₦airaland Forum

I just woke up this morning, and it occurred it to me that English is the official language in my country.

An African country.

Our ancestors did not speak English. They have their own languages that they gave us.

So why are we speaking English, a language of another people of a different race many thousands of miles away across the seas?

Wait, Wait, Wait, so because some thieves came barely a century ago with guns and bombs to steal and loot, we now drop our millennia old languages and start speaking their language? ........As our ''official language''?

What is wrong with us?

Somebody, please just tell me.

What is wrong with us?

Our ancestors must be turning in their graves.

We not only speak the language of the invaders as our 'national language', but have also adopted their christian religion and are even practicing it heavier than them!

If you see something worthwhile from them to copy, such as new technology, why not do it like others? Like the Chinese, Japanese, Indians etc?

Those people all retained their languages and traditional religions even as they incorporated aspects of western technology.

Why is our own different?

We form accent to sound English. Perm and colour our hair to look like theirs. Bleach our skins to look like theirs.

Our lawyers even wear the English wigs!

Why must you wear that thing?

Honestly you people lack dignity. You lack shame and pride.

So if they leave you people, you will speak this English as your ''national language'' forever?

Indefinitely?

No question as to why you should be speaking English??

Have small shame nau, Africans?

By now we should have found one small but rich language like Edo or Kanuri and made it the National language.

Not Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo, to avoid the rivalry and wahala of those 3.

But we have absolutely no reason to be speaking English as our ''national language'' nearly 70 year after independence.

Haba. Na juju?

Na wa for una o.

You for kuku ask, why are we learning Medicine and Surgery instead of Olokun, Amadioha, Ogun et al.

Apart from the obvious fact that we were colonized by the English - it only makes sense that we have a neutral language as the "commonly adopted" language as the same English was used for our education, our commerce and governance.

So yes, if we take our head outta our as*s, it is a logical thing.

Good luck forcing one out of the hundreds of languages and dialects spoken in Nigeria by more than 200+ million people.

Stephen0mozzy:
Na wa for una o.

You for kuku ask, why are we learning Medicine and Surgery instead of Olokun, Amadioha, Ogun et al..

So you believe we did not have medicine and surgery before British invaders got here?

The first step in any transformation is to first educate you Nigerians, on your glorious African history, because you know absolutely Nothing about your precolonial history. Zero.

All you have in your head is the manufactured colonial lies of Tarzan in the jungle.

You don't know your ancestors in Lejja, Nsukka in 2650 BCE invented iron smelting which the entire world uses today to build cars, planes fridges, and phones.

In Lejja is the world's oldest iron smelting site, carbon dated to 2650 BCE.

We practiced medicine and surgery thousands of years before white people existed.

Your black ancestors in ancient Nubia and Kemet taught THEM what 'medicine' is.

Do you know that black West African Moors, many of whom would have been Nigerian, ruled vast swathes of Europe for 800 years up till the 15th century?

Stephen0mozzy:
Na wa for una o.

You for kuku ask, why are we learning Medicine and Surgery instead of Olokun, Amadioha, Ogun et al.

Apart from the obvious fact that we were colonized by the English - it only makes sense that we have a neutral language as the "commonly adopted" language as the same English was used for our education, our commerce and governance.

So yes, if we take our head outta our as*s, it is a logical thing.

Good luck forcing one out of the hundreds of languages and dialects spoken in Nigeria by more than 200+ million people.

the same specimen will still wear western clothes throughout today. Why didn't he make his post in a Nigerian language?

Nearly all the countries colonized in Africa took the colonialist language as their lingua franca) official language).

African's were living primitively during the precolonial era,so, when they came, their language was the only means of communication as they cannot speak the different languages of the African's.

They came with education and religion and their language was the only medium of communication as books were written in their languages.

Many of the natives were sent back home to acquire education which they brought back.

Africans were thought on modern ways of doing things and using better and modern tools in carrying out their daily activities.

By the time these African countries gained their independence,the colonialist language has already became part of them.

Predictor3:
the same specimen will still wear western clothes throughout today. Why didn't he make his post in a Nigerian language?

Because you wouldn't understand him if he did. Obviously. Plus you've no idea what he's wearing.

Kemetian:
I just woke up this morning, and it occurred it to me that English is the official language in my country.

An African country.

Our ancestors did not speak English. They have their own languages that they gave us.

So why are we speaking English, a language of another people of a different race many thousands of miles away across the seas?

Wait, Wait, Wait, so because some thieves came barely a century ago with guns and bombs to steal and loot, we now drop our millennia old languages and start speaking their language? ........As our ''official language''?

What is wrong with us?

Somebody, please just tell me.

What is wrong with us?

Our ancestors must be turning in their graves.

We not only speak the language of the invaders as our 'national language', but have also adopted their christian religion and are even practicing it heavier than them!

If you see something worthwhile from them to copy, such as new technology, why not do it like others? Like the Chinese, Japanese, Indians etc?

Those people all retained their languages and traditional religions even as they incorporated aspects of western technology.

Why is our own different?

We form accent to sound English. Perm and colour our hair to look like theirs. Bleach our skins to look like theirs.

Our lawyers even wear the English wigs!

Why must you wear that thing?

Honestly you people lack dignity. You lack shame and pride.

So if they leave you people, you will speak this English as your ''national language'' forever?

Indefinitely?

No question as to why you should be speaking English??

Have small shame nau, Africans?

Why did you write this in English.
You created a thread to demonize English Language and you wrote it in English.

Celestialsword:
Nearly all the countries colonized in Africa took the colonialist language as their lingua franca) official language).

Africans were living primitively during the precolonial era, so, when they came, their language was the only means of communication as they cannot speak the different languages of the African's....

You are miseducated by colonial propaganda.

According to the UK Guardian newspaper:

'With its mathematical layout and earthworks longer than the Great Wall of China, Benin City was one of the best planned cities in the world when London was a place of ‘thievery and murder'.......

Benin City was also one of the first cities to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace.

When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”.... Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.

In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”

In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.

Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

“Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper. “Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.”

Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay.''

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace

.......................


Now, who were you calling ''primitive''?

Kushites:
Because you wouldn't understand him if he did. Obviously. Plus you've no idea what he's wearing.

You just buttressed my point.

Exousiang01:
Why did you write this in English.
You created a thread to demonize English Language and you wrote it in English.

He should type in his native language which you understand, ba?

Kemetian:
So you believe we did not have medicine and surgery before British invaders got here?

The first step in any transformation is to first educate you Nigerians, on your glorious African history, because you know absolutely Nothing about your precolonial history. Zero.

All you have in your head is the manufactured colonial lies of Tarzan in the jungle.

You don't know your ancestors in Lejja, Nsukka in 2650 BCE invented iron smelting which the entire world uses today to build cars, planes fridges, and phones.

In Lejja is the world's oldest iron smelting site, carbon dated to 2650 BCE.

We practiced medicine and surgery thousands of years before white people existed.

Your black ancestors in ancient Nubia and Kemet taught THEM what 'medicine' is.

Do you know that black West African Moors, many of whom would have been Nigerian, ruled vast swathes of Europe for 800 years up till the 15th century?

Blacks have invented nothing of value in this world. The highest structure in Africa before the advent of Europeans in Africa was built by termites (Ants) not humans.

Should we make Yoruba or Hausa or Igbo our official language?

MadamExcellency:
Blacks have invented nothing of value in this world. The highest structure in Africa before the advent of Europeans in Africa was built by termites (Ants) not humans.

The Pyramids of Sudan were built by termites?

Do you know Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt?

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6b/04/62/6b0462632b2c4af9bb62d2d25d86aabe.jpg

Plus the Ancient Egyptians were black Africans, and they built the pyramids and temples of Egypt, and taught the world mathematics, the arts and the sciences.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b1/06/d3/b106d3a051ef617dafe9f5723bc0aaba.jpg


Pharaoh Mentuhotep II
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/eb/b5/0c/ebb50cae548a908f34ed87eac7739fdf.jpg

Most african countries have a widely spoken local language in addition to the language of their colonizers.

Ghana has Akan. East Africa swahili. South Africa zulu. Zimbabwe Shona. Niger rep hausa.

So yes the poster has a point.

The issue I find is that these countries are not as culturally diverse as us. Even when they have multiple ethnic groups, there is a dominant one which has everyone learn that language.

Many northerners in nigeria are not hausa, but most speak hausa. So, by population there are more hausa speakers in nigeria than other languages. So maybe we should teach in schools and adopt hausa as our national language.

But ethnic rivalries wont allow this.

Pharaoh Tutankhamun (c.1550 BCE)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ca/83/ac/ca83ac94b9a898872c9329626b254a93.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9c/8c/9d/9c8c9d0868c86ab758428fe1098b467a.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/2d/d7/9f/2dd79fd0f5c80882eb514fa0b2d5c393.jpg

You posted in English and you are still asking.

Continue asking.

obeegee:
Most african countries have a widely spoken local language in addition to the language of their colonizers.

Ghana has Akan. East Africa swahili. South Africa zulu. Zimbabwe Shona. Niger rep hausa.

So yes the poster has a point.

The issue I find is that these countries are not as culturally diverse as us. Even when they have multiple ethnic groups, there is a dominant one which has everyone learn that language.

Many northerners in nigeria are not hausa, but most speak hausa. So, by population there are more hausa speakers in nigeria than other languages. So maybe we should teach in schools and adopt hausa as our national language.

But ethnic rivalries wont allow this.

Great point. Which is why we should do the wise thing, ie pick one of the 'smaller' languages, to ensure harmony.

Seriously, nobody would complain if we were all required to learn Kanuri or Itsekiri as the national language.

The main thing is that we cannot and we WILL NOT speak English indefinitely as a people.

It will NOT happen. We are not Europeans. We are Africans.

MadamExcellency:
Blacks have invented nothing of value in this world. The highest structure in Africa before the advent of Europeans in Africa was built by termites (Ants) not humans.

You are not educated. Ethiopia and Sudan are dotted by remnants of ancient structures

Predictor3:
You are not educated. Ethiopia and Sudan are dotted by remnants of ancient structures

Does she know about the Great Zimbabwe ruins?

Great Zimbabwe Ruins of the Shona Empire (8th Century)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/66/d0/33/66d0335332ff4cf8c0bd3009f0dfc849.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b3/b2/d2/b3b2d210d5f96b92ac2801f69deb8092.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/29/99/19/299919534a7b26c56d7059ee8e51a80f.jpg

I hereby recommend Ukwuani Language to be adopted as Nigeria's National Language

Many years from now, some of our languages would be lost because everyone wants their children to speak English.... The English people did our country dirty... In religion and soon, in tradition

Kemetian:
So you believe we did not have medicine and surgery before British invaders got here?

The first step in any transformation is to first educate you Nigerians, on your glorious African history, because you know absolutely Nothing about your precolonial history. Zero.

All you have in your head is the manufactured colonial lies of Tarzan in the jungle.

You don't know your ancestors in Lejja, Nsukka in 2650 BCE invented iron smelting which the entire world uses today to build cars, planes fridges, and phones.

In Lejja is the world's oldest iron smelting site, carbon dated to 2650 BCE.

We practiced medicine and surgery thousands of years before white people existed.

Your black ancestors in ancient Nubia and Kemet taught THEM what 'medicine' is.

Do you know that black West African Moors, many of whom would have been Nigerian, ruled vast swathes of Europe for 800 years up till the 15th century?

Congratulations.... Keep living in past glory.
Colonization is the problem you're facing till today and till tomorrow.

Same way you're claiming Giants of Africa when we should be hiding our heads in shame.

With all your knowledge of history, have you bother to wonder, how did we devolve?

Topman7:
Great point. Which is why we should do the wise thing, ie pick one of the 'smaller' languages, to ensure harmony.

Seriously, nobody would complain if we were all required to learn Kanuri or Itsekiri as the national language.

The main thing is that we cannot and we WILL NOT speak English indefinitely as a people.

It will NOT happen. We are not Europeans. We are Africans.

I disagree. Many nigerians now are not teaching their children their local languages anymore. So, with time our languages will be lost and english will be more widely spoken.

Kushites:
He should type in his native language which you understand, ba?

You are trying to hit at me you ended up proving me right.
What other Language can we communicate with as Nigerians aside the English language he demonizing.
He won't be able to express himself without English, how does he intend to communicate if we were to do away with English as a language?

Part of globalization 🥴🥴 sorry colonization

Exousiang01:
You are trying to hit at me you ended up proving me right.
What other Language can we communicate with as Nigerians aside the English language he demonizing.
He won't be able to express himself without English, how does he intend to communicate if we were to do away with English as a language?

So as you are now, a full grown man calling himself an African, you actually believe there is nothing wrong with your country speaking a European language in perpetuity as your national language?

Forever?

Don’t you have any dignity or pride in you?

Do you see the Chinese, Koreans, Indians, and Japanese reasoning like you?

They are proud of their traditional religion, language, etc, and That is why they are able to get things done.

To transit to an indigenous national language will not be an overnight imposition. You will first need to spread the knowledge of the proposed new language via schools etc, create textbooks and other data until such a time comes when the language is sufficiently diffused in the population to form the lingua franca.

At that point, it’s then made the national language.

So it’s a process that could take a decade or so to actualise, but it can be done, and will be done at some point in the future when we’ve woken up from this colonial hypnosis.