AFRICAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: ARE WE GETTING DETATCHED?

Over, the years, many African countries have seen a lot of their people move out of the country overseas in search of greener pastures. Outside their natural habitat, they realize that they start doing things the way their new environment does. Most of the times, their new environment isn’t really like their own. They’re exposed to new cultures, new experiences, new languages and so on. With time, they realize they’re beginning to lose their connection to their home soil.

     It is very easy for kids to pick up on new things. They watch closely and listen to things you do or say. A child of probably five or six years moving to a new environment, it would be easier for that child to pick up on things done and said around him. He observes how people talk, he mingles with children from all over at school and gradually starts to behave like them. The only place left for that child to get familiar with his culture is at home.

     At home, it is necessary for parents to teach their kids their language and culture. Get them acclimated to how things are done in your tribe. Teach them to get familiar to their roots. But it is quite unfortunate that we often find young kids that have little or no idea about their own culture.

    African culture is beautiful. Every tribe, every culture has something peculiar about them that distinct them from most cultures. So, it is really disheartening when you find families that have decided to ignore or put aside their cultural heritage. Let me break it down. I’m Yoruba. I grew up learning to speak the language and getting familiar with all sides of the culture. I had this high school classmate. He is also Yoruba, born and raised in a Yoruba speaking environment. But the plot twist is he had zero understanding of the language. He couldn’t speak it neither could he understand even the most basic words. I was so shocked because he was born and raised in Yorubaland. After leaving high school, I met more and more people who had same situation and I couldn’t help but wonder why. Why would people of different cultures be so detached from their own culture? Was it a pathetic attempt at being a little bit too similar to the westerners? I kept asking myself over again.

    I couldn’t even imagine how bad it was to have zero basic understanding of your language. You’re in a gathering of maybe relatives and friends and everyone converses around you in their native language and you have nothing to contribute to the conversation. I don’t know about you, but if it were me, I’d feel terrible.

        African parents all over the world need to do a better job of teaching the kids language and culture. In the next few years, we will have a lot of children who do not even know their basic family history because their parent’s parent didn’t do the needful. Culture is passed down from generation to generation and if it skips one generation, it might be difficult to regain that flow ever again.