An
Associate Professor of Yoruba Studies at Lagos State University, Taiwo
Olunlade has stressed need for Nigerians to embrace indigenous language
and its inherent beauty.
The
university don who was guest speaker at a quarterly audience
participatory programme, ‘Yoruba Lakotun’ dedicated to the new Ooni of
Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, at the Ethnic Heritage
Centre, Ikoyi, weekend, urged Nigerians to be proud of their mother
tongue as it is the only way it can garner international recognition.
In
his words, ‘It is encouraging to note that there are about fifty
universities in the United States awarding different certificate
programmes in African languages today. We have to ensure that we give
our best to understanding our languages and give it a push it deserves
for other nations to appreciate.’
While
dismissing the insinuation that Yoruba language studies is fetish in
nature, he made people understand that all areas of language studies in
English language is also in Yoruba language. He read from his anthology
of poetry titled, ‘Ewi Igbalode’ to the admiration of audience,
including Rebecca Jones, a post-doctoral research fellow from the
University of Birmingham who had come to Nigeria on a study tour.
However,
the convener of the programme, Olutayo Irantiola said, “The programme
is a way of promoting Yoruba literacy in diverse forms such as poetry,
music, creative writing and other arts that would continually showcase
the beauty entrenched in the language”. According to him,
‘Yoruba have a great heritage that must be passed down to the next
generation. We should not make Yoruba language and other Nigerian
languages second-languages despite being resident at the crux of these
languages.
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