By Charles Mgbolu
Language is a community's lifeblood, a medium through which knowledge, traditions and homegrown wisdom are handed down from generation to generation, ensuring continuity and survival.
A compelling illustration of this concept can be found in the Canadian director Denis Villeneuve's 2016 sci-fi film Arrival, a saga of how humanity's survival hinges on understanding the language of an extraterrestrial species.
Linguist Louise Banks, the film's protagonist, has the arduous task of deciphering what the aliens say. As she sifts through the layers of sounds and syllables that seemingly constitute their language, she unravels a new world, learning to perceive time like the aliens do.
Louise's understanding proves crucial in averting a global catastrophe. But that's a fiction.
In reality, entire communities are known to have vanished simply because their languages were allowed to die. Geez, Gafat, Memes, Vazimba, Kw'adza, and Ngasa — all mainly from East Africa — now exist only in the chronicles of language.
Some languages have been classified by UNESCO as "threatened", suggesting that these may cease to exist without urgent intervention.
In 2006, UNESCO flagged Igbo, which is spoken by over 20 million people in eastern Nigeria, as an "endangered" language.
The classification led to a scramble among scholars, media, and intellectuals to join the effort to save the language from extinction. Nearly 18 years on, Igbo speakers like Nigerian content creator Oluchi Akachukwu still worry that the threat may not be over.
Identities overlap
"I feel some among our generation associate sophistication with forgetting who they are, including giving up on their language," Oluchi tells TRT Afrika.
The content creator has been doing her bit for four years, using social media to teach children Igbo.
It all began in 2020, soon after Oluchi had her second child. Her firstborn spoke English and could count to 100 in French.
"I remember watching him interact in these languages, and I would always ask myself, 'How is it that my child cannot converse in his indigenous tongue?' That got me worried," she admits.
Then inspiration struck. "I decided to teach not just my child Igbo, but reach out to every indigenous kid through YouTube videos and other social media platforms," recounts Oluchi.
A solitary battle
It was a daunting task. Oluchi pulled together all her savings from her small business and approached an animator. "The first animation I did was the English nursery rhyme, 'Old McDonald had a farm', in Igbo. It was released in February 2021."
Oluchi struggles to hold her emotions as she describes the rush of feelings she felt on watching her children stare fixedly at the animated video after it was released. "I was so happy. I created this, and it was special to me that my kids enjoyed the video. It inspired me to want to do more," she says.
Oluchi's campaign puts into perspective the existential threat confronting many indigenous languages on the African continent and beyond.
Steady erosion
Less than a decade ago, around 7,000 natively spoken languages existed worldwide. Most of these are minor languages in danger of extinction.
Ethnologue, an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the world's living languages, recorded 7,358 of them in 2001.
By May 20, 2015, just about 7,102 known living languages existed. On February 23, 2016, Ethnologue reported 7,097.
Linguists warn of what they call the "gradual language death" syndrome, which is the most common way that languages die.
"Gradual language death happens when people speaking that language interact with speakers of a language that they presume has a higher prestige. This group of people first becomes bilingual, then with newer generations, the level of proficiency decreases, and finally, no native speakers exist," explains Dr Nnabuife, an associate professor of Igbo language at the University of Lagos.
Migration factor
To make matters worse, the last few years have seen a new wave of millions of young African migrants leave the continent's shores in search of greener pastures abroad. According to the International Migration Organisation, about 40.6 million African migrants live in Europe.
"I am afraid many of them will grow to have their own families, with their children unable to speak their native tongue," laments Oluchi.
Her efforts on social media may be like a drop in the ocean, but she is certainly making an impact.
Young learners on her YouTube platform have been steadily growing, with her channel "Kpakpando" (star) currently having over 5,000 subscribers and 900,000-odd views.
"It has been growing organically," says Oluchi. "I am grateful for the opportunity to impact the lives of the children I have managed to reach."
She aspires to make 3D videos, but finding the resources is challenging. "I recently got a quotation of $1,500 (1.7 million naira) to mint one of my characters for 3D. Then I asked myself, 'Where do I get that kind of money?' It's prohibitively expensive to do what I want to."
But Oluchi remains undeterred. She hopes that every child who grows up learning to speak Igbo after watching her videos will give her effort new meaning.
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