Language is an identity, people get to know where you come from through your language, so when one cannot speak his/her language, nothing could be more appalling. I’ve come to observe that Nigerians patronize English language much more than our own languages. Yes I do know that Nigeria has about 521 languages due to the diverse cultures she boasts of, hence the need for a choice of English as a basic medium of communication. Nonetheless, the need for the Igbos to speak their language calls for great attention. I love Swahili speakers, you know why? Swahili is a native language spoken in 12 countries out of the 54 countries in Africa. But its dominance is quite impressive! I observed on different social platforms, a swahili speaker is not afraid to communicate in his language, regardless of no understanding of it by other users on social media. He/she didn’t purposefully do so to spite other social media users, rather it’s a mark of pride they’ve taken in their mother tongue. Most of them can write in English, but rather a use of their mother tongue would suffice. Am undeniably drawn to having a zeal to learn the language (Swahili) lol. Same goes to Asians, Indians, the French, Italians, Spaniards and need i forget the Arabians who are so proud of their languages.

Language is sweet, and the ability to speak and understand at least one foreign language is a huge plus in today’s global market. I for one can speak a little French and still gunning for more languages?. So my dear ndi Igbo, I hereby beseech you all to please help uplift our already dying language. I do hope for an environment where we can all post updates in Igbo, share our thoughts in Igbo. Sounds impossible right? but nothing is impossible, if others can do it, we sure can.? You will get to see more on language forum

written by

Nwamma Orizu

zenithorizu@gmail.com