many 21st century cheldren in Nigeria considered speaking their native langauges as antisocial. I have come accross a number of them, most especially, those from the minority tribes in Nigeria.
Kudos to the Yurobas and the Housas who try as much as passible to ensure that their language do not go into extinsion by ensuring that their children speak their native language.
To me, talking in my native dailect is as good as talking in the English language. As a matter of fact, i wish that novels, scientific findings, journals etc could be written in Igede language. But unfortunately,my laguage being minority amongst minorities, is yet to develop to that extent.
My position on this matter is that it is better for us to be as fluent as possible in our native laguage as we speak the English language.
What i want to know is this, if you considered speaking your language as antisocial,how would you address your community during your electioneering ? For eg, if you are aspiring for local govt chair, house of rep or even a sanatorial seat and you claim to come from a particular place, which you must address your audience in your native dialect otherwise, you are regarded as foreigner in their mids.That alone is a serious political weapon your political rival can use against you. Or what has been your experience in such situations?

I agre. Every Nigerian should speak 2 native Nigerian language, KiSwahili and English. KiSwahili for all of Africa. English for All of the world, and the native languages for Nigeria. But Africans rather speak European language than their own because we cannot decide which language t speak for the country language. We are so easy to manipulate this will lead to our demise in the not so distant future. All black people world wide should learn KiSwahili to unite as one.

The only African language that speaks it's own language as official langauge is Tanzania (maybe Ethiopia too). We will end up like the South Americans with no indigenous language pretty soon if we don;t wake up.

Very well, probably better than English and Hausa.

igbo2011: I agre. Every Nigerian should speak 2 native Nigerian language, KiSwahili and English. KiSwahili for all of Africa. English for All of the world, and the native languages for Nigeria. But Africans rather speak European language than their own because we cannot decide which language t speak for the country language. We are so easy to manipulate this will lead to our demise in the not so distant future. All black people world wide should learn KiSwahili to unite as one.

The only African language that speaks it's own language as official langauge is Tanzania (maybe Ethiopia too). We will end up like the South Americans with no indigenous language pretty soon if we don;t wake up.

KiSwahili is an east African language friend

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igbo2011: I agre. Every Nigerian should speak 2 native Nigerian language, KiSwahili and English. KiSwahili for all of Africa. English for All of the world, and the native languages for Nigeria. But Africans rather speak European language than their own because we cannot decide which language t speak for the country language. We are so easy to manipulate this will lead to our demise in the not so distant future. All black people world wide should learn KiSwahili to unite as one.

Why this emphasis on Kiswahili? We are not in East Africa.
Why not promote Hausa language instead? Hausa is spoken in different countries in West Africa like Niger, Cameroon, Ghana and Sudan.

fellis:

Why this emphasis on Kiswahili? We are not in East Africa.
Why not promote Hausa language instead? Hausa is spoken in different countries in West Africa like Niger, Cameroon, Ghana and Sudan.

Fulfulde (Fulani language) is spoken in every west African country

Fulaman198:

Fulfulde (Fulani language) is spoken in every west African country

Hausa is also spoken in every West African country and it is more widely spoken than Fulfulde. There are about 50million Hausa speakers in Africa and only about 15million Fulfulde speakers.

fellis:

Why this emphasis on Kiswahili? We are not in East Africa.
Why not promote Hausa language instead? Hausa is spoken in different countries in West Africa like Niger, Cameroon, Ghana and Sudan.

I've also confronted him on why he keeps insisting on Kiswahili. Everybody should just focus on their own language. I don't want any general language for Africa. My first language is Igbo and i also speak English and Pidgin.

fellis:

Hausa is also spoken in every West African country and it is more widely spoken than Fulfulde. There are about 50million Hausa speakers in Africa and only about 15million Fulfulde speakers.

That's false, there are at least 30 million Fulani speakers. Guinea is half Fulani, Nigeria has 10 million or so speakers. Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Mali all have large amounts of Fulani speakers.

Whether you call the language Pular or Fulfulde, there are far more speakers than 15 million. Native Hausa speakers number maybe about 30 million (most people like me speak it as a second language).

Fulaman198:

That's false, there are at least 30 million Fulani speakers. Guinea is half Fulani, Nigeria has 10 million or so speakers. Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Mali all have large amounts of Fulani speakers.

Whether you call the language Pular or Fulfulde, there are far more speakers than 15 million. Native Hausa speakers number maybe about 30 million (most people like me speak it as a second language).

There's a difference between having 30 million Fulani people in west Africa and having 20 million fulani speakers. I even think the population of Fulani people are not that much.

Fulaman198:

That's false, there are at least 30 million Fulani speakers. Guinea is half Fulani, Nigeria has 10 million or so speakers. Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Mali all have large amounts of Fulani speakers.

Whether you call the language Pular or Fulfulde, there are far more speakers than 15 million. Native Hausa speakers number maybe about 30 million (most people like me speak it as a second language).

I don't know where you got your figures, post your source if you don't mind. I would like to be enlightened further.
Anyway I still think Hausa is more widely spoken than fulfulde, it is one of the most widely spoken Afro asiatic languages. Fulani language is not as widely spoken as Hausa.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/9546

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/languages_of_Africa

I stand corrected