On a few occasions, I've been in a place where people barely believed that I am Igbo because of my accent( I have little or no mother tongue interference). These meetings sometimes would end up with arguments about the problem of the Igbos being the lack of Igbo language being spoken publicly even in a situation where everybody present is Igbo as if to show off a fluency in the English language, or some people just being shy to speak their native language in public, or some not being able to communicate properly in the language as they have little or no vocabulary in the language. This is common in the younger generation and it is seen as a result of the failure of parents to teach their children the Igbo language by using it as standard means of communication at home from infancy and the language lacking a direct translation for every word or object, in contrast to the Yorubas who tend to be better at passing their language to the younger generation and using their native language as the major means of communication when they are amongst fellow tribesmen.
For any problem to be solved the cause has to be checked, after much analysis I came up with a hypothesis. The Igbos are well known for their do dominance in the trade sector. Typically they travel a lot either to learn a trade from an already successful businessman or to start up a business. Igbos are scattered in every state, town, and city across Nigeria and the world at large. When they travel to a new place, they tend to adopt the English language as a means of communication. Over the years, they become permanent residents in the place, get married, and have children. While some learn the native language of their new homes, others just adopt English as a permanent means of communication. Children born during this migration know very little or in some cases nothing about the Igbo language and traditions. Sometimes these children pick up the native language of their place of birth and are more fluent in it than they will ever be in the Igbo language. The first language a child becomes fluent in will become the language that individual uses subconsciously to think and talk to oneself. It becomes the predominant language in their minds as well as the comfort zone for communication.
Languages only have a direct translation to objects and words that are relevant or always have been relevant as of the time the language was formed. For example "house" in Igbo is called "ulo" because people have always lived in houses or at least a place of habitat from the beginning of times and therefore has a need to be named but "wigs" are more recent items so it is yet to be given a name. Even English which is a wildly spoken language tends to update the vocabulary as uses and needs for such words emerge. For example, words like "safe space" and "mentionitis" were recently added to the dictionary, even local Nigerian words too made it to this year's update words like "mama put" and "k-leg". Every language needs timely updates but it seems these updates are rather slow when it comes to vernacular.
Teaching children their native language is as important as feeding them. Some people believe in the future, if the Igbo language is not taken seriously it will be lost and forgotten just like the lost artifacts and idols that went away with civilization.
Nice write up.
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