THE NEED TO PRESERVE OUR IGBO LANGUAGE

By Chikwendu PK Anyanwu

After the gift of life, the next important gift God gave man is language. With this gift, man is to bring order to the world around him. He uses language to name and therefore to control his environment. So Adam gave names to creatures (Gen 2: 19-20) to enable him control them and bring order to the world around him. That is why a world without language for Ferdinand De Saussure is nothing more than a chattered nebula, chaotic. For example, how can one say where one is going if places have no names?

Without language, we cannot express our thoughts and we cannot communicate to effectively especially when we have to talk about abstract realities. What all these are pointing to is the fact that language is the source of human power. Those who make use of their languages effectively, control their world effectively.

PARABLES OF THE TALENTS

In the Gospel, Christ told the parable of the talents and ended it by cautioning that those who use theirs would get more but those who don't would lose even the little they have. Language as gift is meant to be used to bear fruits. Not using one's language is a form of ingratitude to God who gave them. It is unfair to ask for more. A simple example is the fact that Igbo parents in the Diaspora failed to teach their children Igbo language. For that reason, it is very difficult for such children to think of going to Igbo land to invest and live. Those who attempt doing things like that end up in Lagos or Abuja. By not using the language God gave us, we lose our children and the investments they would have used to improve Igbo land.

GOD'S LOVE FOR EVERY LANGUAGE

On the day of Pentecost, the Apostles spoke in Galilee but those who gathered heard them in their own languages. If God wanted only one language to exist, then people would have been hearing the Apostles in Galilee and not in their own various languages.

SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGES

It is an advantage to speak many languages. However, one who can speak twenty languages without his own language is a slave to twenty masters. This is because; every language is first and foremost the servant of the culture that produces it. It cannot serve a foreign culture or individual more than its owners. To be able to get the best out of a language as a foreigner, you must be able to know this about a foreign language - you use it or it uses you. For you to be able to fashion how to use the lanaguage, that is, get some benefit out of it, you must know when you should use it otherwise it uses you while you are thinking that you are using it. eg., using English in a meeting of Umunna to show your skill - that is English using you or the Umunna as the case may be.

LANGUAGE IS POWER

The power of a people lies most times in the communal secrets they keep for themselves. If a people cannot use a language the rest of the world don't understand, they cannot keep any secrets and therefore have no power to boast of. English propaganda today, in my opinion, is weaker that it was three decades ago and the reason I suppose is because more and more people are coming to grips with how the language works, especially people from the Far East. For the Igbo, it is a very unfortunate situation because, the inability of Ndi Igbo to hold their meeting and write their minutes in Igbo has made it impossible to preserve the Igbo concept of Igba-Izu, which I described in my book to be published soon as the element that nourishes obi-umunna to enable it produce the spirit force. Igba-Izu cannot take place in a foreign language.

LANGUAGE & ECONOMY

Quotation from my MA Dissertation Titled: Learning and teaching of English and Literacy: An Igbo Experience

The irony of the whole situation is that, while the Igbo in economic progress through the acquisition of English language, they never relate the loss of Igbo language to their loss of economic progress. But Derek Walcott would say, "It's good that everything's gone, except language , which is everything", implying that people must keep their languages if they hope to keep their lives. By selling their language to us, the English made us to believe that whatever is English is superior to whatever is Igbo. Result: We abandon our products for foreign products. Up to this day, Igbo man prefers Scottish whiskey to Kai-Kai, not only because of the criminal tag it was given during the colonial period because the name Kai-kai sounds funny, while Scottish whiskey sounds posh and that is what fits those who speak English because English has been established as the language of the elites in our society.

LANGUAGE IS LIFE 

A people without language are a people without voice. A people without language are a people without identity for it is language that identifies us as Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa. The language of the English man is English. If no one speaks English in the world, it means there is no one called English. If no one speaks Igbo, it means there is no one called Igbo - it is a dead race.