The following item from the Nigerian Tribune discusses the importance of local langauges and the role of local language literature. Worth the read. (Seen via a Google alert.) Don
Cultural education and development http://www.tribune.com.ng/25092007/arts.html Tue. 25th Sept. 2007 Playwright and academic, Professor Akinwumi Isola, explains aspects of Nigeria's culture youths can explore for job creation and empowerment in this paper delivered at the recently held NAFEST in Makurdi, Benue State. ONE definition of culture is "the transmission of behaviour as well as a dynamic source for change, creativity, freedom and awakening of innovative opportunities" (de Cuellar J.P 1995: 19) Culture ensures shared skills, beliefs and traditions. Children were demanded, early in life, to internalize humane qualities of honesty, transparency, accountability, integrity, justice, fair play, family sense, hard work and truthfulness. All these combined to equip the African with a built-in shock-proof ability to resist evil, the omo1uabi standard. And the bodies and minds of deviants were hauled across live coals of heavy reprimand and sanctions. Let us therefore first remind ourselves that our history shows that the great African Empires were culturally developed. Available evidence from our indigenous technologies proved that their development did make progress over time. The socio-cultural communities thrived and survived by meeting their daily needs and, most especially, by guaranteeing continuity through an effective process of socialization which ensured that the ideas, norms, values and symbols of society were internalized by the younger generation. And this is very important for this occasion, it was language and its literature, with its quality of memorability that acted like a standard setting and enforcing agent for the whole cultural society, because a lot of information had to be kept in the mind and recalled easily at appropriate times. In other words, the nuggets of language and literature because they are so memorable, i.e. easy to recall, ensured for every cultural society the creation of a bank of images in the minds of the people acting like a guide for acceptable behaviour. In creative oral or written compositions, using materials from the local environment, literature teaches men how to understand the world. The most important component of the material used, however, is local language. It is the local language that can communicate directly with the local environment and make meaningful comments. Literature teaches the mother to calm her crying child. It sings the praise names of the staple diet. It retells tender tales told by trees. It teaches the farmer the best methods of tending tendrils. It warns about the weather, and documents the behaviour of rain and sunshine. Information about plant and animal life, insightful remarks about the nature of the language, mnemonics for counting, ways of identifying medicinal plants and a lot of moral instruction are woven into memorable poems and stories. Literature also used to playa cleansing role for the community when artists composed special songs to expose erring members of the community for castigation. Folktales were used to introduce the child to the social political problems of the society, because the folktales of a society tend to reflect the fears and aspirations of the people. In traditional African society, the whole fabric of living was beautifully patterned with the thread and colours of literature. The process of socialization from the cradle to the grave was eased and made effective through the use of literature. The conditioning of life by patterns of belief was achieved by the use of literature. (See Isola 1996). Literature therefore is a most important component of the cultural heritage. Our cultural heritage has the tangible and the intangible components. The tangible heritage refers to those things that have physical form like carved wood and calabashes, statues, drums, costume, historical landscapes and sites, buildings, monuments and so on. The intangible components are those aspects that have no physical form, like our language and literature, oral traditions, customs, music, rituals, festivals and other special skills. The important fact, however, is that it is the intangible component of cultural heritage, where literature is dominant, that sustains the tangible aspect because it is the source of those valuable ideas like dignity, hope, sense of duty, acceptable standard of right and wrong, hardwork, faithfulness, accountability, honour, fraternity and other humane qualities. It is the duty of literature in the local language to craft those humane qualities into valuable genres, the nuggets and souvenirs of language that will produce the memorable images, that are stored in a bank at the front and back of the minds of the owners of the culture. Some people have wondered why literature in a foreign language cannot perform the same function. The reason simply is that language and literature are predominantly culture-bound. The culture-in-language and the environment-in-language aspects of a literature bind it tightly to particular minds. But literature can be exported. Sure! Colonialism brought literature in European languages to Africa. It is the receivers that must be on their guard, otherwise fraud will be introduced into their bank of images in the form of blurred, meaningless, irrelevant, and misleading images. For example African children were being taught English lullabies like "Bah, bah, black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!" For goodness sake, three bags full of wool from a single black sheep in a country like Nigeria where sheep have barely enough hair to cover their backs? There are many other examples, especially in foreign proverbs like "Carrying coal to New Castle" where a local proverb would provide a clearer image that can be easily stored in our bank of images. The link with development This function of literature as an important part of our intangible cultural heritage to provide the bank of images as a guide for acceptable behaviour, is of crucial importance to a people's development in any community or country. Without intangible development, there can be no sustainable development. There is tendency to define and measure development through methods and measures that are primarily material: building roads, schools, hospitals, factories, dams, buying vehicles, ships and aircrafts. But the truth is that these material goals cannot be sustained by material means alone. (to be continued next week) **************************** Disclaimer ****************************** Copyright: In accordance with Title 17, United States Code Section 107, this material is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material posted to this list for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Content: The sender does not vouch for the veracity nor the accuracy of the contents of this message, which are the sole responsibility of the copyright owner. Also, the sender does not necessarily agree or disagree with any opinions that are expressed in this message. ********************************************************************** Yahoo! 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