Why Igbo Diaspora Persons Should Not Use Oral Igbo for Serious Discussions in Igboland

*Why Igbo Diaspora Persons Should Not Use Oral Igbo*

*for Serious Discussions in Igboland*

by 

Dr. Emeka J. Amanze: Agbara1

I understand, speak, read, and write Igbo.  I probably

Igbo Elephant Tusk

read and write Igbo better than the average Igbo person.  I also understand the Yoruba Language, though I cannot really say that I speak it.  Yoruba was my first language, but my grasp of the language became attenuated in the years after my family moved back to Ala Igbo from Lagos.  I learned Igbo later and Igbo overtook Yoruba as my dominant African language.  My Yoruba acquired a boost in the time I spent in Lagos after high school, just before I left Africa for the US. 

I have nothing against those who love to speak Igbo.  But, when it comes to interacting with some Igbo in Africa, I wish I only understood Igbo completely but did not speak the language at all. You see, when you leave Igboland at a young age, or if you were born outside Igboland, especially outside Africa in those parts of the world where there is a paucity of native speakers of the language, you do yourself a disservice to hold serious conversation in Igbo with native speakers, especially in Igboland where much could be at stake in the dialog.  I intend that my children will understand, and if necessary, read and write Igbo, but not necessarily speak it.  Our children in Igbo Diaspora should not be acquitted with Igbo as a second language only to lure them onto the waiting trap of wily villagers, native speakers, back home who can neither read nor write Igbo, but who are masters in exploiting the resident peril in colloquial Igbo.

In the course of my numerous visits to Igboland, I have found that the most recalcitrant people I know there are the ones who speak Igbo and nothing else or those who insist that everyone speak Igbo even when the occasion calls for the use of the official language of the country or Pidgin English.  I have also noticed that many Igbo villagers, including young ones, exploit their deep and singular emersion in the Igbo Language to seek undue sympathy when their conduct calls for justice or disciplinary action. 


I mentioned earlier that I understand but do necessarily speak Yoruba.  In spite of Yoruba complaint that Nd'Igbo are everywhere in Lagos and in some truly Yoruba parts of the country, the Yoruba are notorious for forgetting that the Igbo person standing next to him at the airport in Amsterdam, an elevator in Washington DC, or even a restaurant in Lagos could be fluent in Yoruba.   Thus, as Yoruba persons at those places ramble on with each other, they freely share anti-Igbo insults and invectives in the presence of the Igbo person in their midst whom they derisively refer to as "Okoro."   Certainly, such persons do not deserve to have your response served in their language; it should be served to them in the language in which you are most comfortable and one which exposes them to others around who do not understand Yoruba.

A similar scenario plays out amongst Nd'Igbo at home when they interact with Igbo Diaspora, and I'm not just talking about the tongue-in-cheek comments about "Agricultural Fowl."  They go beyond that, to efforts to cheat, steal, and otherwise expropriate what belongs to the unsuspecting Diaspora person.  


It is unfair to subject Igbo children born in say Europe and America to the injustice of having to deal with these cunning villagers who use vernacular, Igbo, and only in colloquy.   Those people back home who are harping on the need to speak Igbo must start putting their demands in writing, in Igbo.  It will level the playing field.  It is time for us to shift the focus from merely speaking Igbo to demanding literacy in Igbo, which must include reading and writing the Igbo Language as well.  ~~~ © Agbara1