By James Ogunjimi
"When an old man dies in
Africa, it is like a library burning down." - Hampate Ba
My piece will address issues from an
African perspective while using Nigeria as case study. The differences (if
there are any) cannot be too pronounced because there are certain 'bonds' or
'ties' that knit us closely together; in these, we face almost the same
problems, are confronted with same challenges, have to fight similar battles
and have to contend with the same forces in our quests for self-discovery and
our journey from third-world country back to the heights we once occupied.
My first point of contact is on the
issue of language. I'm surprised at the level at which our languages are
'disappearing', everybody wants to learn the lingua franca, we all want to
learn other people's languages while branding ours vernacular. While we
demonise our languages and brand our poems and rhymes 'incantation', other
people are paying to learn our language and are memorising our incantations.
We are not students of history
because if we are, we would know that our trip to societal 'back seat' started
when we allowed our history and and rich cultural heritage to be branded evil,
painted black and demonised.
My fear is that years from now, our
children will pay heavily to learn the same languages we neglected, then they
may even be given scholarships to learn their own language from foreigners. We
should not be surprised if foreigners have to teach our children how to put ami
ohun (marks) on words. We should not be surprised if foreigners have to teach
our children who obatala, sango, agemo, ogun, etc are. Of course, you won't
expect them to teach it without distortion. It is very much possible if we
don't reconsider our ways.
My other concern is on the issue of
African writers. What happened to language writers? People who actually wrote
in their mother tongue, where are they? Do they still exist? Today, everybody
wants to write in English or French. We all want to write about big cities,
beautiful sceneries filled with surveillance cameras and prompt security
operatives who effectively combat crime. We write of peaceful nations and happy
people.
Our writings are disconnected from
reality. A writer that cannot first of all write of the realities around him is
no writer. If we cannot write things that our people can relate with, then we
do not deserve to tell them to read our writings.
The west doesn't like writings that
shows the imperfections of the world, they want writings that show what a
perfect world we live in and how in control we are of developments and
occurrences. But could anything be farther from the truth?
The world isn't perfect, every
nation has its peculiarities, we all have challenges we have to battle with, we
cannot wish them away by refusing to write about them. We cannot because of the
prizes and awards that come with writings that depict peace and tranquility
betray the realities that surround us.
A call for us to awake is what this
is. We cannot neglect our languages or refuse to write about the realities we
are faced with.
A writer's first motivation should be the
existing realities that abound and not the false illusion that comes with
craving for the allures of prizes and awards.
We must return because our journey
to freedom and self-discovery will not start without first appreciating what is
ours and working with that.
James Ogunjimi
Ogun State, Nigeria
March 2014
Follow me on Twitter: @hullerj;
Google +: James Ogunjimi; Email: ogunjimijamestaiwo@gmail.com
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