Nigeria, English Language & Anglo-Saxon Geopolitics

Introduction

One of the remnants of colonialism is the language(s) of the violent, rapist & civilisation-stripping colonialists. This is the case for Nigeria. It is the case of this article that beyond the ordinary, Nigeria is not just a vassal or client to London & Washington DC by other metrics but also in English Language; the so-called official language. It is the contention of the piece that the adoption of English Language by post-independence Nigeria to the total neglect of national languages truly diminishes her in the Anglo capitals and in their geopolitics. Something most Nigerians don’t want to confront.

BeforeThey came..

No one has successful disputed the fact that many nations and peoples of Nigeria before colonialism interacted significantly which involved among other things in communication beyond sign language and barter. Neighbours traded, intermarried, and exchanged and fought wars not out of mere simplistic reasons but from a complexity of dimensions that represent their core interests. It will be the most expression of ignorance to suggest that Ndigbo had limited contact with the Ekik, Nupe, Tiv, Yoruba, Jukun, Birom and others before imperial Britain arrived the scene with industrial violent rage to dominate.  (Read Political Organization in Nigeria Since the Late Stone Age by John N Oriji). There are books on these issues if anyone is sincere to confront them.  This fact speaks volumes despite imposed Berlin Conference boundaries.  In summary the nations & peoples of Nigeria are neighbours from time immemorial and interacted for ever since. (Read A History of West Africa 1000 – 1800 by Basil Davidson).

They conquered

Empire building based on conquest of other peoples, their land and resources is usually pursued on a strategically limited budget. As a business it is pursued to maximise opportunities mostly economic, and at this point difference vanishes between British, French, US & Russian colonialism. Yes, Russia (Empire) was a colonial power. (Read End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalisation by Dmitri Trenin). So whole mission civilisatrice project was and remains a business venture were human beings (civilisations) were simple pawns in geopolitical struggles. The tools of conquest were industrial violence first to pacify and then cultural diminution including new religions and new educational strategies. 

I have stated in previous writing that the imperialists can only extract their profit by creating new men and new women whose unalloyed allegiance is committed to the metropolitan capital. Lord Lugard simply applied the template in Nigeria with total disregard to religious denominations to achieve his goal. If the British were so religiously unique, why did they allow the Catholic Church space to operate? Has London totally reconciled with Vatican/Catholic Church on their cultural/geopolitical differences? Well, destruction of civilisation and imposition of new cultures including new language is there to create new elite and English Language did and still does this job. Many (or most) Nigerians exposed to the new culture either have no command of their national languages or totally disdain them for a variety of reasons/justifications which you can put down to elegant stupidity.

So they Left or Did they?

What is complex to appreciate is the short duration it took the British to build and muster their Nigeria. From the late 18^th century the empire was already on the back foot with the emergence of Germany in 1871 in her defeat of France.  United Germany as an ascending power sought a finger in the African pie though Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was shrewd enough to play safe but his successors pushed the cart which led to 1914 – 1918 maximum slaughter of Europeans called World War 1. If European power elites can sacrifice their own on industrial scale, who are Africans? With such pyrrhic victory repeated between 1939 - 1945, London was caught between maintaining the balance of a weak metropole and holding a fragile empire together.  The speed of training new elites in Nigeria especially in the south was accelerated including their command of English and brainwashing their inferiority moved apace. 

English Language as a medium of expression was imposed on Nigeria with impunity and the purported demand by some power brokers for English during British rule is quixotic as offered by Chinua Achebe’s position.  In The Education of a British-Protected Child, Achebe concluded that proliferation of English Language in colonial Nigeria was driven by demand of indigenes.  This view is as banal as it is contextual distortion although in his 1999 Odenigbo Lecture he struck a Damascene progressive tone vis-a-vis Igbo Language. In the colonial/geopolitical enterprise English Language was/is a tool of domination, violent repression and civilisation stripping associated with imperialism. Not equality!

So we are one?

For those who have had the benefit of doing few hours in a Boeing or Airbus product or even used Information Technology, you are condemned to the baloney view of English language as global language. Or is it? Despite the political undercurrents which appear on the surface as uniting, English Language is not an instrument of (Nigeria/Africa) unity among those that logged in their statutes as official language. At least Nigeria or other African countries with English as official language have little or nothing in common with United States and United Kingdom. For all the noise of those who club me incessantly with their Queen’s English skills or rolling New England accent, sadly London & Washington DC as matter of policy are clear that Nigeria/Nigerians do not speak English or have it as official language.  

They consider Nigerians and other Africans bar Liberia for Washington DC as non-English speaking.  Try applying for UK citizenship and you are reminded that no African country speaks English while their members in the Caribbean are positive. Then you ask yourself what is Nigeria doing in Commonwealth? 

Before you digress into the ugly corner of rejection, it is clear that any young Nigerian seeking graduate studies opportunity in either US or UK will confront requirements to prove their knowledge of English via ILETS, GRE or GMAT.  This is the same requirement for Saudi Arabians, Chinese, Italians, Germans, Japanese and the whole humanity whose official languages have no space for English Language. When prospective candidates apply for these humiliating tests, their consciousnesses are removed from the humiliating and discriminatory objectives. Still they’ll continue claiming affinity with those who reject their essence.  They have been culturally ‘killed’ and ‘buried’ to notice anything wrong with such demands. Even their worldviews seem to converge incorrigibly with Anglo constructions propagated by BBC, CNN, NBC and ABC. So much for global English!

My Tongue is Stupid and Shameful

Within both cultural and political spaces, Anglo geopolitics ups the ante for those who do not question their existence especially those members of Nigerian power elite running around as underlings of London & Washington DC (consensus).  With limited appreciation of their ontology they migrate their stupidity to public policy which reduces rich linguistic heritage to just 3 languages.  Can you imagine geography like Nigeria allocating all the peoples and nations to Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa? Can you imagine the insult and abuse of eliminating nations from their true linguistic ontology by fiat of elitist imbelicility? 

To add salt to injury at state and local levels, no encouragement is given to the same majority language while the minorities are banished to oblivion because ‘English hold things and people together’. Even those gunning for linguistic revival in the name of religious institutions like Igboland Catholic Church blow hot & cold on preferred language with cosmetic aplomb. Just for the show they refuse to denote their processes in the same languages they claim in God’s name to protect.

Just attempt to travel around Europe by car or train and you suddenly confront linguistic & babelic independence every few 10s of kilometres. Even where the languages are on death row like Ireland and Wales. Less than 10% of the Irish (Republic) people speak, read or write Irish it nevertheless road signs bear them, public records have them in all documents and resources are committed to preserving it. Now with liberalisation of telecommunication technology, a flick of channels releases numerous programmes/content in Babel of languages.

Conclusion

Nigeria and other African countries should shake off their imperial blindness to recover and reinstate our languages in public spaces and for public communication. The current wars are fought viciously on the cultural fronts with heavy ‘equipments’ and serious casualties. There should be African languages in primary schools, high schools and in the university language departments’ not European languages.  

True ontology is realising and understanding one’s origin, heritage and essence and living it in interdependence with others without being overthrown and stripped into oblivion.  Nigeria’s core and strategic interests should be constructed formidably on sound footing rather than on obnoxious & retarded proxies of assumed utilisations of English linguistic variations. Abuja, London and Washington DC are not fellow travellers, rather the latter see the former as a client, servant and inferior.