Death by Engligbo

Even the worst manuscripts in English are, at least, in English. This language isn’t going away anytime soon. We take it for granted as we split hairs over, for instance, whether Vikram Chandra uses too many commas where semicolons should go in Sacred Games. Meanwhile, tears are falling in Nigeria, where books will soon cease to be written in one of that nation’s major languages, according to the Daily Sun. Columnist Robert Obioha Okere laments that Igbo is enroute to extinction unless “urgent steps are taken now to stem the tide of its sweeping movement to oblivion.” Of Nigeria’s 400-plus languages, “only about seven or eight can be said to be effectively spoken and written. At best only the major three Nigerian languages of Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa can be said to have attained high level standardisation and can be studied in the universities,” Okere notes. “In terms of language engineering and standardisation, Hausa has been the most beneficiary. Its use is beyond the frontiers of Nigeria as a language of commerce, media and education. The world acclaimed radio stations; the VOA and BBC have both Hausa services.” But “new students are no longer eager to take up Igbo language studies except [as a] last resort or except [when] it is called Linguistics and Igbo or whatever.... Igbo language speakers are not helping matters in the funny manner they speak the language with a lot of code-mixing and code-switching which has given birth to what is generally called Engligbo — some admixture of Igbo and English.... More premium is placed on English than Igbo language. The home videos that debuted in Igbo language years ago no longer do that now. The government of Igbo speaking states are the worst culprit as every state activity is conducted in English to the utter neglect of Igbo.” Thus, “many Igbo news print media are dead. There are no Igbo media publications still in existence except the bi-monthly publication in Igbo of Awake, a magazine of the Jehovah Witnesses published in the USA.... Those who write in the language are no longer turning out masterpieces like the distinguished late Igbo novelist, Tony Ubesie or the erudite and foremost Igbo linguist, the late F.C Ogbalu.... All lovers of the Igbo language and identity should not treat with levity the experts’ warning on the near death of the language. The time to act is now for tomorrow may be too late.” It might. At the top of the newspaper’s web site is an advertisement that says, “Immigrate to Canada!”