Save our mother tongues from extinction!

Mother tongue is the native language that identifies a group of people. It is among the heritages of a nation, tribe or region that is peculiar to their origin and propagated from one generation to another. Mother tongue is a customized language of a people which they take pride in, and which also serves them in communication, arts, entertainment and education. It adds flavor to our existence as a people with one culture just like our dressing and food does. It is our easiest means of communication and a means of propagating our culture and tradition perfectly without undue alteration.

Regrettably, this medium that ensures the propagation of our identity has been relegated to the background. It has been given a contemptuous regard and is patiently being watched as it journeys into extinction. Most people no longer speak their mother tongue; others are ashamed of it, while a whole lot don’t even know how to speak theirs.  Why should one be ashamed of his identity? Or is his origin a mistake?

When this trend started, many were ignorant of the implication of our actions. It started like a play when most of our parents, teachers and elders yearned to speak English or any other second language batter than the owners of the language, and at the expense of their own local language. I can remember those days in school, when children were been warned against speaking their native language, or vernacular as it was referred to, in the class. Of course any defaulter has him or herself to blame. You either pay a fine, or receive some strokes of the cane. It emanated like a solution to a problem, but it wasn’t, as it suddenly took the center stage, and presently portends a grave danger to our history and identity.

Some families took over from where the teachers stopped. The family that is supposed to be a citadel of informal education, charged with the responsibility of propagating the culture and tradition which our mother tongue stands firmly at their center.  Some parents would question a teacher, a friend or a relation for speaking vernacular to their kids. They wanted them to speak English language and other foreign languages only, and to them, speaking their mother tongue will make their brains dull. Issues!

It is funny to know that these days the society regards any person that cannot speak his or her local language as sophisticated and classy. He or she is seen as educated and highly civilized. But is this what he or she truly is?

Many parents have succeeded in making their wards ignorant of their local dialects. Some children are outrightly rendered monoglots. They can only speak one language, and to worsen it all, imperfectly. Many people that claim to know only a second language are mostly liable to not knowing any language perfectly. This is unlike those that know their mother tongue. And like the name implies, the language is in their tongue and you are in control of it. This is what you won’t be able to do in a second language, at least in most cases. Who is better, a monoglot or a polyglot? Of course a polyglot is, being able to speak fluently in more than one language and he is much better when one of the languages is his mother tongue. Most people, who claim to speak only foreign languages, speak the adulterated version which is most despicable. It may interest you to know that most of our reputed scholars in different professions and even in the diaspora, still speak their mother tongue fluently. Even the Nigerian king of grammar, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, speaks creditably in his local dialect whenever it is time for it.

Who said that our African mother tongues are not good, when even the foreigners enjoy it a lot in our African literatures? It is worthy of note that all of the African Eminent figures in the world of literature such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, Buchi Emechata, Amma Darko, Kenneth Kaunda  and our award winning new generation writers such as Chimamanda Adichie, Ben Okri,   among others, were able to achieve wonderful feats in the literary world not necessary because of their knowledge in English language. No.  They were able to break the jinx on African literature because of their mastery in their respective mother tongues. These helped them to understand their environment perfectly and then tell phenomenal stories to the world. They couldn’t have told these stories as it was and better, without the knowledge of their first languages since it has to do with their origin.

The Book “Things Fall Apart” is not just popular because of the wonderful grammar used in it. No. One of the things that gave it its evergreen and outstanding nature was the way the author, Chinua Achebe, played with words under the influence of his mother tongue. Another beauty of the book was the way he code-switched between his mother tongue (Igbo language) and his second language (English language). His direct translation of sentences and proverbs of his mother tongue to English language also made the book superbly unique and very fascinating even to the white-men that it has been translated to more than fifty foreign languages. Some of these authors mentioned earlier, sometimes also introduce their local languages in their books, especially when they write songs and poems.

Most of our popular and evergreen African musicians such as the likes of Frank Edward, Resonance (of Chinweike), Brenda Fassie, Osita Osadebe, Sunny Ade among many others, made their marks in the world of music using their mother tongues.

If these men and women of letters were not hindered because of their use and vast knowledge in their mother tongue, but were rather propelled to the peak of their careers with it, why wouldn’t you?

Our African mother tongues are quietly becoming extinct. It is time we do something to forestall this impending condition. Parents should ensure that they talk to their children in their mother tongue at a proportion that enable them master it. Schools should also dedicate at least a day every week for the appreciation and propagation of our local languages, where pupils/students would be encouraged to communicate throughout the day in their respective mother tongues. Awards should be given to students that showed great knowledge of their mother tongues both in oral and written exercises.  Government should come up with policies that would encourage the propagation of our mother tongue, and essay competitions, to be written in one’s mother tongue, organized from time to time.

These languages that have done a lot for us should not be watched to die away disgracefully. Our children yet unborn should be given the opportunity to experience these languages that we communicated peacefully and effectively in, before the advent of the colonial masters. It will be an injustice to posterity if we deny them this right and opportunity.

I was challenged when I heard that the grandchildren of my neighbour, born and living in far away Spain, can comfortably speak their mother tongue, Igbo, in addition to their host language, Spanish, and finally English. These children, though born and brought up outside their fatherland, were still taught their mother tongue by their parents. And this portrays the role of parents in this contest, even those abroad. Most times people were able to recognize their brothers in a foreign land because they heard them speak their mother tongue. And many times they have their problems solved by these persons.

So if you know you can’t speak in your mother tongue, disturb your parents and elders to teach you. It is your right to know the language of your root. It is also an advantage to you if you add it to the number of languages you can speak. There is no doubt that it will afford you the right to participate fully and unrestricted in the gathering of people of your origin. Your mother tongue is your passport to people that shares the same identity with you, and your pride. And in my own mother tongue (Igbo) I say: “K’anyi n’asu asusu obodo anyi” (let’s be speaking our mother tongue).

Amatanweze Kingsley

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