A child starts as early as possible to internalise his surroundings, which includes sound, and gestures emanating from his immediate environment, in this case his home.

For Nigerians living in the Diaspora, the enabling environment their children need to internalise the Nigerian language and culture is non-existence and should therefore be created by the parents.

But does every Nigerian parent in the Diaspora have what it takes to create this enabling environment?  

One of the major problems facing the Diaspora Nigerians today is that of transfaring our culture especially the Nigerian languages to their children. Of all the Ethnic groups among Nigerians in the Diaspora, Ndiigbo seems are the worst hit by this problem. Most parents prefer to use English language at home, so the child gets use to the sound of English language from day one. Another reason is that some parents are under pressure to make ends meet, They get too busy during the week leaving the up-bringing of their children in the hands of the day-care centres or other such institutions within the system. Why is it that Asians for instance do not have this kind of problem? Of course the reason is not far fetched as it is simply because they stick to their native language all the time, and as soon a baby is born into the family, he or she automatically tows in line.

When a child learns his or her native language, it is much easier to understand the other aspects of the culture. The knowledge of the language makes him think and respond in a certain way peculiar to the culture.

It has been proved that children of migrants who have a good background of their culture of origin integrate to a new culture better than those who don’t.

 It is based on this fact that the government of Finland runs an educational policy that allows primary school children who have a mother tongue other than Finnish have the right to be taught their mother tongue in school. In the city of Helsinki for instance, if you can find 4 children of Yoruba descent, they are automatically entitled to a Yoruba language class as long as a qualified teacher of the language can be found. Many foreign nationals in Finland with a large population, for instance Somali language teachers make a living while at the same time perpetuating their culture.

Many Nigerian children in the Diaspora today can be labelled as a lost generation. Such children have identity problem. The psychological burden borne by these unfortunate children is capable of leading them to a host of negative attitudes. This problem is a very serious one. Every Nigerian parent should make out time to teach his or her children our language. It is not easy for some parents I know. Such parents should seek help from other Nigerians in their community. The best approach will be that of a collective effort through ethnic/national organizations. Unfortunately we form ethnic and national organizations for the wrong reasons. The problem of raising our children should take priority, and I suggest our women, in our diaspora communities that are lucky to have a large population of Naija women should take up this challenge, since the men often end up in personality conflicts in our organizations.

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 07.03.2007 17:48

Dimaanu  Villager

# 2 My Igbo brothers in Finland. Na una bikoo! Keep up the good work! It will be wonderful to have those kids fluent in the Igbo language. I bet you, when they go to the village , as MLK would say " they would not be judged by their skin color but by the content of their character. But come O! Whoever taught them that first song should be fined ofu akpa ego(one bag of cowries) SONG: K'anyi gabanu n'ilo Ebe anyi n'egwuli egwu Left, right; left, right :confused: :confused1 (aka nri, aka ekpe;aka nri, aka ekpe) Posted by Dimaanu| 07.03.2007 20:25

purple  Villager

# 3 Mr Ude-Chime, this clip brings much joy to my heart. It is exciting to see these young children singing in the igbo language and embracing some of their fathers' cultural practices. Perhaps this effort by these Igbo men in Finland will encourage other Nigerians in other countries to work on similar projects with their children. Posted by purple| 07.03.2007 22:52

Omowa2  Villager

# 4 I liked the concept, I like the matured voice over. Will it be a trade secret if the makers told me whose soft professional voice that was. I refuse to guess I owe the people behind this one keg of palm wine. May your shadow never grow less. One day our seeds from different parts of the world will come HOMe and give a hand to the sleeping giants. They will return to take more stories and ideas Kole Posted by Omowa2| 07.03.2007 23:05

Oguguo Yakere  Villager

# 5 Kole. I hope what you call "sleeping" is not "dying". You can not give a dead giant any meaningful helping hand. Kudos to the Igbo Finlanders. Let others emulate. Yakere Posted by Oguguo Yakere| 08.03.2007 00:46

BabaAgba  Villager

# 6 Bravo! Ndiigbo of Finland, I congratulate you guys for a job well done. Nigerians all over the world need to emulate this idea. As parents we are obliged to teach and instill our culture in our children for them to have a sense of belonging. Please, Igbo Union of Finland continue with this good work you're doing. May God bless you guys and your family. Posted by BabaAgba| 08.03.2007 03:22

felix  Villager

# 7 Umuakaa atowapuna nti (this kids are sweet)...like say we don dey get am for black and white igbo. Posted by felix| 08.03.2007 06:32

akuluouno  Villager

# 8 These are indeed the future Ambassadors of Igboland in particular and Nigeria in general. FinIgbos should keep it up and by year 2050, Igbos in Nigeria will link up with their kith and kin in Europe and those of us alive can imagine the glorious state of globalisation that the world would look like. I know that other ethnic groups in Nigeria also have this generations of Nigerians in diaspora who like the Jews may ginger the economic and technological revolution that might eventually liven up the comatose giant called Nigeria after 100 years of amalgamation in 2014. God bless the FinIgbos, God bless Nigerians in Diaspora, God bless Nigeria. :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: Posted by akuluouno| 08.03.2007 12:10

Ednut  Villager

# 9 God bless the FinIgbos, God bless Nigerians in Diaspora, God bless Nigeria.........Akaluonu You must be Politically Correct or else. Nwokem, be a man and say what you feel the way you feel it. Congrats FinIgbo. I see blonde babes is whats up with yall. I recall back in dem days in Enugu guys that we hang with pretty much all have heard about the Swedish babes and how they'd pick you up at the airport and do stuff to you on your first day in their country till day break TDB. We all would have welcomed that assault back then anyway. Posted by Ednut| 08.03.2007 15:05

crimsonbabe  Villager

# 10 Nice, they are teaching the kids their roots. But make I ask, Is every Igbo man in Finland married to "oyibo":biggrin: every single one of those little boys were bi-racial. Na wa sha, I can understand that some will have Finnish wives or baby mothers but all the boys featured in the video had Oyibo mothers or did the ones that were too black didnt look as nice in the video and were not featured:biggrin: Because I just cant believe that the same importation of wife that is going on in the US and Europe is not going on in Finland. If it is, then where are the children from those unions.. Am just curious CB Posted by crimsonbabe| 08.03.2007 19:11

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