Colomental And Mother Language,the Missing Link

Colomental and Mother Language, the Missing Link
By Elder Yinka Salaam

When a music legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang Colomental, an acronym for colonial mentality of the black race 1974, little did our world realise that we ain't seen nothing yet!

One would have thought that the revolutionary stint and fervour of the song, couple with the radical posture of Fela himself will push Africans into self consciousness and cultural reawakening, but alas, we simply danced away the lessons under the powerful lyrics of the Kalakuta Republic beat.

If the educational or doctrinal significance of the Afrobeat legend does not move us to act and rediscover our cultural identity, the revelations during the recently observed International Mother Language Day is enough for anyone who hasn't completely lost his sense of self worth and the spirit of Pan Africanism to spring into action. Anything to the contrary will be a veritable confirmation of Fela's position that such person is truly suffering from colonial mentality.

The later generation went further to refer to whoever harbours the colonial hangout as a crazy person who 'dey colo' in Nigeria's local parlance. This was attested to by 'Kolomental', the lead single off Faze’s sophomore album, 'Independent', which was released in 2006 and went on to become one of the biggest hits of the following year,  2007.

"As the song title suggests, the banging track had a special frenzy to it and created a particular madness stirred up by the musical instrumentation of the song as well as Faze’s uniquely superb vocals.

Blind followership, colonial mentality and language loss

According to definitions from varying political scientists and sociologists, colonial mentality is the internalised attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by a people as a result of colonisation. It corresponds with the belief that the cultural values of the coloniser are inherently superior to one's own.

Postcolonial scholars commonly used the term as an operational concept for framing ideological domination in historical colonial experiences. In psychology, colonial mentality has been used to explain instances of 
collective depression, anxiety, and other widespread mental health issues in populations that have experienced colonisation.

Frantz Fanon perspective

In The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre), published in 1961, Fanon used psychiatry to analyse how French colonization and the carnage of the Algerian War had mentally affected Algerians' self-identity and mental health.

This means that the native Algerian came to view their own traditional culture and identity through the lens of colonial prejudice. Fanon observed that average Algerians internalised and then openly repeated remarks that were in line with the institutionalis dracist culture of the French colonizers; dismissing their own culture as backward due to the internalization of Western colonial ideologies.

According to Fanon this results in a destabilizing existential conflict within the colonized culture.

Unfortunately, many Nigerian parents, particularly the semi-literates and the unenlightened educated folks are unaware that they suffer from this imported but debilitating disease which has become intrinsic and somewhat pathological. Many see it as a thing of pride to make their child learn how to speak foreign language to the detriment of the primary language. They wickedly but Ignorantly deprived the children of their mother tongue and unwittingly rob them the deep appreciation of the mother language -  manifesting cultural defeatism and acute infestation of colonial mentality!

The link between Colomental and language loss

International Mother Language Day which was  celebrated on the 21st February to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. Since then, it is being celebrated every year.

Because of its significance, the theme of 2018 International Mother Language Day was 'linguistic diversity and multilingualism for sustainable development' enjoins the people of the world, to embrace our language and our culture because it is our pride. It calls us to embrace cultural identity and promote cultural diversity as against cultural defeatism.

But an average African has virtually lost every sense of pride and identity in his language, culture and self worth because of what the social scientists have come to recognise as inferiority complex oozing from colonial mentality.

Anniversary of International Mother Language Day

This year, UNESCO commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with its bold statement that ‘no discrimination can be made on the basis of language’, celebrating its translation into more than 500 languages.

According to UNESCO, "linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages  disappear. There are over 7,000 languages in the world, but one language disappears on average, every two weeks, taking with it the entire cultural and intellectual heritage. Hence, the institution of the International Mother Language Day to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and promote multilingualism."

In Bangladesh, it is in appreciation of this day, 21st February 1952, when several students were killed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, because of Bengali and Urdu language controversy; that the UN chose the day as International Mother Language Day. Bangladesh thus celebrate this day as Language Martyrs' Day or Martyrs' Day to honour the Bengali Language Movement of 1952 in which several students died for defending Bengali language for themselves and for the future generations. The day is observed as a public holiday since 1953.

Similar struggle was witnessed in South Africa during the  Soweto uprising of the morning of June 16, 1976 when about 700 school children were massacred in cold blood by the ruthless Apartheid regime for protesting against imposition of foreign language.

Black South African high school students in Soweto had protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50–50 mix as language. The law restricted indigenous languages to the teaching of religious instruction, music, and physical education  while English would be for the rest subjects.

It is estimated that 20,000 students took part in the protests but were met with fierce police brutality.

According to Census 2001, India alone has about 22 officially recognised languages, 1635 rationalised mother tongues and 234 identifiable mother tongues.

Similarly Nigeria reportedly has 371 tribes with over 520 languages spoken in Nigeria, but some major languages - Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Urhobo, Fulfulde, Ibibio, Edo, and Kanuri have most of the speakers in Nigerian states.

Nigerians and the language conundrum

But as progress is being made in mother tongue-based multilingual education in countries such as India and Bangladesh - with growing understanding of its importance, and with more commitment to its development in public life, particularly in early schooling - the reverse appears the case in a country like Nigeria and other African countries being savagely ravaged by colonial mentality and inferiority complex.

Language significance

In the context of this article, it is important to note that, languages are the most powerful ways to preserve and develop culture and to promote it all across the world. And that is why UNESCO strives to promote mother tongue-based multilingual education.

While the major languages are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba "Nigeria's linguistic diversity is a microcosm of much of Africa as a whole, and the country contains languages from the three major African languages families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger–Congo."

Are Nigerian languages going extinct?

Going by the statistics from UNESCO which states that "one language disappears on average, every two weeks, taking with it the entire cultural and intellectual heritage; it is predicted that Nigerian languages may be wiped out in the next 50 years with most of them already placed  "under the dangling axe of extinction!", except urgent corrective measures are taken.

As early as 2012, UNESCO had warned that the number of speakers of these indigenous languages is reducing daily, overwhelmed by the bulldozing influence of foreign languages, especially English and French.

Olugboyega Adebanjo, a lead translator at XML Language Services Limited (a language translation and preservation firm) said Nigerians still speak in tongues, but no more in their mother tongues.

Effects of globalisation and subtle conditioning

A paper presentation on a website: on: https://lagosmums.com/international-mother-language-day-nigerian-languages-going-into-extinction/  posited that, "due to globalisation and its after effects, many Yoruba adults and young ones detest their own language as if it is their common enemy, or a dreadful affliction that burdens them.

It further stated that, "Most educated Nigerians who are supposed to be the store house of their cultural heritage have reduced themselves to aliens in their own land – alien to their language, history and culture.

Is Your Mother Tongue Important To You?

"The attitude of many Yoruba adults towards their culture is poor. As a result, their children cannot utter one word in their mother tongue because they have not learnt to value their language. Nowadays, especially in homes of educated citizens, it is increasingly becoming the norm for children to have their first tongue in English - the language of Nigeria’s former colonisers.

"The trend of sending children to private primary and secondary schools where pupils are not taught in any of Nigeria’s languages, but in English, thus subtly conditioning the children to value foreign language above their mother tongue is another reason why Nigerian Languages are dying slowly.

"It is quite disturbing that in most schools, speaking your mother language during school hours is a punishable offence as it is ignorantly termed as vernacular.

"Like the Yoruba, the number of speakers of Igbo language is fast thinning down. Apart from the pressure imposed by pidgin, which is a popular medium of communication among the teeming masses, the use of English has forced many native speakers of Igbo to water down the essence of the language thr