Two weeks ago, I attended the end of year party of my village union in Lagos, and as usual members came with their families, even friends. The party started as in the afternoon with prayers, I came in to meet a member praying the kind of firebrand prayers that you'd often see with Pentecostals, you know, the type that's quite physical and hysterical, with shouting and gesturing, and even though I was seated in front because of my position in the union alongside other members of the executive, I wasn't intimidated by looks from those compliant with prayer directives to put my hand on my head or elsewhere, or raise my hands to make one prayer point or another, in response to this pastor-member who said "finally" more than four times before bringing the prayer session to an end. As if the chairman felt that the prayer may not be received in some parts of heaven, he asked another pastor member to summarize the prayers, who this time with a low voice and calm mien, helped the plane to touch down.


Prayers made by pastors was quickly followed by the breaking of Kola, by the chairman, secretary and another member of the high table, who took turns to pray for the health of all those present, as well as members who couldn't make it, to which we all responded with "Ìseeeeee", on the various occasions. In previous years, we didn't have a compere take charge of the end of year party, so when this young man came up to handle the "mic" while food and drinks made their way to the tables, I joined others present to see what he had up his sleeves. He was totally uninspiring, had dry jokes, made no effort to endear himself to the "strong men" present, even if with the intention to milk some "change" off them by massaging their easy to rouse egos, rather he went about disrespecting them at the slightest opportunity he got. So much so that they turned to the DJ to cut him off, and continue to play just music, and that state of affairs prevailed for a while.


But the MC wasn't going to take that lying low, he picked up the mic again, got the DJ to cut the music, and after the high table people extracted a promise from him to be courteous he was once again allowed to do his job. This time he wanted kids to come play games for prizes which he had packed in a bag. The game was such that the kid who had mastery of Igbo will go home with the prize. I began to sense trouble here, seeing that been born and bred in Lagos I couldn't until a few years back, speak the Igbo language and still not even fluently at that, and I'm edging closer to my fourth decade on earth. I learnt to speak Yoruba and English before Igbo and I know that it's even worse with today's Igbo kids born and bred in Lagos.


The kids of course didn't disappoint, many of them couldn't say their names in a sentence in Igbo language. They were certainly worse than I was at their age. They didn't know the name of their village, neither could the majority make a simple sentence in the Igbo language, the only girl who did, and knew the name of her village amongst other sundry, wasn't even from our village but was on holidays with the family that had brought her to our end of year party. Now, this was the last straw that broke the camel's back for the MC, as he started berating the children who couldn't speak the mother tongue, even directly casting aspersions on their parents. I'd excused myself to go take a leak at a nearby gutter away from the location of the party, in order to relieve my bladder of the stout that was about to burst it, which seemed apart from the semovita and bitter leaf soup, the best things that was happening to me at the party, only to find the MC been hassled out of the venue by some of the men at the gathering on my return. Apparently, the parents must've had enough of his shenanigans and would rather see the back of his head than continue to stomach the shit he was spewing at them.


I couldn't care less, I'd thought he was a mistake right from onset, especially when he failed to use the opportunity provided him to kiss arses and make himself some cool dough, but he went totally in the opposite direction, even to the extreme at that and he deservedly got what was coming to him. So the party continued without him, wining, dining, feasting and dancing. Kids were organized to dance and each of them got a prize, then the adults danced, drank (so much alcohol), then packed excess food home in takeaway packs afterwards, thus we ended the year on a somewhat happy note, post-the crazy compere.


On my way home however, I reflected on what had happened, and was deeply saddened by the fact that our children couldn't speak our language. I was self taught, which is why I don't speak my exact Igbo dialect but what you might term "Lagos Igbo", the only time I appear to speak a better Igbo is when I read it, and I do write less excellently though, because of my deep understanding of the Yoruba which isn't too different from the Igbo both in reading and writing (I have a good WAEC result in Yoruba, in the days when "expo" or "orijo" wasn't a thing, to back that up). It was painful to see Igbo parents who had better Igbo upbringing than I did, make the same mistakes my parents made in this day and age of identity seeking and promotion. I even noticed some parents expressing their displeasure when the DJ played strictly traditional "Egwu Ékpílí", because they considered it pagan, preferring their children danced to Igbo church music, or the explicit lyrics of "Phyno", the Nigerian hip-hop act that raps in the Igbo language.


The only tribe in Nigeria that seems to be doing very little in promoting the mother tongue, even in the homelands, are the Igbo. When I travel back home, which is almost frequently for several engagements, I see kids there trying to impress me with the English they learnt at "Nt'akala" classes, wanting to be like their Lagos-Igbo counterparts. Unfortunately, I do not know what we should do, besides bringing this to the attention of Igbos, so we begin to think of how to address this anomaly. I hope that when we have our first village meeting next year, that attention will be drawn away from the events surrounding the MC-ing at the end of year party, which I'm sure will be raised, and apportioning blame to whoever thought him a good idea howbeit for the first time in the history of such parties; to looking at the salient issue the MC raised and exposed, though in a rather tactless and uncouth manner, in a bid to redressing the shame. Ìgbò, E Kène Mu Únù!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://www.iheanyiigboko.



IGBO CHILDREN'S INABILITY TO SPEAK THE MOTHER TONGUE | http://madukovich..com.ng/2016/12/igbo-childrens-inability-to-speak.html?m=1

It's not peculiar to Igbos but our generation.

Its
A
Big
Shame
To
Us
All
We
Have
Failed
Our
Various
Tribes
You
Will
See
Small
Intelligent
Boys and Girls
Speaking
English
Fluently
But
Their
Mother's
Tongue
Igbo, and Yoruba
Most
Especially
Is
A
Vernacular

It
Most
Stop

Not to play it down but it mostly happens in Lagos and the North generally. If you grew up in the east you'd most likely speak Igbo comfortably. Not so when you grow up outside Igboland. That said,the parents can do much better.

iSlayer2:
Not to play it down but it mostly happens in Lagos and the North generally. If you grew up in the east you'd most likely speak Igbo comfortably. Not so when you grow up outside Igboland. That said,the parents can do much better.

I totally agree with you, but it's also beginning to creep into Igboland.

Nutase:
It's not peculiar to Igbos but our generation.

True.

Environment na the major cause because if you notice many ibos wey live in lag speak yoruba to an extent because lagos na yoruba state unamtalking about. Had this ibo friend wey school for Ib if you hear this babe speaking yoruba you no go believe say na ibo because Ib na yoruba locality too.

toludeman:
Environment na the major cause because if you notice many ibos wey live in lag speak yoruba to an extent because lagos na yoruba state unamtalking about. Had this ibo friend wey school for Ib if you hear this babe speaking yoruba you no go believe say na ibo because Ib na yoruba locality too.

Very true, and it's good to be multilingual but it should never be at the detriment of ones' mother tongue.

madukovich:



Very true, and it's good to be multilingual but it should never be at the detriment of ones' mother tongue.

Correct.Make seun carry am go frontpage make people realize the importance.

@Op
Tanks for the incisive writeup. this is a topic very dear to my heart.

Needless to say, I'm one of those Lagos brought up Igbos. My parents prefered that wwe spoke English at home instead of Igbo even though they would speak igbo to us but we could only speak English to ourselves (siblings). So, i was lucky to have understood Igbo from a very young age (but couldn't speak). I made a conscious effort to learn Igbo as an adult and i think i did a good job and even though i'm not fluent or will not be speaking Igbo with those Alaba or Onitsha market boys for fear of being disgraced, i think i have come a long way in the Igbo learning curve.

For me, the problem of Igbo kids not speaking Igbo is more too do with the way Igbo is looked down upon a opposed to the inability of Igbos kids to speak igbo. Like we all know, it's very common with Igbos outside Igboland and when you compare them with Yorubas and hausas outside Yorubaland and Hausaland, you'll realize that we're at the bottom of the pecking ther as far as understanding one's mother tongue is concerned. This trend is not only common outside Igboland. There's something happeniing inside Igboland that i don't thin people realize.

I was happy some years back when i was called to service (NYSC) and i was posted to a palce called Ohaji/Egbema in Imo state and i was happy that i was going to Igboland where i'll be able to master the Igbo language. On getting there, i realized that whenever i spoke Igbo to some natives, they always tend to reply me in English in a bid to show me that they're educated and exposed to. This was really annoying. I also realized that in our higher institutions, Pidgin English is giving Igbo language arun for its money. meaning friends will rather communicate in pidgin in an unofficial capacity than Igbo which is the opposite of what i experienced in my secondary school days in lagos where my Yoruba friends and classmates always wanted to kill me with yoruba languae even when they knew i couldn't (at the time). So, i wonder why our own case in Igboland is different. It's really shameful.

It is very shameful and I hope that very soon conscious efforts will be made by Igbos far and near to correct this anomaly.

IGBOS are the most implicated culprits, of the 3 MAJOR TRIBES.

it's indeed a huge shame.
If IGBOS are taught IGBO in the US and CHINA, why do Igbo's in Nigeria suffer from Inferiority complex, especially the Igbo ladies who happen to be very beautiful.

What are you ladies ashamed of..??
U are the MOTHERS .
U Igbo ladies are the most respected in marriage.
U can influence things.
U can correct these anomalies.
U have d most committed MEETINGS ( August meeting)
Please, HELP OUT.

United NATIONS alarmed that Igbo language may likely go into final extinction by 2050, but from the way things are going..,I think 2050 is too far. Rather, I will go for 2039.

At this time, we have people who can't speak, but they can hear and understand fairly.
What will then happen when will start having people who cannot even HEAR and understand...?
Because u need to understand first, for u to speak.

As an IGBOMAN, If u have plans of distancing yourself and kids from IGBO entirely, then don't settle for an Igbo lady.
Because it will be a GROSS WASTE, to have an Igbo lady as a wife, yet your kids have no traces of Igbo culture in them.

I ashamed to say that I'm a product of this phenomenon . I was born and raised in the U.K. so my dad didn't put a huge effort into teaching us Igbo- my mum didn't agree- as he thought that we'd just 'pick it up' as we grew older. I understand it but I can't speak or write it well. I've started to teach myself the language and speak it whenever I can to people so hopefully I'll be fluent in a year or so. I speak 4 languages (excluding Igbo) so it's quite shameful that I still haven't mastered my own language yet.

@Afam4ever
Have you got any tips to learning the language? How long did it take you to become fluent?

Ngozi123:
I ashamed to say that I'm a product of this phenomenon . I was born and raised in the U.K. so my dad didn't put a huge effort into teaching us Igbo- my mum didn't agree- as he thought that we'd just 'pick it up' as we grew older. I understand it but I can't speak or write it well. I've started to teach myself the language and speak it whenever I can to people so hopefully I'll be fluent in a year or so. I speak 4 languages (excluding Igbo) so it's quite shameful that I still haven't mastered my own language yet.

@Afam4ever
Have you got any tips to learning the language? How long did it take you to become fluent?

I'm yet to be fluent in Igbo. I'll say i'm somewhere around 60%. I was able to improve because i had the foundation. The best way to learn it to find someone you can speak it with repeatedly. If it' possible to live in Igboland for a year, that will definitely be an added advantage.

Btw, which 4 languages do you speak?

Afam4eva:

I'm yet to be fluent in Igbo. I'll say i'm somewhere around 60%. I was able to improve because i had the foundation. The best way to learn it to find someone you can speak it with repeatedly. If it' possible to live in Igboland for a year, that will definitely be an added advantage.

Btw, which 4 languages do you speak?

Daalu sor nwanne.

English, French, Arabic and Hebrew.

Ngozi123:


Daalu sor nwanne.

English, French, Arabic and Hebrew.

You're welcome.

I've tried Learning "je ne pas parle francais" but the language is really difficult

Afam4eva:

You're welcome.

I've tried Learning "je ne pas parle francais" but the language is really difficult

I used to believe that French was difficult until I started learning Arabic... if you want to learn French then you should visit France for a few months; French people always make an effort not to speak English so you would pick it up really quickly. Watching some French films/programmes would also help. My French has been steadily regressing as I haven't been speaking it like I used to .

Ngozi123:


I used to believe that French was difficult until I started learning Arabic... if you want to learn French then you should visit France for a few months; French people always make an effort not to speak English so you would pick it up really quickly. Watching some French films/programmes would also help. My French has been steadily regressing as I haven't been speaking it like I used to .

I schooled in Mauritius which is a French island but i wasn't able to pick it up even though i tried so hard. I actually intend to enroll for french classes before i move over to Spanish. While still trying to perfect my spoken Igbo.

Afam4eva:

I schooled in Mauritius which is a French island but i wasn't able to pick it up even though i tried so hard. I actually intend to enroll for french classes before i move over to Spanish. While still trying to perfect my spoken Igbo.

Ena su Spanish? It's very difficult to learn more than one language at once so well done.

Ngozi123:


Ena su Spanish? It's very difficult to learn more than one language at once so well done.

Mba oo. I just want to start learning it. I plan on visiting latin America in the future and it will come handy to understand Spanish and Portugese.

Afam4eva:

Mba oo. I just want to start learning it. I plan on visiting latin America in the future and it will come handy to understand Spanish and Portugese.

That's good. Spanish, like French is a very useful language to learn as it's spoken by so many people in the world. One of the only phrases I know how to say in Spanish is "No entiendo Espanyol" . I can't get further than that. Make sure you stick to it.