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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2015 5:41:48 GMT
British Research Fellow laments decline of Nigerian travel writing, African languagesA British research fellow of the University of Birmingham, Dr. Rebecca Jones, has expressed dissatisfaction over the neglect of Nigerian travel writing and possible extinction of the Yoruba Language among Nigerian writers due to inadequate use of the language in their works.
Jones stated this at recently during an International Lecture Series titled: “Journey to the Hinterland: The Rise of Nigerian Travel Writing in Yoruba and English, 1923-1937,” at Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo, while reviewing the works of notable Nigerian writers like D.O. Fagunwa, Pelu Awofeso and Babalola Thomas among others.
According to her, the seminar was organised to appreciate the beauty in the Yoruba Language, the rich civilization and the inimitable lifestyle of the African people at large and to cause a reawakening among present-day writers to enact their experiences in Yoruba Language.
She described the characteristics of Nigerian travel writing to include the use of literary tools and devices such as the epistolary style, the serialized pages, lively, personalized accounts of the writers’ thoughts and subjective expressions; playing with language and literary writing. “Others are songs, jokes, proverbs, subjective, not objective accounts of places. They describe people and places they encounter, current affairs, politics and religion, and address readers,” she said.
Jones, who is a First Class graduate of the University of Cambridge, holds Masters of Arts in African Studies and a PhD from Birmingham University, Department of African Studies and Anthropology, said she was offered seven Africa Languages but chose Yoruba because of the beauty and specialty peculiar to it among other languages of the world.
According to her, she started learning Yoruba Language in 2007 and visited Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, University of Ibadan and some other Yoruba-speaking communities in Nigeria during her master’s and PhD programmes for about four months. She listed the benefits of the reawakening to include existing culture of documentation and travel writing, newspaper editors’ tours, writing a new nation into being, the benefits of travel, the sociability of travel and the travel writer and Yoruba literary experimentation in the press.
While analyzing the work of Babalola Thomas, Ero LÓna, a Yoruba travel novel, while speaking Yoruba fluently and adeptly interpreting into English, Jones identified the mastery which Yoruba writers have over the use of words and the ability to cognitively use them to express their experiences to the fullest.
The research fellow marvelled how greatly the writer describes and narrates every situation accurately through the use of indigenous language, proprietarily. She lamented the interpretation which can only summarize the account and create a convoluted version of the original.
Jones lamented the gradual abandonment of Yoruba by native writers and the premium placed on English which she said might result in a huge loss for Yoruba people and many Africans, who adopt English as Second Language (ESL) and medium of instruction in their countries.
However, Jones, who disclosed that her project supervisor in Europe, another Briton, gave her a Yoruba name ‘Olufunmilayo,’ pointed out that the discouragement is at the institutional level, where all the activities of the people are codified in English language.
She also told The Guardian that Yoruba writers like Pelu Awofeso and Kola Olatubosun are working tirelessly to form a strong reawakening with the London-based Yoruba Conversation Club, a group of Europeans and other non-African natives to preserve the rich Yoruba language and its aesthetic values.
Jones stated her resolve to take a job in any Yoruba-speaking nation because of her passion for the language, and urged the Yoruba and Africans at large not to relegate their indigenous languages. She affirmed that language is the tool of all possibilities for human beings and the essence of their existence.
Provost of ACE, Prof. Olukoya Ogen, remarked that the seminar had taken place at the nick of time to appraise the literary professionalism of Yoruba travel writing and aesthetic values of the African people before, during and after colonialism.
Source:The Guardian
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2015 5:42:57 GMT
Shymmex, Interloper, iyalode, Moffy, OmoOba, Iya Niyen!, Omoluabi, dansoye1, Belmot, osoronga,@quimicababes, Omo Oba of the Source, Her Highness, IrekeOnibudo, ioannes, laudate, oduabachanal, stblack, zaynie, Honorebu, ilaje2015, omohayek, AgbongboAkala,
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Post by Her Highness on Dec 16, 2015 5:50:19 GMT
I'd like to know the reason behind this problem. Is it from lack of funding/resources?
Is the number of Yoruba travel writers reducing in general or is it mainly their usage of Yoruba language that we should be worried about?
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Post by OmoOba on Dec 16, 2015 6:05:43 GMT
If only this was only applicable to the writers. In Nigeria today, fewer and fewer parents are speaking the language to their children.
I have cousins who understand but can't speak Yoruba and they grew up in a Nigeria. This means they can't pass on the language to their offspring and the sad thing is that this is becoming common especially with inter ethnic marriages.
It is a lot worse with dialect. Take my parents for example, neither of them can speak their local dialects but they understand it.
Result: My siblings and I only speak the generic Yoruba and do not understand any dialect.
I read a research paper the other day about disappearing Yoruba words. I will look for it and post here. I was surprised at some of the words which had a Yoruba equivalent e.g All my life I have always said pot whereas the Yoruba word for pot is Issasun.
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Post by OmoOba on Dec 16, 2015 6:08:36 GMT
I'd like to know the reason behind this problem. Is it from lack of funding/resources? Is the number of Yoruba travel writers reducing in general or is it mainly their usage of Yoruba language that we should be worried about? Simply put, people place a higher premium on your ability to speak the English language over an indigenous one. We need to find a way to make our languages cool again particularly for the younger generation. |
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Post by Her Highness on Dec 16, 2015 6:14:38 GMT
How can we make Yoruba cool again?
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Post by Shymmex on Dec 16, 2015 9:44:43 GMT
I think everything boils down to the lingua franca of the country. Since English language is the lingua Franca of Nigeria, evidently, most parents would be geared towards raising their kids to speak the language eloquently for better job prospects. Sad but that is the reality and it is a shame that a language as rich as the Yoruba language is dying.
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Post by OmoOba on Dec 16, 2015 9:50:31 GMT
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Post by omohayek on Dec 16, 2015 11:23:10 GMT
I think part of the problem, especially for those of us who live outside Nigeria, is that it's extremely difficult to get access to Yoruba-language literature. For example, Babalola Thomas wrote the first Yoruba novel, "Sẹgilọla, Ẹlẹyinju-Ẹgẹ", and I've been trying to track down a copy for a long time now with no luck. Try to find a good, modern Yoruba-English dictionary and you hit the same difficulty. Basically, even for those who are interested, the only real way to learn Yoruba or improve your skills is to move to Nigeria and go live somewhere people aren't always mixing the language with English. |
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Post by Shymmex on Dec 16, 2015 12:36:58 GMT
Interesting link. I noticed the author cited Sudan, as one of the African countries, where Yoruba language is spoken. However, he never said anything about how the language got there. Are they recent Yoruba migrants, Yoruba settlers who have been there for generations, or indigenous Yoruba folks? If they're any of the latter two - that's an interesting development that can lead into a deeper scholarship into how Yorubas got to today's Nigeria via Ife. We have the Waddai theory and the Ethiopian obelisk and Opa Oranmiyan connection. |
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Post by Shymmex on Dec 16, 2015 12:47:02 GMT
I think part of the problem, especially for those of us who live outside Nigeria, is that it's extremely difficult to get access to Yoruba-language literature. For example, Babalola Thomas wrote the first Yoruba novel, "Sẹgilọla, Ẹlẹyinju-Ẹgẹ", and I've been trying to track down a copy for a long time now with no luck. Try to find a good, modern Yoruba-English dictionary and you hit the same difficulty. Basically, even for those who are interested, the only real way to learn Yoruba or improve your skills is to move to Nigeria and go live somewhere people aren't always mixing the language with English. I improve my Yoruba skills with the Yoruba bible and the English bible for translation. |
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Post by omohayek on Dec 16, 2015 13:46:22 GMT
I think part of the problem, especially for those of us who live outside Nigeria, is that it's extremely difficult to get access to Yoruba-language literature. For example, Babalola Thomas wrote the first Yoruba novel, "Sẹgilọla, Ẹlẹyinju-Ẹgẹ", and I've been trying to track down a copy for a long time now with no luck. Try to find a good, modern Yoruba-English dictionary and you hit the same difficulty. Basically, even for those who are interested, the only real way to learn Yoruba or improve your skills is to move to Nigeria and go live somewhere people aren't always mixing the language with English. I improve my Yoruba skills with the Yoruba bible and the English bible for translation. , what edition do you use, and is it available online? Shymmex |
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Post by Omoluabi on Dec 16, 2015 17:01:07 GMT
If only this was only applicable to the writers. In Nigeria today, fewer and fewer parents are speaking the language to their children. I have cousins who understand but can't speak Yoruba and they grew up in a Nigeria. This means they can't pass on the language to their offspring and the sad thing is that this is becoming common especially with inter ethnic marriages.It is a lot worse with dialect. Take my parents for example, neither of them can speak their local dialects but they understand it. Result: My siblings and I only speak the generic Yoruba and do not understand any dialect. I read a research paper the other day about disappearing Yoruba words. I will look for it and post here. I was surprised at some of the words which had a Yoruba equivalent e.g All my life I have always said pot whereas the Yoruba word for pot is Issasun. The annoying thing is feeling cool that they don't speak their language as if there's a trophy to be won for that. Folks like us into inter tribal marriages are finding it difficult with our kids but we must do our best. Gbogbo omo mi gbodo so yoruba |
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Post by Shymmex on Dec 16, 2015 18:46:47 GMT
I improve my Yoruba skills with the Yoruba bible and the English bible for translation. , what edition do you use, and is it available online? Shymmex I use the general one I nicked from my mum's house. When I get home, I'll post the name. |
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Post by Her Highness on Dec 16, 2015 19:02:24 GMT
If only this was only applicable to the writers. In Nigeria today, fewer and fewer parents are speaking the language to their children. I have cousins who understand but can't speak Yoruba and they grew up in a Nigeria. This means they can't pass on the language to their offspring and the sad thing is that this is becoming common especially with inter ethnic marriages.It is a lot worse with dialect. Take my parents for example, neither of them can speak their local dialects but they understand it. Result: My siblings and I only speak the generic Yoruba and do not understand any dialect. I read a research paper the other day about disappearing Yoruba words. I will look for it and post here. I was surprised at some of the words which had a Yoruba equivalent e.g All my life I have always said pot whereas the Yoruba word for pot is Issasun. The annoying thing is feeling cool that they don't speak their language as if there's a trophy to be won for that. Folks like us into inter tribal marriages are finding it difficult with our kids but we must do our best. Gbogbo omo mi gbodo so yoruba Omo na beautiful words be this o. |
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