The mighty has fallen

Days of d gods...lols

Oho

So.Africa is d earliest known use of calculation, maths,science and d origin of mankind etc. But today its d most backwards and superstitious

Nigerians and everyday mathematics
imaging taking a bus going to alaba from mile 2 and the conductor charges you #60 and you gave him #110 and your change is #50.
Niaja i hail thee no stress, no wahala
you toomuch

nice one from Africa

The poverty of Africa is in totally selling off its heritage.

Africa's dressing is great, but we have imported unclothedness from the west!

Wow! Great. But how can we profit from this lesson in history if we cannot rid ourselves of corruption and mental laziness? The western world may have come late to civilization but they are far ahead today. That is the power of foresight.

Until we produce leaders who actually want to build their country (and not enrich their pockets) we would remain far behind.

I wonder why some African kids are afraid of what our ancestors created.

Ploy:


rally? Who wan die?

and that is why we will remain in this condition. if we can fight for our right, no one will. most of the great governments in the world today achieved that greatness by the sacrifice of a few who fought for the right thing.

This thread has been on FP for hours and we have barely 2 pages of comments. That's how deep the effect of colonization has eaten into the brain of the average Nigerian and African in general.
Appreciate ur insights AmunRa and Ploy

They were so civilized and smart, yet the Europeans came and conquered them easily, packing them like sardines to the west.

The fact that they ended up being superior to Africa means they are smarter. (at least for now).

Africans are ridiculous.
We keep screaming for division when we know its not feasible anymore after so many years of being together.

Even divide Nigeria into little tribes, and see what comes out of it.
What will you achieve when you are as small as Niger Republic for example?

The best chance of Niger-area achieving global relevance is by sticking together.

But how can we, when people keep cursing Lord Lugard for amalgamating our tribes into one after so many years?

The singular problem Africans have is hatred. (Hutu vs Tutsi. and that was just two tribes)
Many African countries have far lesser number of tribes than Nigeria, yet they still have serious hatred amongst themselves.

Divide Nigeria today and you will see that even the Yorubas Or the Hausas or the Igbos don't really love each other.
You will be shocked to see wars breaking out within them.

Will breaking the country into pieces stop the leaders from being greedy and inconsiderate?

Dee60:
The poverty of Africa is in totally selling off its heritage.

Africa's dressing is great, but we have imported unclothedness from the west!

Africans probably exported unclothedness to the west! Lol.
Watch American movies from the 1920's and see how long their skirts were.
In contrast, Africans were virtually naked back then.
Haven't you seen pics of remote tribes who still wear bikinis made of leaves?
Heck!!!

coolzeal:
I wonder why some African kids are afraid of what our ancestors created.

Blame their parents

@ Tymax's and others - This is the most intelligent tread I have read in this forum. Trying to understand the reasons for our present under-development. Often times, our default approach is to elevate superficial to the nucleus and create a shrine around it. Ultimately, African will develop when the fundamental reasons for her backwardness unearthed and, addressed.

My suspicion has always been whether impacting knowledge in a foreign language {English in the case of Nigeria}, really transfer the knowledge at a depth that is applicable to address challenges of our time. Sciences for instance contradicts superstition and seek to explain all physical phenomena yet most Nigerians that I know that claim to be scientist are just as much superstitious. At a practical level, the way sciences are thought from my experience suggest some of the teachers have little confidence in the veracity of what they teach.

Specifically and applicable to Nigeria is the challenge of what language to choose among the 200 plus languages. I think the first step is to decide if the indigenous language is central to solving our problems. Assuming the answer is in the affirmative, then, perhaps we will be able to walk our way to select language(s) that will be solid in communicating existing world knowledge to our children.

Someone stated that hatred pervades Africa and, that indeed is one of the main reasons for our underdevelopment. While it is true that inter-tribal conflicts and strive are characteristics of all African countries, their is nothing peculiar about that. That indeed, is the history of humanities whereever you found them. What solve intertribal conflicts and strives are rule of law, equality before the law, and elimination of privilege class.

Again, I really find this topic fascinating and, I thank all the contributors.

AmunRaOlodumare:
^^That's not true. Before colonialism in Africa, people were interacting, trading, intermarrying with each others, using multilingualism and lingua franca.

Many African empire were composed of various ethnic groups. Multilingualism and the use of lingua franca is how people were interacting with their neighbors.

In Europe, and around the world, English is used as a lingua franca, not as the main language of instructions. That's a big difference. In fact, I would dare say this cultural continuity with the past is the secret of the development of every nations (China, Japan, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, France, England, Malaysia, etc). Only us poor colonized country don't use our own languages as language of instructions.

Absolutely true, maybe not in present day Nigeria, but definitely in neighbouring countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, etc. etc. As a matter of fact it still happens today.

Elxandre:

Africans probably exported unclothedness to the west! Lol.
Watch American movies from the 1920's and see how long their skirts were.
In contrast, Africans were virtually naked back then.
Haven't you seen pics of remote tribes who still wear bikinis made of leaves?
Heck!!!

Completely and absolutely false.

The grand boubou, babban riga, and other forms of Sudo-Sahelian clothing have been around for thousands of years. The traditional Fulani "Limse" has been around for millenia as well.

Elxandre:
They were so civilized and smart, yet the Europeans came and conquered them easily, packing them like sardines to the west.

The fact that they ended up being superior to Africa means they are smarter. (at least for now).

Africans are ridiculous.
We keep screaming for division when we know its not feasible anymore after so many years of being together.

Even divide Nigeria into little tribes, and see what comes out of it.
What will you achieve when you are as small as Niger Republic for example?

The best chance of Niger-area achieving global relevance is by sticking together.

But how can we, when people keep cursing Lord Lugard for amalgamating our tribes into one after so many years?

The singular problem Africans have is hatred. (Hutu vs Tutsi. and that was just two tribes)
Many African countries have far lesser number of tribes than Nigeria, yet they still have serious hatred amongst themselves.

Divide Nigeria today and you will see that even the Yorubas Or the Hausas or the Igbos don't really love each other.
You will be shocked to see wars breaking out within them.

Will breaking the country into pieces stop the leaders from being greedy and inconsiderate?

I agree with this excerpt, it doesn't take Einstein to figure out that by not sticking together we are setting ourselves up for disaster. Nicely said! We want to progress? we must stop blaming other ethnic groups.

Fulaman198:



Completely and absolutely false.

The grand boubou, babban riga, and other forms of Sudo-Sahelian clothing have been around for thousands of years. The traditional Fulani "Limse" has been around for millenia as well.

Interesting.
Okay let's just say at least not the whole of Africa.

Ploy:


I have thought about Russia and Japan using another language apart from English and still they are developing but then I realised somethings -

*almost all the African countries are created by the colonial masters. What is the relationship between Hausa-fulani and Igbo for example? Irrespective of our tribal differences, they forced us into one. Countries like Japan are bilingual or monolingual but a small society in Africa is multilingual. How then do we select a language out of the array of languages as a language of instruction?

The linguistic situation of Africa is like a mace, there is mutual suspicion as to linguistic domination and marginalisation. This takes us back to where we started. Our political leaders are benefiting from our backwardness. They travel to Europe and America see development but come back home and play to our fantasy. #let us believe in God, we shall be there one day# The question is, do they mean it?

If the problem of Africa can only be solved when we adopt an indigenous language as a medium of instruction, the problem will never be solved.

English is a mixture of languages

Elxandre:
They were so civilized and smart, yet the Europeans came and conquered them easily, packing them like sardines to the west.

The fact that they ended up being superior to Africa means they are smarter. (at least for now).

Africans are ridiculous.
We keep screaming for division when we know its not feasible anymore after so many years of being together.

Even divide Nigeria into little tribes, and see what comes out of it.
What will you achieve when you are as small as Niger Republic for example?

The best chance of Niger-area achieving global relevance is by sticking together.

But how can we, when people keep cursing Lord Lugard for amalgamating our tribes into one after so many years?

The singular problem Africans have is hatred. (Hutu vs Tutsi. and that was just two tribes)
Many African countries have far lesser number of tribes than Nigeria, yet they still have serious hatred amongst themselves.

Divide Nigeria today and you will see that even the Yorubas Or the Hausas or the Igbos don't really love each other.
You will be shocked to see wars breaking out within them.

Will breaking the country into pieces stop the leaders from being greedy and inconsiderate?

You're forgetting Europeans had guns and Africans didn't

pashaun:


English is a mixture of languages

I disagree with you, English is rather a growing language. Any language that will not die must allow other members (grow).

Don't forget, that we now have Englishes: Nigerian English, Ghanaian English, American English e.t.c. That is the flexibility that is expected of any language that won't go into extinction.

In fact, Africans, especially Nigerians should be grateful to the colonial masters that solve the problem created by the kaleidoscopic linguistic situation on our nation(s).

About 6000 languages are spoken in the world, over 2000 are in Africa and about 515 are in Nigeria both living and dead.

English is, and will continue to be the unifying language of Nigeria; even if Nigeria disintegrates, linguistic problem will still strive. I can't fathom how Tiv people will succumb to the linguistic dominance of the Hausas.

In essence, it is behoved of us to harness the importance of English in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular.

pashaun:



You're forgetting Europeans had guns and Africans didn't

Lol.
There even had more advanced weapons.

Elxandre:
They were so civilized and smart, yet the Europeans came and conquered them easily, packing them like sardines to the west.

The fact that they ended up being superior to Africa means they are smarter. (at least for now).

Just like how the mongols were smarter than all of China when they conquered it "easily" aswell.

Elxandre:

Africans probably exported unclothedness to the west! Lol.
Watch American movies from the 1920's and see how long their skirts were.
In contrast, Africans were virtually naked back then.
Haven't you seen pics of remote tribes who still wear bikinis made of leaves?
Heck!!!

I don't see leaves. Please point to where you see leaves

Ploy:


I disagree with you, English is rather a growing language. Any language that will not die must allow other members (grow).

Don't forget, that we now have Englishes: Nigerian English, Ghanaian English, American English e.t.c. That is the flexibility that is expected of any language that won't go into extinction.

In fact, Africans, especially Nigerians should be grateful to the colonial masters that solve the problem created by the kaleidoscopic linguistic situation on our nation(s).

About 6000 languages are spoken in the world, over 2000 are in Africa and about 515 are in Nigeria both living and dead.

English is, and will continue to be the unifying language of Nigeria; even if Nigeria disintegrates, linguistic problem will still strive. I can't fathom how Tiv people will succumb to the linguistic dominance of the Hausas.

In essence, it is behoved of us to harness the importance of English in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular.

Boy I wonder how they amassed such large states without a colonial unifying language.

kingston277:

I don't see leaves. Please point to where you see leaves

I said earlier that maybe not all tribes.

The koma people still live by their ancient traditional cultures, and they give us a good reference Into what pre-civilized Africans looked like.

Even Niki minaj/miley Cyrus got nothing on this ladies.

kingston277:

Boy I wonder how they amassed such large states without a colonial unifying language

That exactly is my point, then they lived separately but there was seemingly enmity among them. The weakness explored by the colonialist to exploit them.

The world of today has advanced beyond living a secluded life. English opened the window through which we interact with the whole world. There was never Nigeria before the colonial masters and there won't be Nigeria if we through their linguistic legacy into the dustbin of rivalry.

Sir, point of correction, I am NOT a BOY. I am a MAN.

pashaun:



You're forgetting Europeans had guns and Africans didn't

The truth is Europeans didn't invent gun powder nor writing. They just made "good" technical use of it by integrating those into their cultures. They didn't switch to mandarin or something, they just used what was good from outside and incorporated it into their own cultures on their own term.

The same should be done with any technological advancement from outside, that's how you build great nations with a great past. Not second class citizen speaking the language of their ex-colonial masters. All Europeans nations and Asian countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, and many others use their own language for their development. Only the self-defeating and subordinating policies (language of instructions, religions) set up by the colonial master when he colonized us has turned African countries into western dependent second class world citizen. The good news is those are easily reversible once the willingness is there, fear is away and our stockholm syndrome is out. Basically, it's simply about translating and editing books into our own various languages, use a national lingua franca (english maybe) and promote pride and historical continuity of our culture (more than now). This is the secret of all great nations from Britain, France, Germany, Israel (which practically revived the liturgical Hebrew language to create their nation after the world war), China, Japan, South Korea, etc.

Be ourselves culturally, while integrating stuff from outside under our own terms using our own spiritual belief, which are always in motions and our own languages, which will always integrate new words from outside as all languages do. Like Europeans did with writing and gun powder.