AWAAL GATA was recently with Ibrahim Isyaku Bala, who writes
in an indigenous language, Nupe. He also writes biographies. Bala elucidated
the reasons why Nigeria’s languages are dying and how they are to be revived.
Tell me about you
There is nothing much about me. I am Ibrahim Isyaku Bala. I
studied Business Administration, and now I have completed my MBA. Beside my
parley with profession as a business administrator, I love the arts, thus I am
writing. I do indigenous writing and biographies.
How many books do you have on the
bookstand?
I have two; biography of Governor Babangida Aliyu and
Eganmaganzhi Nupe, a book of Nupe proverbs. I have many other works am working
on. Biographies and Nupe books.
Why are you into indigenous writing?
In Nigeria, our indigenous languages are dying, because of
our embrace of English Language. If a language dies, that is the death of a
very substantial part of its culture. And as it is known, there will no be a
perfect society if the society does not embrace its culture. In Nigeria, our
dalliance with alien culture is part of our problems. For example, this Boko
Haram problem, it is spawned by our emulation of Arabian culture. It is not
African for a man to bomb himself. If Arabians are bombing themselves, probably
it is because they are being attacked by American, but here, who is attacking
us? It is just our over emulation of alien culture that is part of our national
problem. So, as I am out as an indigenous writer to revive our dying culture
through writing in Nupe Language. If I had power to do it in other tribes I
would have done it, but I don’t have. Other writers have to write in their
languages.
What has been the reception given to
your book of Nupe proverbs?
It has been well received. In fact, till date people still
contact me for copies. During the book launch, I sold very well. And the
launchers were generous. Upon all these successes I still have not sold copies
as I ought to because of the book distribution problem that is prevalent in
Nigeria. In Nigeria a writer is to write, publish and distribute. It ought not
to be like that. There should be big publishers who do the publishing on the
bases of royalty, so that a writer’s work should solidly be writing. The
publishers ought to have a method of distributing the books to the whole world.
It is not so in Nigeria. I know it is not bigger than what Nigeria can do; we
have seen it happen in many smaller countries.
What is the position of indigenous
writing in Nigeria?
Our government has not understood that its neglect of some
indigenous languages is a huge problem militating against our national
development. Our laws have not helped matters too. It is a total injustice for
three languages to be adopted as the only national languages in the country where
countless languages exist. Yes, the languages are countless. Anybody that says
Nigeria is a country of about three hundred languages did not conduct a
full-fledged empirical research. Nobody can even do that. Nigeria is vast to
the extent that some of its people are not known to be existing. Government has
totally neglected the indigenous languages. In schools, at times they teach
three, which are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. What about the people that are not
Hausa Yoruba or Igbo? It ought to be, if I am Gwari, I should be taught Gwari,
if I am Nupe I should be taught Nupe, if I am Yoruba, I should be taught Yoruba
and that should happen to all languages. I am not a Hausa man. I was taught
Hausa in school, yes, it could be good, but that is not me, and it is a
problem. The fate of indigenous languages in Nigeria is shouldered by
individual writers, who are helpless themselves.
How can the problems be solved?
If bold steps are not taken, I assure you many of our
indigenous languages will die. UNESCO has even reported that about ten Nigerian
languages could die before the next decade. The report, to me is correct
because many of our children these days don’t know how to speak their mother
tongues. For the problem to be solved, Centre for Indigenous Languages must be
established in our universities and a student compulsorily studies two to four
indigenous languages, his mother’s tongue included. There is also the need for
the establishment of independent Indigenous Language Research Institute, where
researches will be made on indigenous languages, especially the dying ones. It
is just the people that don’t know, these indigenous languages could be
attractive to tourists. Government can, through Indigenous Languages Research
Institute, collects the proverbs and idioms of each of the over three hundred
languages in Nigeria do a separate book for each of the languages, and foreign
researches and tourists must look for them. Is that not a source of revenue?
Again, writers writing in indigenous languages should be given platforms as
given to the ones writing in English. Magana Jari Ce and Ruwan Bagaja are two
classic Hausa novels. They were very popular; every reader in those days loved
them. I don’t know why the contemporary ones don’t attend that feat. But it all
rest on the afore-mentioned problems.
Your book of proverbs; are the
proverbs from your brain?
They are not from my brain. I would rather call it a
collection of the proverbs that are used by the Nupe people. You see, children
don’t like speaking their mothers’ tongues again, they don’t even know of the
proverbs, so I decided to do a compilation so that they will not totally go out
of existence. Making the compilation took a lot of time. But I was doing it
gradually. I was doing a sort of empirical research; asking the old people. I
would go to the naming or wedding ceremonies with my pen and paper and jot down
when the invited minstrel spoke a proverb. Nupe minstrels are custodians of
proverbs because minstrelsy behooves them to do that. Old people have versatility
in it too. I think that is because in the past people used to talk more in
ironies.
How rich is Nupe language?
Very rich. Just because of its originality I will say it is
very rich. Ninety-eight percent of Nupe words are not borrowed. Unlike Hausa
that about fifty percent of its words are not original. Hausa has borrowed too
many words from Arabic. Nupe also has excellent tonal patterns.
Does Nupe writing presently in
existence? What is the situation now?
Nupe writing started in 1864 by Reverend Ajayi Crowther. He
wrote The Vocabulary and Grammar of Nupe Language in Roman Autography. After
him, a few others like Muson and S.F. Nadal have written in Nupe. Right now I
don’t think there is any writer writing in Nupe like I am doing.
What are you working on now?
I am working on a Nupe novella - Cincin-Guta and Ecingi Mi à kya.
Blueprint newspaper vol. 129
Friday, February 17, 2012
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