Our Typical Culture, and Heritage
I told myself that I was going to get involved in this month's #inleo intuitive but I unconsciously forgot as I have got a lot to do offline after seeing two to three feeds about the initiative, this morning, I couldn't help but remind myself about joining the initiate once again.
I will be going with the Day 3 tag that says, Heritage: Cultural, Financial, Biological
A few days ago, many people were talking about culture and specifically their language and making sure their children get to learn their language and culture and also embed it in their practices. Thousands of people supported that notion and went on to say that it is wrong for parents to not teach their kids their culture and language.
Well, only a few were against the notion especially those who are currently not living in the country, they said they would instead teach their kids languages that they could make money from in the future instead of language that doesn't benefit them as a person apart from being identified as a particular ethnic.
Now, this is the thing, A typical Nigerian respects his or her culture with the whole of their being, and would do anything to protect his or her heritage. The people who were against the notion of keeping and teaching their kids their culture and language got a lot of backlash, I can tell you because I had to follow that trend till the end.
Funny enough, I get so much backlash from people especially my tribe because I can not speak our native tongue, some say that I am only pretending to not know because I do not want to identify with my culture but the truth is I can not speak and only those who are close to me knows how I struggle to speak.
Maybe because since I came back to my town, it's been fourteen years (14) so they find it hard to believe that an indigene and someone who is currently living here can not still speak our language but the truth is I have not been conscious about learning it and haven't made efforts to do it. To make matters worse my both siblings especially the youngest of us, speak fluently without a hitch but I am still struggling.
After getting so much backlash from people, I began to think about why I am finding it difficult to learn my language and why for years, I could only understand but not speak, it dawned on me that it could be something I got from my dad. Since I am a perfect description of my dad, from his height, facial resemblance, long legs, slim body, and all that, I could have gotten this part of not being able to speak our dialect from him as well because my dad never knew how to speak his dialect even though he was born and breed in his village for years.
He couldn't even twist his tongue to save his life even if he was given the chance, so I believe that there is a connection between my not knowing how to speak our dialect with my dad. I particularly only got to understand our dialect because of my mom since she was the only one who understood and knows how to speak our dialect, she always made a conscious and still communicates with me using our dialect but I always end up answering her in pidgin or English.
Except for the youngest of us all who I am sure is fluent because he came back here when he was quite younger, the rest of us are bad when it comes to speaking our dialect but I am the worst of them all, and since I do not have friends who are particular about speaking our dialect when we are communicating, it makes it easier for me to not feel left out.
In all honesty, most times, I did wish I knew how to speak our dialect fluently even though I understood it, especially because of the backlash I always got from people but other times, I am glad I did not because it saves me the stress of getting involved with some people and some talks because of same language. Since I can not speak, the best thing I do is walk away to avoid having to stress myself in speaking the dialect just to get involved in the talk but notwithstanding, as a Nigerian, a typical African man sees it as a taboo to not know how to speak your mother tongue or not teach your kids how to speak your mother tongue, they feel it is an ancestral or descendant thing, so it should be passed down from generation to generation to avoid it being diminished.
This post was inspired by the #inleo community and my entry to the #Aprilinleo monthly topic on Day 3. Please check out the announcement post to get involved.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
The culture and language of a country should be preserved by every citizen. And we should learn the language of our tribe.
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This post resonated with me because I also can't speak my language but mine is due to my mixed blood.