Why Your Igbo No done?

“Are you from Anambra State? Your Igbo sounds like you’re from Anambra.”
“Are you from Mbaise or Obi-ngwa? What you said just now sounded like either Mbaise or Ngwa.”
“Why your Igbo no done?”
“You’re from Yoruba abi? What part of Yoruba are you from?”
“You look like Edo”
Over the years, I have heard all sorts as regards my ethnicity .
If I got a thousand naira each time I heard “you look Yoruba…” I’ll be pretty rich by now!
But that’s not even really my issue. I like that people can hardly tell where I’m from by merely looking at me.
A few days ago, at a bank, a man saw me and just started speaking Yoruba to me. I just smiled. I could understand what he was saying. Thankfully, I only needed to reply “beeni sir” and “Ese sir” before I walked away.
I better get to the point.
Of all the comments and questions I’ve gotten surrounding my ethnicity, I’d say the one that I really find weird is “why your Igbo never done?”
The very first time I heard it, I was irritated. What did the young man mean by that? In my opinion, I speak pretty good Igbo. Well, considering that there are several variations in the name of dialect… So why would he tell me my Igbo was not “cooked?” It took me quite some time but I finally got it. I had to understand why actually, because once in a while, I still hear that.
By virtue of my state of origin, I’m Igbo, by my looks, I’m Yoruba and then based on where I was born and raised, I’m a proper northerner; A Hausa lady. I speak Hausa fluently, maybe even more than Igbo. I pretty much have a Hausa accent. And finally, I realized that was why my Igbo never sounded “cooked” to people who didn’t appreciate my background. I can’t magically possess the Igbo accent when I was never raised in the Eastern part of Nigeria. Neither of my parents have any of the “factors” common to Igbo people so there’s hardly anything in me that screams “Igbo!!!”
The last person to ask me why my Igbo is not “cooked” was a trader in the market and it made me wonder. Why don’t you just accept that I can speak the language with you? We communicate at least. So if you can understand what I’m saying, why must you make a big deal of how my language sounds?
I’m going off on this rant because I’m tired of people making an issue out of something that should be nothing. We keep complaining about how bad Nigeria is and how we aren’t united as a country yet every opportunity we get, we throw in ethnic sentiments. What’s even worse is that even when we get into our “zones” we still discriminate. We have several variations of Igbo people as well as several variations of Yoruba people. The northerners aren’t even left out. So even in our zones, we’re still pretty much divided.
Another issue I feel we desperately need to address is our reaction to young Nigerians who were raised abroad but finally decided to return home. Whether on vacation on permanent residence, these people nearly always encounter the ethnocentric issue. For most who were raised abroad, people have an issue with their accent. How is it their fault that they were raised outside the country and you weren’t? And then the “elders” from the village and probably some young ones too tease them endlessly and often time insult and humiliate them when they discover they cannot speak their local dialects. As much as I’m not against them learning to speak the language, I’ve got to ask, what’s the big deal about it?
I think for some, it’s knowing that those who have been raised abroad seem to be naturally ahead and so they hinge on their knowledge of local language to give them an edge over those who have been in obodo oyibo. My question is, what has your knowledge of your local dialect done for you? Again, I must say, I do not in any way intend to undermine our cultural values especially where the Nigerian languages are concerned. I’m simply saying we should not focus our attention on all the wrong things. That someone cannot speak a language does not mean they do not know how to communicate and I think that at the end of the day, communication is what is most important as far as languages go. If I can understand you and you can understand me then don’t worry about the how of it.
Oh well, end of rant and here’s the conclusion I’ve come to.
Feel free to worry about where I’m from, but it won’t tell you anything about who I am or what I can do.
Feel free to worry about how “done” my Igbo is, but it won’t tell you anything about my communication skills.
A lot of people tend to trivialize the most important things, foregoing them for the very insignificant stuff. We carry our ethnicity on our heads in Nigeria with so much pride as though somehow our States of Origin define who we really are. And then we get upset when people stereotype us especially with the negative stuff. If you missed my rant on the danger of stereotyping, check here. It was a very interesting rant.
So here’s my point for today. It’s essentially for us Nigerians. I know ethnocentrism is deeply etched in most of us, but make a conscious effort to rid yourself of it. We hardly make balanced and rational judgments/decisions when our reason is clouded by ethnic or tribal sentiments. Respect people for what they can do and not for the language they can speak.
Yours always,
Yougeecash