Cross-cultural marriage, National Integration and Endangered tribes in Nigeria

By Dung John Hwyere

How many of us know how to speak, read and write in our indigenous languages? If we can do that quite perfectly, can we say same of your younger ones? What about our children? How many of them know passed the name of their tribes and villages?
In its conference earlier this year,"

The Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN) argues that unless proactive steps are taken, more than 50 minority languages in the country might become extinct in a few years". With the plethora of ethnic groups and languages hovering above 50 in Plateau State, you can be sure where's going to be hit the most in Nigeria.

Until African Traditional Education, and ultimately, Nigerian Traditional Education and its utility are imbibed in our educational system, the need to harness our potential as a nation will not be achieved. National integration and cross-cultural marriage will be more of a curse than a blessing. The African Renaissance spirit of perenialism and functionalism training given to the African child will be wasting when s/he has the requisite potential of achieving the highest level of self-attainment.

One of the factors that is militating against the sustainability of indigenous tribes in Nigeria and Plateau State specifically, is the growing westernization and globalization craze. Most parents today find it very convenient to teach their children domestic education in the English language as against the customary and cultural mother tongues. Except for indigenous tribes such as Tarok, Mwagavwul, Berom, and Ngas which are widely spoken in Plateau State, and which still has some semblance of cultural identification, most of the other tribes are already fast depleting. Even those mentioned above are still not left out of the endangered tribes zone.

Research has shown that about 59% of young Nigerian children in urban areas especially don't know how to construct simple sentences in their own native Nigerian languages other than the English language. This trend is also fast growing in the rural areas. For want of not being left behind in a globalized society, so many parents in the villages today would rather want their children to speak the English language just to look better than other children wrongly perceived as "Local or village children ".

Another growing debate is the consternation that comes with cross-cultural marriages. While the argument that cross-cultural marriages are the soluble panacea for a melting nation such as Nigeria and also a growing need for National Cohesion and Integration, it comes at a very costly price.
Most (modern) families as they're widely called today hardly discuss how their lives and the lives of their offspring would look like in future other than just thinking of providing them with the best western education within or outside the shores of Nigeria or Africa. Because both parents have different and ranging opinions and views on their cultural upbringing and semanantism, which clearly, they know nothing about, the alternative is always quick -fix found in the English language.

Most urban youngsters under the ages of 35 years can hardly speak fluently their mother tongues. How then can these young generation teach their children or next generation? Of course, you can't teach what you don't know. This seeming un cultural behaviour will in no time, have serious consequences in the nearest future if this trend is not reversed. If not done and quickly corrected, I really fear for what states like Plateau, Adamawa, and Nassarawa respectively will look like fifty years from today.

The three major Nigerian ethnic groups are the only ethnic groups that can live past the 50 years projection as they've already perfectly cemented a way of culturally and technically infusing their languages into our National education curriculum. These languages have been taught in our various primary and secondary schools for a very long time now and as such, have much potency to remain viable in ages to come. Same cannot be said of minority ethnic groups who have for long been looking for relevance in the political space in Nigeria.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammad in a lecture he delivered on the subject matter, argues that another measure to be considered In an endangered language country such as Nigeria, is the growing need for" the translation of the country’s treasure trove of literature, such as The Lion and the Jewel, The Passport of Mallam Illia and Things fall apart, into indigenous languages; adapting those classics into comics, graphic novels, TV shows as well as animated and live action feature films, leveraging on the role of the electronic media in disseminating, aggregating and curating indigenous languages and deploying digital tools in ensuring the survival of Nigeria’s indigenous languages".
He further suggested that ”the Social Media, YouTube, SMS and specially-developed applications for use on mobile devices should be used to attract young people to learn ‘endangered languages’. Others are Websites and online forums where people can interact and optimize their knowledge of those languages. Those solutions are worth exploring seriously,” he advised.

While this article is not aimed at demonizing cross-cultural marriages, there's a need for the young and vibrant Nigerian youths to square up and develop online applications that convert the English language to mother tongues so that the next generation would not be left out of their culture. It will be most exciting if the next generation of children can speak both their paternal and maternal languages. This will in no small measure, help them in mixing and integrating quite easily with the divides. English language has its own advantages but has also had its consequences on a depleting future generation of minority groups in Nigeria.

Sadly, Plateau youths have perfected infamous and inglorious ways of winning wars on social media and in beer parlors supporting an old generation of men and women that have not bequeathed a healthy traditional system of appreciating our cultural values other than divisive tendencies. We must rise and shine brightly to make our future generation a reason to smile.

Before I end this article, I'll still ask you the same questions I asked earlier in my submission:
How many of us know how to speak, read and write in our indigenous languages? If we can do that quite perfectly, can we say same of your younger ones? What about our children? How many of them know passed the name of their tribes and villages?

If you have read this article to the end and appreciate it so far, please, appreciate it by typing....

"Thank you and God bless Nigeria, Plateau State or any state you come from" in your dialect.