Since I came to the United States of America the multiracial and multicultural origins of its people has added much to my understanding of the human condition. Not only am I aware of the racial differences in ways unknown to me in Africa, but it has made it categorically clear to me that in a pluralistic society, one must learn to coexist with a variety of peoples. Here in the U.S. all races are represented and almost all languages have someone capable of speaking it within its borders. Yet, the history of America has made it the grave yard of foreign languages.

What I gathered from this finding is that languages could disappear for a people but residual tribalism or ethnicity may continue to linger. This is becoming the fate of most white nationalities that emigrated to the U.S. during the last two centuries.

 I am motivated to write this article after attending a graduation party organized by an Ibo family. 90.99% of the guests were Ibos; out of this 99.99%, 60% were young people. The more I listened to conversations the more curious I became to understand the dynamic of an Ibo social life. I began to interact with some of the guests and the young people. At a point I asked some of the kids who are in their early or late twenties to find out how much they know about their culture. To my surprise, none of the kids speak Ibo, majority of them told me they understand but can’t speak it. One actually proudly told me, “I don’t speak Ibo, but I speak fluent Spanish” I told her it was cool to speak Spanish; but quickly asked her again how many Spanish kids she knows who speak Ibo. She said none. Again, there was another lady at that party; her two kids live in Nigeria . She said her children do not speak Ibo although the live in Nigeria and have never been outside Nigeria . Also I have a niece who does not speak Ibo, she and her parents live in Enugu, Anambra state and have never lived anywhere else apart vacationing in other places. So the phenomenon of a not-speaking Ibo is not peculiar to the US alone. It is a tragedy that faces every Ibo around the world.

 In light of these new discoveries, I am wondering why my own people the Ibos have fallen into this language predicament? Apparently, proper socialization of the Ibo language and culture is not top priority among Ibo families bent on being successful in the modern world.The Chinese are proud of their identity, so too are Indians, Germans and Yoruba. The South Americans in the US , well known as the Hispanics, teach their children Spanish; they do not teach them English because that is for the teachers to do. As a result of this state of affairs, United States government was forced to recognize them; and what do we see, knowledge of Spanish becomes a free ride for job seekers. This is exactly why we are what we are today. Every wind that passes us by blows us away. Is it not the case of slavery, colonization and imperialism?

Because of our cultural tardiness and our tendencies to emulate foreign cultures and languages without any strategic considerations, we are at the moment expose to a new invasion. This time it is the Chinese who are building ‘naira stores’, Chinese restaurants and Chinese towns all over Africa . Before you know it we will be forced to learn Chinese and then our children will be taught that Chinese seafood is better than amala or foo-foo even when the American government has banned most of Chinese seafood. My people Haba! I am seriously tickled over this nonsense...  

Folks, this is my point.

We are proud to teach our kids about other people’s culture but ashamed to teach them our own heritage. Shame on any one who does this I don’t care if that person is my mom, dad or siblings. It is a sin against nature, sin against God, sin against humanity and a cardinal sin against our ancestors. Three of our best thinkers from the twentieth century would stand in the African court of the ancestors on my behalf. Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau reminded us that without culture we could not resist the colonialists; Frantz Fanon , the author of Black Skin, White Mask, lamented black fascination with and subjugation to the French language; and Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal placed a lot of our cultural woes to our xenophile tendencies.

Please understand that I am not an expert on culture or linguistics, but I have a common sense and it is this   common sense that I am going to use in trying to understand the implications of the rapidly growing defunct of Ibo language among Ibos in the US and beyond. I am a strong proponent in the preservation of cultures, although I left home at a very tender age when kids my age were at the stage of building up a strong cultural identity. I did not have that chance but despite this short coming, I can proudly say that I have never lost any chance to speak Ibo whenever there is an opportunity. My parents taught us to be very proud of our language. My father insisted that we read the Bible in Ibo at home and the Bible in English at school or at church. As always I have come to believe from my childhood experience that Ibos are very nationalistic in nature. So now what is happening to us?  

 As I said earlier, I am not an expert on this topic; therefore I will limit my argument within my experiential observations.What manner do Ibos adjust to the challenges of assimilation and integration in American society?

One of the first evidence available to the person looking at Ibos and their culture in America is the emergence of three kinds of persons claiming Ibo origins and learning to assert in the American society or British society. The first category includes the person who has crossed the dividing line now known as the Kunta Kinte destiny. Such a person has decided to assimilate Western mode of behavior and for this reason, he has almost abandoned his Ibo language in favor of the English language. This is a sad case of language loss. The person who is guilty of such a behavior invariably believes that he or she has command of the English language and this newly acquired linguistic tool has opened the doors of opportunities in the American social order. Ibo, as far as he or she is concerned, is culturally useful but in the context of modernity it has limited capacity to enrich and empower its speakers. This pragmatic approach to realities around the consciously assimilating Ibo is the sweet song of success as one engages in the American Dream. There are three types of Ibos who fit into this category. The immigrants who came to the West fairly well-assimilated in his or her command of the English language, serves as the first example. The second is his or her children who are second generation. These children almost invariably are totally disconnected from their linguistic homelands. They have no proficiency in the Ibo language and their attitudes towards learning it is total indifference at best. They have no interest whatsoever to carry on the family tradition, unless something that yields money.

The second category of the Ibos consists of those who are not totally assimilated in the Diaspora but are still faithful to Ibo behavior and cultural norms. Unlike their brethrens who are totally assimilated this type of Ibo wishes to operate as an amphibian. This is to say, he or she can swim with the Ibos in the sea of ethnic consciousness but at the same time has the capacities to walk gently on the hard ground of English language and culture. In their social circles this individual has the able to communicate in both English and Ibo. Ibo provides a cover for avoidance in mixed company and the errors of the totally assimilated in terms of cultural nakedness before strangers through the use the English language are carefully eliminated.

The third category of Ibo is the cultural nationalist who is totally committed to the preservation and maintenance of the Ibo language wherever there are Ibos. Not captured in the net of the English language and culture even though this person has spent years learning and mastering this language and culture, this kind of Ibo provides a rich lessons in cultural development of a people. This Ibo personality strongly believes that the future of the Ibo is doomed to total assimilation because of the fierce competition among the members of the community. Since young people are constantly reminded about failure and its close connections to traditionalism, the Ibo cultural nationalist often finds himself or herself in verbal contest with their country men and women.

 Indeed it is the Ibo cultural nationalist who makes powerful arguments on behalf of a written Ibo in the service of the Ibo nation. Being mindful of the danger of confusion between their assertion of national or ethnic consciousness, on the one hand, and the need to create a peaceful coexistence of groups within the Nigerian political order, on the other these Ibo cultural nationalists will never rest until Ibo is resurrected and enthroned by its native people. Those who belong to this category of Ibos at home or abroad would like to argue that failure to develop the Ibo language in an age of science and technology is a tragic loss if not defeat. Without science and technology any African language, and in this case the Ibo language, that does not make room for the cultivation of these modern sources of knowledge is doomed to disappear over time. Those who appreciate the merit and competence of the Ibo language will agree with me that the case for literary in certain African language is more a result of colonial neglect and less of an African unwillingness to empower themselves through the cultivation of their languages. The Ibo advocates have referenced Finland as a case in point. This tiny nation in Scandinavia has operated very well by training its small population to learn and master their tongue while desperately making moves for these children to master the English language and others as well.

  To the African cultural nationalists, the case of Finland is instructive. Not only are the Finns sophisticated in their own language, but they have addressed the language issue when they decided to bring to the attention of their children the fruits of other language cultures. Indeed if the African countries, and especially groups such as the Ibos in Nigeria , got their act together they must do for themselves what the Finns, the Danes, the Swedes and the Norwegians have done for themselves. It takes time to construct an effective and viable culture. This century begs for serious African attention and the largest African language groups such as the Ibo, the Zulu, the Baganda, the Kikuyu, are being asked and challenged by history to do something about their language crisis. For those of us (Ibos) who live outside the fatherland, I know it is not easy to make it in the Western world, but losing your identity makes the situation a double-whammy. If you’re not comfortable with whom you are but want to be completely different from whom you’re then you have a big problem. Because you will never be those you pretend to be and those you pretend to be will never accept you as one of them. Period! My message then is be proud of whom you’re whether bad or good, poor or rich, educated or uneducated. It’s a pity that most Ibos are not comfortable with their real Ibo self       

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 29.06.2007 17:00

nigeria we hail thee!  Villager

# 2 Nwanne, Chukwu gozie gi maka ihe idere ebe a. Obi di m uto mgbe m guru ya. Echere m na i nwere nke iji asusu Igbi dee ederede a? Kedukwanu maka umu aka gi, ha ona asu Igbo? I na akuzikwara ha asusu anyi? Ekelere m Chineke na ama m asu ma marakwa ede asusu anyi. M ga akuzikwara umu m ka esi asu ma na edekwa asusu Igbo. Ihe a bu ihe diri ndi nne na nna ime. Mgwa jisike, noro nke oma, ya gazie o o o. :biggrin: Posted by nigeria we hail thee!| 29.06.2007 18:27

Oguguo Yakere  Villager

# 3 Eucheria nwanne anyi, Chukwu gozie gi maka edemede gi nka banyere anyi bu Ndigbo. O bu ezi okwu na anyi na ele li asusu anyi na omenala anyi dika ndi obodo ndi ozo na kwa ndi agbata obi anyi. Ka ta buru anyi gboo i bido nisi na asu asusu anyi na kwa a kuziri umu anyi okwu Igbo. K'anyi nile ji sie ike notu notu bido weputa onwe anyi dika ndi Chineke keziri ekezi. Igbo nma nma nu o! Translates: Our sister Eucharia, May God bless you for what you wrote about Ndigbo. It is true that we tend to look down on our language and culture unlike other nations and our neighbors. Today for us is a treshold to begin again to to be speaking our tongue and also to be teaching our children the Igbo language. Let all of us try individually to showcase ourselves as a people that God created well. Greeting Igbo. Warning: If this thread offends you, go on your knees and pray for God the creator of Ndigbo and giver of their language the almighty Jehova "Yaweh" God of Abraham, God of Isaac, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe to forgive you. Posted by Oguguo Yakere| 30.06.2007 08:06

WayoGuy  Villager

# 4 My sister, I commend your effort at highlighting the need to embrace our language and culture. I commend your expression of pride in our language. I commend your sounding of the alarm to our slumbering brothers and sisters to watch out before the languages and cultures of other ethnic/racial groups overtake ours in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. But, nwa nne m, Ndiigbo si a na-esi n’ulo mara mma tupu puo ama. Biko, mgbe ozo, chetakwa na aha anyi bu “Igbo”; o bughi “Ibo”. Ndi bekee na ndi nganga bu ndi na-akpo anyi ndi “Ibo”. Biko cheta nke a mgbe ozo I dere ihe odide. Secondly, your last sentence, in your otherwise excellent article, states “It’s a pity that most Ibos are not comfortable with their real Ibo self” That conclusion is too sweeping and, in my opinion, is not based on empirical facts or logic. It is stylish, and has been stylish for decades, for academicians and commentators, who live mostly outside Nigeria, to predict the demise of the Igbo language and make sweeping generalizations about ‘most’ Igbos feeling uncomfortable about their Igboness. This is a fallacy, a serious blunder borne out of a serious failure to understand that MOST Igbos (probably 95%) still live in Igboland, speaking the language at home, at school, in the market places, at festivities, and generally eulogizing the culture in countless traditional music and, more recently, traditional films. It is not fair to assess the strength and health of the Igbo language by the lack of interest of the few wayward chaps overseas. A simple visit to any one of our major markets, Onitsha, Aba, (and countless others) and a visit to our local villages, will persuade you that the language, in the Igbo cities as well as villages, is in good health. We may lose a few children to other cultures, just as other ethnic groups lose some of theirs to other cultures, but Igbo is alive and well and will be alive and well thousands of years from now. Posted by WayoGuy| 30.06.2007 09:06

zizzy  Villager

# 5 Adanne, chukwu gozie gi maka ederede a, obim bu so anuri mgbe m guru ya. Anyi bu ndi igbo bi na ala bekee nwere nnukwu nsogbu na isu asusu anyi, ebe m bi na Uk ndi obodo ozo na asu asusu be ha, ma mgbe obula m huru onye igbo ya suwara m bekee obi na agbawa m. Olu a bu ihe diri ndi Nne na Nna ikuziri umu ha asusu anyi ma ka esi ede ya. Nwunye m abughi onye igbo ma o na anu igbo ma na asu obere , e kwere m onwe m nwa na mgbe m muru umu aka agam akuziri ha omenala na asusu anyi. Jide ka iji, maka onye asi ya jide ka oji na eme nk oma. Igbo kwezuo nu. Translation: My sister, god bless you for this essay, I am very happy to read it, the Igbo’s in Diaspora find it difficult to speak our language, where I reside in the Uk, other nationals converse in their language, it’s disheartening whenever I meet an Igbo and they speak English to me. It is the responsibility of parents to teach their kids how to speak and write Igbo, though my wife is not of Igbo origin, she understands and can make sentences in Igbo, I will endeavour to teach my kids their culture and language when they arrive. Continue your good work. Posted by zizzy| 30.06.2007 09:45

tanibaba  Villager

# 6 Eucharia, thank you for another beautiful piece. And contrary to your claims, I am of the opinion that you are very close to being an authority on patriotism, nationalism and culture. Keep it up taslim Posted by tanibaba| 30.06.2007 10:12

overdryv  Villager

# 7 If the truth must be said, the Igbo language will be the first among the three major nigerian languages to go into extinction. The reason behind this is the sojourner nature of the Igbo and the current political marginalization. Due to the stigma of the civil war, the Igbo tend to hide their identity by any means possible. To date, the Igbo must be the only ethnic group in Nigeria who name their children after other groups. This started with Nnamdi Azikiwe who called his son Bamidele. The move was obviously to cement the friendship between the Igbo and Yoruba but it achieved very little as the atrocities against the Igbo by their yoruba counterparts show from time to time. It is no longer a secret that the yoruba sided with the hausa to hand the Igbo a crushing defeat during the civil war. The downturn of the Igbo language is also partially the result of the many centuries of the Igbo quest to develope other places other than theirs. It is well known that as soon as you leave your place to settle abroad, your language becomes watered down and will eventually disappear. But if living abroad impacts negatively on ones language, what could be said of Igbo who live in Nigeria and relegate their language to the background. I recently visited an Igbo friend in Port Harcourt. To my utter amzaement, the kids only speak english at home. Cases abound where Igbo parents forbid their children to speak vernacular at home. You could imagine what will happen when the generation of these parents come to an end. That would obviously signal the demise of the Igbo language. On a last note, I find the insistence of some writers that the word 'Ibo' is an abberation, backward and out of date with modern times. To me, Ibo is quite modern and in line with globalisation. To the best of my knowledge, no white man can pronounce Igbo. It is rather contradictory that such writers who preferred to be called Chuks in place of Chukwuemeka or Iyke instead of Ike, would be throwing mud at people who say Ibo. That is far from being the problem of the Igbo. They should concern themselves with achieving the much needed unity so as to speak with one voice on matters that affect them. Posted by overdryv| 30.06.2007 13:48

Obugi  Villager

# 8 Eucharia Please what is your Igbo name? :lol: I thought the Pope had given you all permission to take Igbo baptismal names? Its time we embrace the reality of our times: its everyone for themselves. It is very difficult for a defeated people such as Africans in general to hold on their membership of a defeated collective. This predicament is doubly so for the Igbo who have suffered defeat even at the hand of fellow Negroes. Rejecting the Igbo language is no worse than rejecting Igbo religion for Xtianity or denying Igbo ethnicity. Its all about what enables your survival in the world we find ourselves. This your article is a beautiful exercise in superficial thinking. Your daddy taught you to read the Bible in Igbo.......:lol::lol::lol::lol: Please cry no more. The African collective is dead. Eucharia, :lol: please get with the program! Obugi. Posted by Obugi| 30.06.2007 14:17

overdryv  Villager

# 9 I want to credit the author for coming out with such well thought out article. My first piece was written without going through her whole write-up. The problem with the Igbo language is what will eventually befall other african languages. The case of Ibo is being mentioned because is imminent death stares every body in the face. Yoruba, Hausa, Twi, Ashanti would follow in due course. The greatest enemy of our language heritage is colonalism. The western culture which came with colonalisation is a rampaging fire that would eventually engulf whatever we have as culture and language. As long as we choose or are being forced to do things the western way, we have no chance of survival. In the present scheme of things we could only but dance to the tune of the white man. He gave us our education, our economic and political system, created our continent and countries. He even gave us our names- Nigeria and Africa. We have accepted our fate as the slum of the earth. It is natural that we tend to gravitate towards the positive side of life. That is why we pick up their names, wear their dresses and speak their language. On a curious side, I took a second look at your picture and was surprised at your hair style. The question is: how did a black woman get a long curly hair? As far as am concerned, this is the most singular disgrace of the black race. Our women tried to out do each other in trying to look white. It is unacceptable that a black woman would go into a saloon, stretch her hair or put on what they call attachment and color it blond. What do white women think of such blacks? I have had reason to change coaches when I see such black women in subways. No doubt, people would come out and castigate me as being old-fashioned but even in american history, there had been movements against black women who go out of their way to look white. A classical example is Tina Turner who is permanently blond. Another example is William sisters. When they started playing tennis, they were wearing their natural hair wth beads. But presently you see them competing with their mom on how best to look white. There must be something really wrong with being black. That was why Michael Jackson even had pigmentation change and transplanted his hair. It is good to read about how the Scandinavian countries jealously guard their language while emphasising the need to learn others. The only difference here is that they dont travel out enmasse as we are doing in Africa. You can count the number of Scandinavians living in other countries on your finger tips. So the issue of our language and cultural demise is to be expected. A friend once told me that his parents wanted him to dump his Benin girlfriend to marry from their village. According to him, his parents wanted him to preserve their culture. I told him frankly that if he wanted to follow his parents advice, he should leave europe and go and settle in his village and become a palm wine tapper. Then he can preserve their culture. In the light of the above, we that are domiciled in the west are a lost people so to speak. Our children, be they half caste or full blooded black, could never settle in Africa. In conclusion, our fight to keep our language and culture is a lost battle. There is no way your children in America would embrace Osadebe's high life in place of hip hop hits from east and west coast rappers. Posted by overdryv| 30.06.2007 14:48

overdryv  Villager

# 10 Obugi, I saw your post immediately after sending my second piece. I had wanted to raise the issues you mentioned but I didnt want to bore people with a lenghty write-up. As you rightly stated, the loss of the Ibo language can never be treated in isolation. Its just a part of the whole. When you tell people it was wrong to accept christianity, you would be branded the anti-christ but this is precisely our problem. The Igbo because of their republican nature fell easy prey to the colonialists. It is on record that the Binis fought the first portuguese invaders. But the Igbo were asked to throw away their gods. Chinua Achebe captured this scene in one of his novels when he wrote that the white man has cut the string that hold us together and we have all fallen apart. Uptill date no one can point to the advantage of Igbo's romance with christianity. The Igbo are the most religious group in Nigeria. Despite that things like Osu caste system refused to go away and crime is at all time high. Okija is still waxing strong. In the past, Okija was dedicated to doing justice, never mind it has been hijacked by people like Orji Kalu for selfish reasons. The way the Igbo embracd christianity ws their greatest undoing.It is not uncommon to hear such funny names among them like Eugena, Eucheria, Maginus, Augustinus, Zacchius and a host of others. The Igbo seem to be a people who are always agitated, a people who cannot settle down. Now the cheap talk is that the Igbo descended from the jews. How funny! Instead of focusing on their problems within the nigerian polity, they are telling every one that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel an idea even the israelites would not countenance. Posted by overdryv| 30.06.2007 15:28

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