I grew up in a family where speaking Yoruba is compulsory. The four of us can converse perfectly in Yoruba. My dad made it a duty to narrate our family history to all of us. He didn't stop in just narrating history; he buys books such as the history of Ile Ife by the late Omotosho Eluyemi, The history of Modakeke and so many books on the yoruba history and influential personalities that played prominent role in the emancipation of the Yorubas. He also tells us so many Yoruba adages, he will not stop with the Yoruba adages; he will go further to tell us some folklore about what brought about the adage, the English translation of the adage and the lessons from the adage.
Anytime the elder sister of my dad come to our house from the village, She doesn't call me my muslim name but calls me the family name. She renders the family panegyrics sonorously to my delight. My younger brother and I will ask her so many questions and she will do justice in telling us the nitty-gritty of the subject matter. All these did not stop me from doing well in my academics, It even helped me in excelling, I translate question of word problems in sets, quadratic equations and so many other topics in my best subject mathematics to Yoruba before solving them.
What do we have now? We have parents that make it a taboo for their wards to speak Yoruba. A child that speak Yoruba is reprimanded for the 'heinous' crime of speaking that indigenous language. I had a conversation with a colleague when I was serving, he said with brazen "I do not know where this boy is learning the language he is speaking?' He was referring to his innocent child that tried to mimic what he heard from some people. I tried my best to explain to him the importance of speaking your indigenous language to your kid. Private schools are not left out of this mess, they chastise students that speak Yoruba in school.
I find it rather nauseating that the unlettered that should be proud of speaking their language to the children have also jumped on the bandwagon. They speak bad English to their kids and the effect is that these young minds start learning poorly constructed English from their young age. I would rather have a kid that can speak Yoruba perfectly than one that speak bad English. The kid start learning the wrong things from the family which is meant to be the first point of socialization.
A family friend, who is a professor narrated the experience he had with a student to us. He said he asked the young man the number of languages he can speak, the student replied that he can speak only English. To the dismay of the professor, he quizzed the student that where did he grow up? The boy said Lagos and also gave an invalid argument that since he was not brought up in his homeland, that is the reason he can not speak his indigenous language. As an academic, the don further asked the student of his grade in English;the student said he had a D7. The student was trying to get admission at that time. The professor told him that you can not even pass the only language you claim you understand in an Examination .
This trend is now in all caste of the society. I see Yorubas telling people to translate to english when a comment is written in yoruba on their social media wall especially on Facebook. Some even feign not to understand Yoruba. If I see people like that, I deliberately speak Yoruba to them in public. In all, we now have print medias such as Alaroye,Akede Agbaye; radio stations like Orisun fm in Ife, splash, Oluyole and Space fm all in Ibadan; Bond and Radio Lagos in Lagos. All these aforementioned stations and newspapers are doing a yeoman's in promoting Yoruba language and History.
I enjoin parents to start cultivating the habit of speaking Yoruba and teaching their wards our culture and history. This will in turn lead to the preservation of our rich culture from generation to generation.

ooo thank GOD the faster we lose our culture the easier it us for us (nigeria) to strengthen our bond among ourselves and stand as a one true nation..!!

whitebeard:
ooo thank GOD the faster we lose our culture the easier it us for us (nigeria) to strengthen our bond among ourselves and stand as a one true nation..!!

You have a good sense of humour.

Cuddlebugie:
You have a good sense of humour.

thank u my lady..!!

Good bless the op for this

It's no news most Nigerians have negative attitude towards their mothertongue and ironically develop a positive attitude towards the foreign language.

The news is, the Yoruba language can't be endangered, neither can it go into extinction

whitebeard:
thank u my lady..!!

*sniff.... *sniff*....... Sarcasm

Hmmm

Cuddlebugie:
*sniff.... *sniff*....... Sarcasm

dont misunderstand me my lady

Femolacaster:
Good bless the op for this

You are welcome.

onitshaigbo:
What is the value of our languages anyway, when all of them lack the vocabulary to describe what is needed in the modern world. The Igbo language is finished, and it's fate will be that of Yoruba, Hausa, and the other languages.

Yoruba language is evolving daily. There are words for computer, internet, penalty and even offside. Yoruba language is also one of the richest with proverbs.

I thank the Op for this wonderful piece that emphasise critically the need for our different languages not to go into extinction. Specifically, the Yoruba language will indeed be endangered if care is not taken to salvage its development. I hope men and women of Yoruba descendants who specializes in the development of Yoruba language should do justice to it..

Olu317:
I thank the Op for this wonderful piece that emphasise critically the need for our different languages not to go into extinction. Specifically, the Yoruba language will indeed be endangered if care is not taken to salvage its development. I hope men and women of Yoruba descendants who specializes in the development of Yoruba language should do justice to it..

it is one thing to Linguist and language engineers to develop terms for modern things...our attitude to language is bad!!!!...I can recall when I was in unilag, you dare not say your course is Igbo or Yoruba... You will be ridiculed and made fun of....unless this change...a lot of people are going to lose interest in learning indigenous language.why is there scholarships for engineers ,mathematicians and sciences.....very few if any for humanities and languages?... We have a Long way to go,but we must first of all change our attitude and people who want to study language, must be encouraged.

babyfaceafrica:
it is one thing to Linguist and language engineers to develop terms for modern things...our attitude to language is bad!!!!...I can recall when I was in unilag, you dare not say your course is Igbo or Yoruba... You will be ridiculed and made fun of....unless this change...a lot of people are going to lose interest in learning indigenous language.why is there scholarships for engineers ,mathematicians and sciences.....very few if any for humanities and languages?... We have a Long way to go,but we must first of all change our attitude and people who want to study language, must be encouraged.

I guess a lot of work needed to be done to encourage indigenous languages least they go into extinction.

[s]

onitshaigbo:
What is the value of our languages anyway, when all of them lack the vocabulary to describe what is needed in the modern world. The Igbo language is finished, and it's fate will be that of Yoruba, Hausa, and the other languages.

[/s]

onitshaigbo:
What is the value of our languages anyway, when all of them lack the vocabulary to describe what is needed in the modern world. The Igbo language is finished, and it's fate will be that of Yoruba, Hausa, and the other languages.

You're very correct. The languages have no intrinsic value, and relative to the current era, the languages are indeed insufficient. Do you know why? I'll tell you. A tool is only useful in so much as it is being used. The speakers don't use this tool as effectively as they actually could, yet they speak poorly of the languages. Who truly is to blame? The tool or the tool user? Language is a tool. Use it. Speak it. Command it as you see fit, and it will listen. Just don't be so dumb that you would lay responsibility on the tool, as opposed to the tool users who continue to display their inability to effectively use it.