INDIGENOUS IDENTITY

 




Dear Nigerians, 

Attn: Some Gen Z’s

Attn: Whitey Wannabes

Attn: Ethnic/Tribal Bigots

Attn: Relevant Leadership 

Attn: Concerned Readership


Learn to love your indigenous names.

Learn to appreciate your rich cultural heritage.

I know you may not be proud of your country.

But in spite of that, love your natural identity.

It’s in your best interest to know your identity.

Embracing one’s identity is a necessary part of one’s growth and authentic actualization.

Understand these two principles:

1. Language is a tool for communication.

2. Name is a means of identification.

You can speak any language or multiple languages.

You may learn to speak Latin, French, Chinese, Spanish, etc just as we all learnt to speak English.

But can you just answer a Chinese name if you’re born in Nigeria and have no sociocultural ties with the Chinese? 

Just think about it.

You may learn a little of other Nigerian languages, and you probably should for easier or enhanced social connection and national bonding.

The language you are able to speak is a useful tool to help you connect and communicate with those who speak the same language.

Speaking a language is the communicative capacity to use words, sounds or expressions in a particular learned language to pass your ideas, thoughts and feelings across to others.

However, the name you bear (which of course is also in a particular language) tells a lot more about who you are or where you are from (sociocultural identity) than the language you speak does.

Yes, especially your surname or family name.

Although, given our history and sociopolitical evolution as a country, we now also bear foreign names, mostly English names or the English derivatives of names in other foreign languages, the way we speak English as our lingua franca. 

Pas de problème. Not a problem. 

It’s all part of acculturation and globalization.

However, let’s just imagine this…

Imagine two fully Yoruba parents having a newborn baby and giving that child an Igbo, Efik, Hausa, Ijaw, Okirika, Urhobo, Tiv or Fulani name.

Or, imagine two fully Igbo parents naming all their children in Yourba, Ibibio, Kalabari, Ogoni or Kanuri.

That’s very uncommon and very unlikely to happen, except one of the parents or grandparents is from the ethnic group from where the name originates.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t answer foreign or English names. Oh no! Too late!

I’m saying don’t be ashamed of yours. 

Don’t intrinsically prefer others to yours.

Except of course there’s some strategic social or economic reason to use them preferentially above yours to your contextual and temporal advantage.

If we are to be honest, our collective psyche as a country has been conditioned to see disparities between other ethnicities in this same country.

Not our fault really, as we all grew up this way. 

It’s an age-long mental conditioning which seems to be the desired result of some social engineering application, allegedly and/or apparently.

(That’s story for another day by another person).

It is mentioned here because the relative lack of national prestige, unity, love for our indigenous identity and respect for our diversity may be traceable to it.

The simple subject for now however is our names.

The love we should have for our native names.

The shame and disdain we seem to have for them.

The perceived need to ‘funkify’ by anglicizing them.

The socioeconomic need to hide our ethnic identity from our fellow countrymen and citizens, possibly to avoid the inevitable consequences of ethnic discrimination or social prejudice.

Incredibly absurd.

What’s the reason for that? 

What’s the meaning of that?

Could it be identity crisis?

Are we yet to fully embrace our worth?

Are we yet to recover from the social trauma of the civil war, ethnic conflicts, communal feuds and other troubling events in our bedeviled history?

Have we been made to see less value in ourselves, our brothers, sisters and neighboring communities?

What’s the perceived social value or worth of a Nigerian citizen or the Nigerian identity?

Think about this; and you may come up with your own thoughts and perspectives.

Individual opinion notwithstanding, we can all agree that there’s ample room for improvement—both on a personal and on an institutional or national level.

I wish us speedy recovery of the good we lost.

Ndewo! E kpele! Sannu!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE ETHICAL BEAST

Image
A beast is an animal, especially a large or dangerous four-footed one. A wild animal. A beast is also a domestic animal, especially a bovine (meaning, relating to cattle) farm animal. Basic dictionary definitions. So, cattle are beasts.  A lion is a beast.  An eagle is a beast. A serpent is a beast.  Yes, a serpent. Let’s talk about that. Especially as Christ used it as some sort of behavioral reference and exemplar for us. He pointedly said: “Be wise as the serpent.” Oops!  “But,” He continued, “be harmless as the dove.” Okies! A serpent is a large snake. A snake, as studied and described by Science (Biology), is a reptile without limbs, voice, external ears, or eyelids, that has only one functional lung, and a long, slender body.  What are some evolutionary traits of the snake?  Stay with me. I know we don’t like snakes. But we are getting somewhere.  We’re learning something.  Snakes have a keen sense of smell, temperature and touch but genera...
Read more

PROPHETIC FINGERPRINTING

Image
  In my previous piece titled “ Psychological Fingerprinting ”, I wrote simplistically about an intuitive, simple-to-complex technique that can be employed to obtain covert feedback from unwilling, uncooperative, dishonest or compromised sources. The methodology or technology can also be applied to establish a hypothetical relationship between stealthily informed and communicating parties within a matrix or composite system. From my experience in Production Technology, a subset of Petroleum Engineering, there is a technique called “ Chemical Fingerprinting ” which is used to identify oil coming from a particular source in a commingled oil-producing system as well as other applications using chemical markers. In this short piece, I share how this amazing concept played out beautifully in the Scriptures. Read with me the account of John the beloved, an Apostle of Christ, as documented in his synoptic writings (chapter 19, verses 23 to 24): When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they ...
Read more

SUPPORT NOT SUPPLANT

Image
  Do we have genuine connections? I’ll give a quick definition of the word supplant. So I can dwell more on the concept of support. To supplant means to take the place of, to displace, to replace or to undermine.  To support is to be actively interested in and concerned for the success of a person or thing, for example: supporting a particular sports team. It also means to provide assistance to, or give approval, comfort, or encouragement to.  It is a product of goodwill and belief in someone or something.  Many of us support different football teams which we gladly and passionately refer to as “our teams”. Observe the enthusiasm, excitement and in some cases excessive zeal or fanaticism with which we promote, defend and celebrate people who do we not personally know, or an enterprise from which we may not even earn a single penny or cent—except for those who are into sports betting.  That’s the power of connection. That’s the power of camaraderie. That’s the po...
Read more