You Are “Dead” Without Your Language: Allaying the Fears That the Igbo Language Will Go into Extinction

Abstract

The introduction of the English language by the Colonial Masters as a facilitating agent of colonialism produced multifarious challenges to African vernacular languages. It not only dwarfed and dominated the local  languages but also introduced other variants of itself in a bid to have direct communication with Africans. Through its influence, the pidgin variety of  English and what some language scholars call Engli-Igbo (code-mixing)  emerged in Igbo language community. The effect of this is the steady  suppression, and deterioration of the Igbo language. The situation has  come to a height where Igbo leaders and elder statesmen express fears that the Igbo language would go into extinction within a foreseeable future. However, the previous efforts of late Mazi F.C. Ogbalu and his defunct  Society For the Promotion of Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC); the  present tremendous efforts of Prof. Pita Ejiofo and his “Otu Subakwa Igbo,” the renewed efforts of Anglican and Catholic Churches in using the Igbo language to conduct church services and singing competitions; the inclusion of Igbo language as a school subject in the West African School Certificate, General Certificate in Education and National Examinations Commission; the introduction of the Igbo language as a General Studies Course in tertiary institutions in the South-East States of Nigeria; the study of the Igbo language in universities to a doctoral degree level and the incentive of employing many graduates of Igbo language in schools and other  sectors, are enough prospects that the Igbo language will not go into  extinction in the foreseeable future, in spite of all odds.