The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) in collaboration with the South Africa based Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) recently organised an international workshop on the harmonisation of indigenous languages. The workshop, held on October 26 and 27 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, brought participants from several African countries for the
first phase of the project, with a focus on Hausa, Ijaw, Yoruba and Igbo languages.

Speaking at the opening of the Abuja workshop, Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Abubakar Sadiq Muhammed said, “Despite Asia’s multiculturalism and
multilingualism, they have been able to maintain their cultural and linguistic identities and have used them as springboard for socio-economic growth and
development. The Asian
countries have achieved a lot
through the use and
development of their indigenous languages.”

As linguists got to grips with the task in the different language clusters, Director of CASAS, Kwesi Kwaa Prah spoke about his work on the preservation of mother
tongues.

A good idea at the right time. I can't understand how some Nigerians cope in Nigeria having only the knowledge of English eya. It seems most of them think speaking an indigienous language will affect their english language proficiency another eyaaaaa. Well, I dont blame them but their parents who made english the official language at home at detriment of mother tongue another big eyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Phate07:

www.234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5641735-146/story.csp?

Lagos_Boi:

This is a reasonable procedure to preserve our own languages, Youths of now-a-days are full of Phonetics and in some cases some of them are shy or ashamed to speak their own mother tongue in public,
many of them na package wey no make sense. Both home and away i go speak yoruba, i go even improve my pidgin wella

Lagos_Boi:

This is a reasonable procedure to preserve our own languages, Youths of now-a-days are full of Phonetics and in some cases some of them are shy or ashamed to speak their own mother tongue in public,
many of them na package wey no make sense. Both home and away i go speak yoruba, i go even improve my pidgin wella

bigmodo:

no be lie, even me dey shame to speak igbo for sch

nellaluv:

Unilag na school

ladej:

sadly this trend of not speaking mother tongue is prevalent in diaspora. while diasporans can be excused to an extent[small one albeit], whats the excuse of those in nigeria who cannot speak their mother tongue. its sad

oluagness:

All African countries should learn Yoruba, best language so far

ladej:

sadly this trend of not speaking mother tongue is prevalent in diaspora. while diasporans can be excused to an extent[small one albeit], whats the excuse of those in nigeria who cannot speak their mother tongue. its sad

ferhyntorlah:

I dont see any reason why parents in diaspora cant speak their language to their children. The first language a child should learn to speak is his/her mother tongue. My mum told me of a couple who stayed overseas. They spoke their dialect to all their children while living abroad. Now, the children can clearly speak their dialect. To me, there is no EXCUSE for not speaking your language to your children in a foreign land.

Yeah, we all want our children to speak good English but not at the expense of our language. That's why I admire the Indians & South Africans; everly proud of their language, which is clearly evident in their movies.