₦airaland Forum

BlueRayDick:
I don’t know why the message in this photo is kind of hilarious to me; maybe cos whitemen tend to exaggerate things sha . So the white man is saying as recent as July 1960 people in Abakaliki in the present eastern Nigeria don’t even don a loin clothe and there was a move to prosecute them for it ?

Na wa o, now I understand the pain of some of these anti-imperialists people like teejay . Why criminalize not wearing of clothes if what is written in that screenshot is correct ?

The shit is damn funny.

Astrid4:
Gave cotton ??
Cottons grows in Africa then
The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India.

Not in western Africa.

Astrid4:
Well I won't say there were acculturated
Cos even before the era of loin cloth even the Romans made cloth with animal skins and Africans are not exempted from this...the world revolved towards the use of cotton and loin, well Africa revolve towards this too but due aristocrat practice in most Africa community the Poor/ordinary masses that are not from Noble family had no access to loin and cottons then...I have alot of pictures of people from Noble family well claded in cottons and loins infact loins and cottons were used to identify the rich/nobles then.
Below are some evidences

WHO gave us this cotton?? Was it not this white man.
I'm trying to break down this mentality that our culture is somehow special.

There is nothing special about any old culture. We need to Keep on evolving.

Culture is a way of life. It's should not be perculiar to a person. I don't want to have to see myself as different from someone in Indonesia or chile or india. I want my child to be able to travel to and marry someone from Thailand without having to feel socially awkward about it. That's about the idealism I'm talking about.

Astrid4:
.

I swear this is the funniest shit_ I've seen today. Tribalists in the mud. So the white men who we all hate actually had to force our granddads to wear clothes and here we are loving the "culture".

Not to talk of our granddads killing lovely twins and disposing of these sweet babies in the bush.
Hmmm. What to make of these cultural values.

Astrid4:
Exactly thank you very much.

Such a self own.
He doesn't even know that he has inversely agreed that what we term our "traditional wears" today are acculturated. They were not ours in the first place.

Very dumb mofos who just argue for arguments sake.

Astrid4:
Even 1960 is not even recent
Have came across Africa nudity in several books, article et al even up till now there are still tribes in Africa that don't dorn a loin clothe up till now...but let's just keep to the argument...I brought the article only to support Donjazet claims.

I would love to see the picture. For educational purposes.

donstan18:
Use epistle dey litter everywhere dey talk rubbish.

In Nigeria, if you want to come off intelligent, just cast Religion, tradition, culture, Nigerian songs and movies, just condemn anything Nigeria and watch mugus see you as intelligent.

Clowns!

Donstupidity strikes again. I'm sure by now, you're so used to people calling you an idiot_. the word has lost its meaning on you. But unfortunately my friend, that's just what you are. A warm blooded idiot_, incapable of thinking broadly.

You can't add any substance to the conversation, just come, diss and go. Your brain is in incapable of forming continuous sentences.

I'm sure, the tribal man in you will still flog your children badly if they can't speak English well or fail English in class. I'm sure the tribal man in you went to the white man's church this morning, instead of worshipping idemilii or sango or amadioha like your great grand dad and great grand mum did.

I'm sure the tribal man in you ate meals this morning {if you can afford it} far distinct from what grand dad and mum ate. Talk about irony slapping you in the face. While you're at it, are you proud of your grand uncle having partaken in killing thousands of twins? Are you proud of those values he held?

Answer on a post card, olodo.

BlueRayDick:
Why are u so hot tempered and overly reactive like this ?

Somebody posted a screenshot that states that the whitemen criminalized not wearing of clothes in the abakaliki province around July 1960 , I was surprised at how the Whiteman could do that and pointed it out that I actually understand why most people who hold anti-imperialist views do not like most things about the whiteman’s time in africa...... But here u are not taking ur time to understand my post but reacting on impulse thinking it’s an attack on u .

Teejay try dey cool down Na haba!

What was said in the picture?

Astrid4:
.

I'm not seeing any picture.. why did you take it down?

Igboid:
Please the bold is not true.
Stop watching too many Nollywood movies and making your impression of Igboland from that.
In Ancient Igboland, we made beautiful clothes and wore them in cold conditions or some festivals. Of course we lived in hot rainforest, so most times we wore few clothes because of heat.
Google Akwete cloth weaving centres for a start.

My point still stands. These akwete or whatever, is it what we identify as our cultural wear today?? Is it not silk, cotton, wool etc which we use to identify ourselves?

Greatihex:
OK.

My nigga
Now you see how it feels abi?

Amoto94:
Low-budget 'Wole Soyinka' can't make his point without calling religious people unintelligent ( in context).

Is this for A001? What's your beef with him?

hensben:
You made a good point. As for Wole Soyinka I that’s his occupation and he should be good at it, I think he read englsih and literature as a course. I am good at my profession too. But when speaking informally you don’t mock people for not good at it, correction is allowed though. It’s just like a Spanish man laughing at a German for not speaking Spanish fluently.

Hensben, leave all these things. Tell yourself the practical truth.
If you don't know how to speak English well In our own society. It's definitely going to serve as a hindrance to you in certain walks of life.

Factos, if you want to be a pilot today, you must learn the language well. If you wanted to work at the UN, you must learn the language.
This is a practical application, not a sentimental one. English language is spoken by more than 4 billion people worldwide. Not knowing the language does hinder your social progress in our society.

I don't know what you're defending. You've been advised to maybe use Google translator. On this platform, we all speak English or it's variations which we understand. When you do, it's usually difficult to understand yours. You usually fail in effective communication.
Sometimes you write long paragraphs without comma or full stop or good spacing. All these make it more difficult to decipher what you're saying.
Please learn the language better for us to understand you better.

Greatihex:
When did the bolded ever happen?

Don't ever quote me with nonsense again.
Respect yourself.

BlueRayDick:
I understand ur point concerning Donj thinking the whole idea of universal is possible especially the line of thought that our own Languages/cultures having to give way for a universally acceptable one. I also don’t believe it’s possible or achievable in centuries to come. Human beings are too complex for such thing to come to fruition. Shey it is the Chinese that have held on to mandarin for centuries , refused to learn English nor speak it even when they understand it and are in a gathering of mostly English speakers ; are they the people that will embrace any universal language that is not mandarin ?

Never say never. I am an idealist. Check the name of my diary. I choose to believe in the ultimate utopia. In show all things can be good, better than they are. I choose to dream big.
Idealism come with the burden of realizing that the change might not come in your lifetime but nonetheless, it will ultimately come..

It's intellectually lazy to say that change can't happen. No matter how big enough the challenge is.

The truth is that most of the human race all want the same thing.

What do we want in life? HAPPINESS and SATISFACTION. life is all about the pursuit of happiness. We all want it no matter where we come from, a negro or a Caucasian. We want the same things.
I just want us to see ourselves as the same human beings, not just a human being that is Igbo, then is Nigerian, then is African.
Notice how it's convenient to change our identities to either of these 3 categories when convenient.

Sometimes, we would proclaim to identify with our tribe, even though we don't even like the people in the next village, or we would proclaim to be Nigerians, even when we don't share much in common, or we proclaim to be African when we hate the chadians and south Africans as much as they hate us.

I want us to strip ourselves of these useless identities that divide us and identify as one.

A001:
You're not realistic. You might as well start clamoring for Christianity, the religion of most English-speaking nations, as the universal religion all in a bid to have a united (utopian) world.

Your posts are a classic example of what it's called policy somersault common in successive governments of Nigeria.

So far, you've failed to give practical reasons why you think having a single language, religion will bring about a united world.
You've only shown your dislike/disdain for the Ibo culture like most Africans with deeply ingrained inferiority complex do as regards their local culture.

You are jumping from point A to point F. You're not coherent enough in your thought process.

How does me championing a common language automatically translate to a disdain of my culture.

I am telling you that I am indifferent to my culture. Me being igbo adds nothing of value to my life. I don't hate it, neither do I love it, I just don't care.
Neither should you.

You know, this is not highlighted enough. It's egregious seeing a black man (not you) who prays to a foreign religious God, does a white man's traditional wedding {white wedding}, talk about espousing his cultural values. It's hypocritical.

But again, I don't personally believe in these things, we keep learning new ways of life {culture} everyday.
And again, I am not saying that speaking one language universally will automatically translate into us not having divisions but it will inevitably help in us understanding ourselves better. That is simply a practical use. We are both practicing that now.

Take this thread for example. All the participants of these thread are most likely from more than 10 different ethnic groups but we're able to share our love of football {white man's sports} together in English. We know the entertainment value of football to us and we share that joy together because we speak the same language. That's practical. Our culture has no use here.

A001:
Can you remind me again why you criticize Christianity and Islam because here you're stating the local cultures and languages are dead (even though they're not) and clamoring for English to become the universal language?

You might as well start clamoring for Christianity to become the universal religion since most Igbos don't revere Amadioha or Chukwu, who they call Yahweh or Allah ignorantly. These posts reek of utter confusion.

Christ!!! Do you even know my position on these things at all?? How are you not understanding me?

You know I'm an atheist. I don't believe in the existence of a supreme being. So why would I clamour for the adoption of ANY religion in the first place??
God, Allah, sango, amadioha, oshimiri etc these are all fictional characters invented by our old societies to make sense of the things around them and as a means of control.

I have always championed the demise of religion. One less thing to divide humanity.
Please reason rationally. Don't be one of those people stuck in a rabbit hole

Havertz10:
after the nonsense you said about Venezuela, why would i waste my time on you, i'm dumb for wanting the world to be better for all

I did admire your hot takes yesterday. Please, for the love of God, apply the same sense of logic when discussing mount and havertz.
Truce?

A001:
The inferiority complex I mentioned doesn't apply to Wole Soyinka because he always promotes the indigenous Yoruba culture in his works, criticizes the foreign imported religions that stiffle the development of our local cultures and languages.

And he's forced to write in English because it's the language of our colonial masters and one of the most popular languages in the world.

To people like Wole Soyinka, English is an important language, but is not the best language in the world.

For a Yoruba person, Yoruba language is the best language in the world. It's only inferiority complex and/or mental slavery that will make a Yoruba person feel otherwise.

My good friend. I know you're big on this African culture stuff. Your hatred for the religious encroachment of Islam and Christianity into Africa extends to your disdain of our own acculturation of the white man and his ideals.

But you need to let go of the past and look into the future. What is really the need for us to espouse our tribes?? Really look into that question.

Let me assume that you're yoruba. I'm Igbo.
What is the practical use of your language over mine?? Is it not this English language that is connecting both of us??
Does you being Yoruba add any special value over me being igbo.? All these affiliations are purely sentimental.

No need to brood over it. There is truly nothing wrong with our cultures dying. They have no practical use. Me being an Igbo man living, having a cultural identity as an Igbo man when I live in Maryland Lagos is useless.
I am Igbo in all but name.
You may think that espousing the English language means espousing the white man but that's not true.

The British that taught us the language don't even have an autonomy over the language again.

The English language has become the default language of the world. That's why it has even had variations of it. IE, American English, Australian English, pidgin English, Jamaican English {rastafarian} . Etc.

There is no use fighting change, we just have to succumb to it. The language is the ultimate unifier.
We are communicating in English because it is practical to do so. If I called onye nsokwu. You won't understand me. If you spoke Yoruba, I won't understand you. Our unifier is the English language.
I'm not saying we adopt the English CULTURE, even though most of us criticizing me here do it gleefully {white wedding}.
I'm just saying we embrace the language.

Amoto94:
DonJ my problem with you is that sometimes you like chestbeating when you could have just ignore and move on doing so makes you look overbearing and childish even if you're right.
On the issue of African (this term is used unrestrictedly) culture we have culture some aspects of it can be found in other continents( this is due to the fact that we share certain similarities due to being from the same ancestor) while others are exclusive to Africans alone. Some of these are from the culture of Africans; communalism, fables, food, clothing, language and poetry.

I do love that, don't I??
That's what you get for calling me mentally enslaved when that is what word is loaded.

I would like any Igbo man here to tell me when last he revered amadioha, or went to an ofala or new yam festival. Or believes in the supremacy of our kings in the village as our highest political authority. Or officially taught their children the Igbo language.
Our culture is dead. Nothing to chestbeat

Roland17:
You and any black man should be proud of numerous African traditions and cultures because they are highly regarded and respected

Jesus Christ, this man just went to post Wikipedia page on African cultures.

Roland I'm truly disappointed that you can't see the picture as a whole.

African culture doesn't exist because we aren't a monolith. We don't have one culture, we have a multitude.

And the truth is that, our culture is already as dead as can be. If you are a Christian or moslem, know that you are spitting on your culture, many of us and most likely our children won't get to officially learn our native languages in school. As I speak to you. Only the 3 major languages in Nigeria are taught in schools. What of minority tribes like ijaw, ogoni, urobo, anan, eket, Ibibio and many other smaller tribes. The local languages are already dying everyday. Children of all these aforementioned tribes are learning and utilizing English.

Let me go further into detail as to how my own Igbo culture is already dead.
Growing up in my grandfather's days, their greatest festive days, were the ofala day, the new yam festival to mark the beginning of a farming season and the coronation of a king.
Our great grand father's worshipped and revered their gods. Amadioha, oshimiri, ijele, Ani and chukwu. Only the last god was coopted by the religion to enable an easier conversion process.

Forget all these "traditional attires" you see today as our culture. My great grand father's people went mostly butt naked. They knew absolutely nothing of silk, cotton, wool etc that are being used as traditional dresses today which ironically was introduced to them by their colonizers and trade partners. They mostly went butt naked, with the women's breast enjoying fresh air every single day. Those nipples standing firm for all to see, waiting to be suckled. Occasionally covering their private parts with the skin of animals they've hunted in the bush.

The only thing that still shapes the Igbo cultural identity today is just the language and some cuisine. Even at that, those too are dying. Many igbos eat mostly cooked rice and enjoy beans as part of their daily meals. These were foreign to us. Nobody in igboland grew rice or beans.

I could go on and on, as to how our cultures are on their last breath but I would stop here.

raumdeuter:
While reading the posts in the last few pages I saw a lot of sense in what he posted, Languages are just a means of cmmunication and many languages have died in this Nigeria. For us to have like 10 dominant languages and 3 major ones, Means 1000s of languages have died. Like the example you give in South South where every 2 km is a different language, so what is there to protect when you cant even communicate with nearby village thus adopting Pidgin, or even in many of those NorthEast and North central place where Hausa has replaced their local language

Huuuu, thank you, I'm blushing. knowing I was right, in the face of adversity is overwhelming.

I'm really very happy about yesterday's events. It highlights what can happen when fools group think. It showed the level of sheepish thinking on this thread people have talked about for a while.

Here I was spitting facts but because it touched people's tribal sensibilities,they just couldn't think straight.
I was waiting to hear a logical argument and all I was seeing was empty chest beating over and over again.
It is usually said, nothing is as powerful as a group of fools. If you enter an argument with them, they would bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. It's good that people I highly regard as intellectuals on this thread didn't fall for this. Yourself, Ibime, nateevs, afrodoc and some others. As for nihilist,it seems he has now made it his life mission to always take a position opposite from mine. Any argument I'm having on this forum, he must be liking and sharing my opponents rebuttal or insults. I mean, Its why I've said I suspect his motives when picking an argument with me.

Nobody could answer what African traditions were, simply because there is nothing like that. The question was a trick question, because there is nothing like African traditions. It's not a monolith. When people want to make that argument against anything foreign, they want to make it seem like many Africans have Soo many shared values when in reality, we don't.
Well, winning does feel great. See how myself and havertz10 were made to look like fools, when in essence, the group were the fools. Mocking and laughing at their own foolishness.

BlueRayDick:
Most posters that have contributed to the discuss have made good points, but the insults/offensive words/diatribes that precedes/concludes the points being made by the posters are actually unnecessary

It would be good to name who started this in order not to generalize wrongfully.
You can't see the unbridled joy I have right now seeing that none of them even recognize what they're fighting for.

See the way they all rushed me when I suggested adopting a universal language. It struck straight at the heart of our tribal awareness, when in essence, nobody even identifies what that is.

Imagine the heaviest sense of irony they all feel on the realization that they are castigating a language they are in fact learning, speaking and passing down to their own offsprings.

Isn't it funny?? I have asked 4 different people what these African traditions they are all raving about is in the 1st place and that was the END.
People suddenly realized they were fighting for nothing. They were just emotional and sentimental.

I WON. I won because logic would always trump sentiments and emotions.

BikeMan:
The three words you mentioned have translations in my own native language. You may need to enslave yourself from the shackles of the white man if you think your culture is not worth preserving. Can you point me to any interview you've seen of the Indian President speaking English? He's educated.

I also don't see Asians abolishing their languages for English. In fact their phones come out of the factory with their languages. I don't see why you think the white man's language should unify us as humans. Our beauty is in our differences.

Isn't it funny that you still did not answer my question. Same old same old empty chest beating.
There is a reason I am asking you guys what exactly are the "African traditions" we're talking of and are proud of.

Secondly, you guys keep saying"white man's language" in a derogatory tone as if English should be hated. If you think it should be, why are both of us communicating in ENGLISH

It seems Reece James have caught COVID. I'm guessing at this rate, our game tomorrow might be cancelled.

Ibime:
I think DonJ meant to say nothing erasure of language will lead to better communication and globalisation but he misspoke and doubled down on it.

Losing African language means little to some of us from South South. We only have to travel 2km to see another village speaking a different language so we all communicate in pidgin. I doubt up to 10% of Ijaw youngsters living outside their village can speak their language. Language is just a tool of communication.

I'm a bit confused by the sentence. I think there's a mistake, please clarify.

But yeah, many languages around the world are fading everyday. We're better off for it not worse.

pamcode:
Culture will always evolve sha even language. But it should not be allowed to die out

Why though??
I bet your answer is going to be more sentimental rather than practical.

Trevor012:
The nigga could have easily said the creation of a neutral language to be taught worldwide to aid communication of people from different background instead of the nonsense he came up with. That idea already came up in the 1800's with the creation of Esperanto but it failed.

It's good your senses are now coming around.
Wait, why do we need to create a new or neutral language when we already have Soo many. English as a language is already the fastest and most absorbing language.
A lot of the current English words were adapted from Gael Scottish, Greek, roman and Germanic roots. And it is already the most spoken and learned language in the world throughout the continents.

I have no personal preference for which particular language is universal but it is what it is already.
To deny this is to continue to be shallow mindedly chauvinistic.
At the rate we're going. In 100 years, English is bound to be spoken by 3/4 of the world. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means more people having basic understanding of themselves.

BikeMan:
Are you saying you're willing to embrace the white man's language as a universal language while your own fade away?

My friend, whether you accept it or not, our native languages are already fading out.
Example, the word selfie, recently became an official English word.
Can you tell me this word in Igbo, yoruba or Hausa.
Or the words, technology or laptop or charger.

The aim of that question is to highlight to you how languages always evolve. And right now, our isn't anymore. Language is simply a mechanism {sounds} via which we understand ourselves.

Isn't it better, all human beings share a basic tool of understanding?

Secondly I noticed that your question is laced with ethnic chauvinism and jingoism, so I ask, is there anything special about our own culture and traditions? And what exactly are these "African traditions" we should be proud of ?

Amoto94:
If speaking one language will lead to unity then North Korea and South Korea won't have been at loggerheads for decades, neither would have Lebanon entered a 15year long civil war because they speak Arabic and French as lingua franca.
What brings about peace and unity are creedal belief and justice. When these two are missing if you like speak the same language and smile at each other at any given opportunity there won't be peace and unity.

You have made good points, but it still doesn't take away from my main point of all these arguments.

Achieving global peace is a multi-pronged approach. There are key factors that affect humanity socially. LANGUAGE, RELIGION, POLITICS, TRIBAL CHAUVINISM, ECONOMIC SYSTEMS. etc.

We can solve these issues simultaneously but it will take time. We are already doing this on a global stage with relative success.

That the UN exists is testament to how united we are becoming as a society on the whole. This has never happened since the beginning of homosapiens civilization. Almost every person on earth is represented in the UN. Striking bargains everyday, averting crises and preventing major global wars like the ones we had.

Of course, it hasn't been perfect all around but it has been a gigantic step towards all human beings on earth understanding ourselves better and beginning to share common goals.


Language alone will not guarantee us a united world but it will be one step closer.

ShadowWalker00:
He always so quick to mock people's English.

I wonder who made him the gatekeeper of English language.

Where have you seen me do this before?

Capaldi:
That's a self hating black man. You see them all around licking the ass of their European slave masters whenever an aspect of African culture or tradition is praised.

I really don't understand the point you're making.
But let's delve into this further.
What are the aspects of "African culture" you think should be praised?

Please think deeply about this question before you answer.