as Rose, John, Sarah, Joseph? I bet it is a lot. How many Asians or whites do you know of called Chibueze, Emeka, Ngozi or any other African name? I already know the answer, 0. This is the main problem for me as it shows a lack of self awareness, most Africans don't even know about slavery, or colonization, all they know is that the whites have all the money and the Africans are poor but they do not know or care why. I cant understand how a man or woman can have a baby in their village and decide to name their child after the oyibos that came here to kill and destroy for 500 years, but will go to war with another black tribe because they don speak your language.

The white American government only classed blacks as human in the 60's after the civil rights movement. We even sing our national anthem in English instead of making one that includes Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba, we allow the descendents of the whites who came to steal and plunder Africa to come and create big business here instead of supporting other Africans, how many African countries mine all their own minerals? How many own their own oil? Why are there European(mainly french) military bases in Africa? Until this changes everything will stay the same.

Well Spoken.

What about christianity? the introduction of christianity has been one of the destructive method to keep the African mind docile and very forgiven. We worship their own religion even more than them now, their religion has made the African mind unnecesarily optimistic, very forgiven of all their wrongs, believing in skies and kill any unprising of logical reasoning. To be free, it comes from the minds first, that is the greatest freedom to be ever experienced, not physically.

I have seen parents prohibiting their kids from speaking native language, attaching unnecesary superiority to English, people looking down on those that cant speak English or French (in Francophones countries), comedians making jokes on our native language as inferior while attaching civility and intelectual superiority to higher proficiency in English, girls clasifying guys as illeterate simply because he cant speak English , the list goes on and on.

This invasion of culture has created a mass inferiority complex among Nigerians, people consider natives that cannot speak English as an outright illeterate, they even feel that they do not belong simply because they are speaking their own native tongue, we willingly have an unconditonal love to the language of our colonial masters, people that up to this date, still look down on Africans and will ridicule you at any given opportunity.

Living in Europe is a very great lesson for the African mind, deep in you you are made to understand that you truly do not belong here, they will give jobs to their own brothers before even considering foreigners, the only job they can give you at will are jobs you wont be proud to identify with or include in your CV but in Africa, reverse is the case. The mass are willingly putting down their own culture, food, dress style, language and doing everything possible to destroy their national heritage unknowingly while glorifying anything European.

Even in France/UK, it is not hard to notice the exclusion you face from the French/English born black community if you identify with your african roots and name, or if they noticed that you are struggling with the language and/or you are born in Africa. We are gradually destroying ourselves with our own hands without even knowing.

Charity begins at home, no matter how hard and successful a black man his, he will only be respected if Africa is as develop to a point that they will respect. No matter the passport you have, you know deep in you that you are African, and you will be put to your place if need arise.

ChukwuCantDie: After 500 years Africans have still not learned who the enemy is, 500 years after the oyibos came here to enslave ALL of Africa and steal ALL Africas minerals, 500 years after the oyibos took over 25 million Africans into the most brutal from of slavery to ever exist Africans still dey siddon look.

Arabs also took millions of Africans into slavery...and Africans took Africans into slavery as well. (Arabs also used to take Europeans into Slavery!..infact at one time in the 17th century...Arab slave ships reached as far as Ireland).

And Arab slavery was brutal. Even more so than European. At least the Europeans allowed most male African slaves to keep their means of procreation. Arabs took it away .....and practiced routine infanticide.

Looking in the sky for god. How many Nigerians/Africans do you know of with oyibo names such as Rose, John, Sarah, Joseph? I bet it is a lot. How many Asians or whites do you know of called Chibueze, Emeka, Ngozi or any other African name?

Some Europeans too use Asian names...as do some Asians use European names.

I already know the answer, 0. This is the main problem for me as it shows a lack of self awareness, most Africans don't even know about slavery, or colonization, all they know is that the whites have all the money and the Africans are poor but they do not know or care why. I cant understand how a man or woman can have a baby in their village and decide to name their child after the oyibos that came here to kill and destroy for 500 years

Most slaves taken to Europe were captured by other Africans. Some were sold to the Europeans, others stayed at home (Jaja of Opobo is an example of a home slave who in a rare subversion, became a great man).

Colonial rule , while no Shangri La...did expose us to modernity and development.

The white American government only classed blacks as human in the 60's after the civil rights movement.

Blacks were recognised as citizens of the US in the mid 1860's...thanks to the 14th and 15 th amendments to the US Constitution. Of course, racism did reverse many of those gains(the Civil rights movement was in essence the balckman's way of asking for his legal rights that were already guaranteed)....but the law did recognize blacks as men

While the original constituion of the US did call backs as being 3/5th of men....it was done to prevent slave states gaining an advantage over non-slave states.(ie...a means of protecting black people in a rather back-handed way). By the 1840's ...several American states had essentially outlawed slavery.

We even sing our national anthem in English instead of making one that includes Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba,

We are forced to use English because there are 250 tribes in Nigeria....and no one wants to give up his language for the other.
(Swahilli....which has been suggested as a replacement...is an amalgam of Arabic and several East African languages).

English BTW is used in America....and it is not the native language of most Americans.

we allow the descendents of the whites who came to steal and plunder Africa to come and create big business here instead of supporting other Africans, how many African countries mine all their own minerals?

A lot of Africans are into mining on a small scale. But we do not mine because 1) We do not have enough technical people...because we despise techinical education 2) We prefer to share the money...rather than work for it.

Why are there European(mainly french) military bases in Africa? Until this changes everything will stay the same.

Becaue many Africans asked for them. Thankfully in Nigeria we refused to sign the Anglo-NIgerian defense pact back in 62.

Africa''s problem is Africans. We need to invest in technical education, end corruption, and realize that development is not in nice buildings or imported weapons.

After all, the Asians suffered just as badly as we did.

Op not to worry our time is coming.

The only reason we are at this level is inferiority complex and mental laziness plain and simple.

Most see whites as gods and worship them and take whatever comes from them as the gospel truth.

How else will u explain nigerians preferring foreign stuffs to made in aba?

Why would u believe more in zmapp than bitter kola?

One more thing the over reliance one God is one of our greatest weaknesses

bushdoc9919:

Most Americans are descended from people whose original language was not English. Infact, 31 million Americans speak Spanish, and there are a variety of other languages spoken.

How about multi-lingual societies like Indonesia, and India?

And Russia is not a nation of just Russians...there are several tribes (one of which is Korean!). Japan has 3 million Koreans and several thousand Ainu people, as well as Okinawans.

I doubt the problem is language...it is something deeper.

Agreed.

People always scream language, but if we examine our situation very well, it goes beyons that. you cited a good example about Indonesia which is far more multilingual than Nigerian but guess what? they have their own native language not Dutch even though they were a dutch colony.

I so much respect what President Sukarno did, Sukarno realized that his country needed a common vocabulary in order to unite people from the many islands and cultures . He recruited an international team of linguists, and Bahasa Indonesia was the highly successful result . Based on Malay, it avoid so many of the tense changes, irregular verbs, and other complications that characterize most languages . By the early 1970s, the majority o f Indonesians spoke it, although they continued to rely on Javanese and other local dialects within their own communities.

Foreigners comes to Nigeria without putting any effort to learn our language, speaking English is enough to survive in Nigeria and even Nigerians will attach an undeserved respect because you speak good English. The local people will wish to speak English as good as you and they automatically take up the inferior space while placing the English speaker on the superior pedestrial.

Wonder why so many countries fight so much to preserve their language? There was a time speaking Polish wa a crime and can land you in jail, Slovakia was under Hungary for about 800 years, and most of the countries around the world have been under occupation of different stronger state but guess what, they retain their language and culture after independence but in Africa and to be more specific Nigeria, it is otherwise. There is this sense of pride, this natural and complete feelings you feel when you are speaking your native language.

So many times I have been on forums and watch how foreigners insult Africa to the extent of some of them saying that we are inferior, we borrow their superior language, their superior culture and tradition. A language our ancestors has preserved and wrote many books on, we are willingly abandoning it for a language of our colonial masters that stole and enslave us for hundreds of years.

African mentality need to be changed, we are on our way to self destruction and doom, this is really a thing to be attend to urgently.

Nice one op.

For a cultural Renaissance, we will need to end the
violence, elitism, corruption and
poverty that seem to plague the
African continent, and replace
them with a more just and
equitable order, encouraging education and research.

Language is not a barrier.

Africa is Africa's problem. Our leaders are the reflection of the true nature of the African society.

The change/re awakening starts from everyone us.
I wish more and more Africans read pieces like this. Spreading the word helps.

And of course, a thread like this won't have traffic, it won't run into 20-30 or even 300 pages - and this alone tells you why Africa is still were it is.

Hurray!!! Akwa Ibom State is 27..
Ndito Akwa Ibom ewongo edi oooooo..
#HappyBirthdayAkwaIbom
https://www.nairaland.com/1915860/akwa-ibom-state-marks-27th

Good thinking OP.

Nigeria and Africa as a whole lacks originality and that is the very first place to start.

What exactly does Africa or Nigeria stands for? Our identity crisis needs to be challenged and solved, then whatever we adopt can be ours.

Again, it is about Identity.

The problem with Africa is Africans. No amount of blaming the European will change that. Sure they had their own part but the bulk of the blame still fall on us.

With respect to language preservation, In Nigeria there are various language institutions such as Alliance Francais for French, Goethe institut for German as well as Confucius Institut for Chinese. Which cultural institute is available for local languages in Nigeria?
How many languages have their own dictionary in which words are added annually? What of the professors in these languages? Yet you would blame the West for eroding your language
Unserious Africans ... The only specie of humans that consistently blame others for their problem.

Joavid: Nice one op.

For a cultural Renaissance, we will need to end the
violence, elitism, corruption and
poverty that seem to plague the
African continent, and replace
them with a more just and
equitable order, encouraging education and research.

Language is not a barrier.

Africa is Africa's problem. Our leaders are the reflection of the true nature of the African society.

The change/re awakening starts from everyone us.
I wish more and more Africans read pieces like this. Spreading the word helps.

And of course, a thread like this won't have traffic, it won't run into 20-30 or even 300 pages - and this alone tells you why Africa is still were it is.

I agree totally with you.

I knew I would find Fulaman198 here already


@post. best thread of the day. seriously before what you are suggesting will happen it will be in another world. not when those who cannot speak fluent English are seen as illiterates.

we just wanna be everything 'white', our own culture now repels us while that of our colonial masters is a blessing.

if there is one good talent god gave to the whites, its the ability to totally brainwash an entire continent. gosh!

I don't have much to say to your post but simply this.
Superstition is a great impediment to development.
And it can be lost without the langauge being lost.

greatwaters: Nice write-up but you're getting some things mixed up

I agree with you partly on this.


Now you're beginning to sound really gnomic, hard to understand. You want the Nigerians to lose their superstitions which are very much part of their culture, yet you want them to retain their languages. Thats impossible. Its like telling the Arabs to stop wearing their veil and gowns but to keep their language, Lol. My point is, Nigeria has been influenced by the west greatly during development and there's no way their languages would not be affected.



Here, i agree with you. Our leaders have always been our bane. I dont quite believe that we cant catch up though.

While it is true that translating books into their languages aided these countries' rennaissance, it is notable to note how difficult achieving the same feat on the African scene. First of all, the Arabs, Asians and Europeans have one major language in their countries which almost everyone understands, so translation is easy. Imagine doing that in Nigeria for example, which language would you translate into? Even if manage to translate into the three major languages, there's still a sizable population that do not understand any of those three languages. So you see how hard it is.

Good idea, but that would take quadruple the effort it took the Arabs, Asians et al. This is because everyone has to first become literate in the said languages, which to me is far fetched considering that it is discouraged in most basic schools.


If we want to achieve anything, lets encourage our own, though teaching science in our languages seems far from possible. We should not bundle off our promising scholars 2 America or the U.K, where their brains will be tapped 4 d benefit of those countries.

bushdoc9919:

Arabs also took millions of Africans into slavery...and Africans took Africans into slavery as well. (Arabs also used to take Europeans into Slavery!..infact at one time in the 17th century...Arab slave ships reached as far as Ireland).

And Arab slavery was brutal. Even more so than European. At least the Europeans allowed most male African slaves to keep their means of procreation. Arabs took it away .....and practiced routine infanticide.




Some Europeans too use Asian names...as do some Asians use European names.



Most slaves taken to Europe were captured by other Africans. Some were sold to the Europeans, others stayed at home (Jaja of Opobo is an example of a home slave who in a rare subversion, became a great man).

Colonial rule , while no Shangri La...did expose us to modernity and development.






Blacks were recognised as citizens of the US in the mid 1860's...thanks to the 14th and 15 th amendments to the US Constitution. Of course, racism did reverse many of those gains(the Civil rights movement was in essence the balckman's way of asking for his legal rights that were already guaranteed)....but the law did recognize blacks as men

While the original constituion of the US did call backs as being 3/5th of men....it was done to prevent slave states gaining an advantage over non-slave states.(ie...a means of protecting black people in a rather back-handed way). By the 1840's ...several American states had essentially outlawed slavery.



We are forced to use English because there are 250 tribes in Nigeria....and no one wants to give up his language for the other.
(Swahilli....which has been suggested as a replacement...is an amalgam of Arabic and several East African languages).

English BTW is used in America....and it is not the native language of most Americans.



A lot of Africans are into mining on a small scale. But we do not mine because 1) We do not have enough technical people...because we despise techinical education 2) We prefer to share the money...rather than work for it.




Becaue many Africans asked for them. Thankfully in Nigeria we refused to sign the Anglo-NIgerian defense pact back in 62.

Africa''s problem is Africans. We need to invest in technical education, end corruption, and realize that development is not in nice buildings or imported weapons.

After all, the Asians suffered just as badly as we did.

1. Yes, I know the Arabs were the original en-slavers but do we speak Arabic? Do Arabs control the world? No, they don't the whites do but we must also be very wary of the Arabs in North Africa especially Algeria who is building up it's military power very rapidly as well as Egypt and Morocco.

2. Tell me one European or American president with an Asian name...

3. Many slaves were originally enslaved by other Africans but not most, if that was the case we would never have been colonized.

4. African-Americans were not even allowed to use the same buildings as whites up until the civil rights movement in the 1960's, the white American government also burned down an extremely successful African-American city called Tulsa in Oklahoma in 1921 just because they were doing better than the whites. It was the FIRST EVER use of a plane to bomb targets on the ground.

5. I would prefer to speak an East African language as a lingua franca than a white European language of my racist oppressor. How is English not the native language of most Americans? Most Americans are white and English is a white language, the American blacks had their language beaten out of them by force during 400 years of slavery so who are you talking about?

6. Many Africans are not into mining because they worship whites and are mugus like you.

7. I doubt Ivorians asked to be invaded by France for no reason, my silly little friend.

8. Out of all you wrote the only thing I agree with is this. "We need to invest in technical education, end corruption, and realize that development is not in nice buildings or imported weapons."

cococandy: I don't have much to say to your post but simply this.
Superstition is a great impediment to development.
And it can be lost without the langauge being lost.

Maybe you should throw more light on your stand

Development is not only infrastructure.
It includes attitudinal change.
That's the only thing that can sustain development.
If not,we'll keep seeing the rot of infrastructure as is the norm in our society. No maintenance culture.
Mostly because the populace don't hold the govt to ransom.

Instead we prefer to pray for solutions.

An example would be people who'd rather consult mediums and seek spiritual help for problems that a good health care system can take care of. But because they rather believe in superstitions and the uncle after my life stories,they shun medical help.

There's no outcry and push to get the govt. to do more.hence the nonchalance our leaders display.
They know we aren't evolved enough to DEMAND what is ours.

Just an example.

greatwaters:
Maybe you should throw more light on your stand

IN SHORT:
Humans are like dogs. Different breeds with different qualities.

Some with a lot of muscle but little brain.
Some with brains but little muscle.

Let's not force it people. BLACK race(NOT just AFRICANS) lacks the brains.

By brain, i don't mean the ability to cram formulas or graduate as 1st class in Harvard(This is just a result of hardwork)

A "brainaic" is one who can think outside the BOX/textbooks and see things you'd never see in books.
We just do not belong to that line of human specie.

We have the muscle, the will power to do things. We are survivors. But the brains we just don't have.

Nice thread and very sensible and thoughtful comments all round. The reason why this renaissance will be difficult is the same reason why there's scanty traffic here: our youth are simply not interested. Discussions like this wont get them money or fame so why will they waste time on it? It requires selflessness, thoughtfulness and a desire to work for the common good of society but these virtues and values have long being killed in the African youth by irresponsible, thoughtless and greedy leadership. We live only for money now and this makes us impervious to the plight of our people and unconcerned about the continent's future. We are more concerned now with acquiring the latest gadgets, western fashion and our leaders are even more interested in getting western approval of their governments than the appraisal of their people.

We all need to work towards a change of values plus mentality and it'll be good if we can be honest enough to start with the "man/woman in the mirror"

ChukwuCantDie: 1. Yes, I know the Arabs were the original en-slavers but do we speak Arabic? Do Arabs control the world? No, they don't the whites do but we must also be very wary of the Arabs in North Africa especially Algeria who is building up it's military power very rapidly as well as Egypt and Morocco.

2. Tell me one European or American president with an Asian name...

3. Many slaves were originally enslaved by other Africans but not most, if that was the case we would never have been colonized.

4. African-Americans were not even allowed to use the same buildings as whites up until the civil rights movement in the 1960's, the white American government also burned down an extremely successful African-American city called Tulsa in Oklahoma in 1921 just because they were doing better than the whites. It was the FIRST EVER use of a plane to bomb targets on the ground.

5. I would prefer to speak an East African language as a lingua franca than a white European language of my racist oppressor. How is English not the native language of most Americans? Most Americans are white and English is a white language, the American blacks had their language beaten out of them by force during 400 years of slavery so who are you talking about?

6. Many Africans are not into mining because they worship whites and are mugus like you.

7. I doubt Ivorians asked to be invaded by France for no reason, my silly little friend.

8. Out of all you wrote the only thing I agree with is this. "We need to invest in technical education, end corruption, and realize that development is not in nice buildings or imported weapons."

You have got to be the must uneducated eediot on Nairaland.
See how stuupid your post is.
The person you quoted made some very nice and informative points. You just quoted him and started spewing all sort of nonsense.

GET A BRAIN as soon as you can PLEASE !

One word - Religion.