Are there Ibibio, Efik, Oron (sorry about exclusion from title), and Ànnang folks here interested in making a community to save our heritage.
I am an Ibibio man born and raised obio mbakara (essentially outside of Naija) and I am currently learning Ibibio and it is excruciatingly hard to find the resources to do so. My parents never taught me and I think I know why:
- Illogical sense of "trying to protect me from being ostracized"
- Inferiority complex due to post-colonization, being a minority ethnic group in Naija, and existing unspoken effect of Biafara on minority ethnic groups
It's very sad and my language is considered endangered. I don't want it to die out. Can we make something happen? I even hear in some corners of TikTok that Igbo and Yoruba are endangered??? The same Yoruba and Igbo from the people who have it in institution, in media, and occupy political positions of power??? I know it may be true in the sense of some dialects or the kids of Naija people abroad who never was taught the language but my point is how much worse will it be for the other miniority ethnic groups.
I am proud of my Ibibio heritage and even though we aren't the big 3, there is nothing minor about us at all. Nigeria has produced incredible people from various ethnic groups, which includes the Ibibio. I mention Efik, Oron, and Ànnang because I understand that they are mutually intelligable.
Please, make we form community for here. Push for TRUE proper Ibibio standarization, push for translation services, our own Ibibio Wikipedia page, etc. I know it is easier said than done because I am abroad. I have acknowledge my privileges and understand I am not truly impacted by the real effects of the colonial past and other historical effects that still plague Naija. However, I want a change for the better yak itañ iko usem nnyin (let's speak our language.)
I have a very soft spot when it comes to endangered languages given the colonial pasts. I hope you find a large enough community OP. Shoutout the Ibibio, Efik, Oron and Anaang 💚
One Naija love
Thank you my friend. Much love to the Edo people of Naija 💚. I believe we can do it if WE all come together. It's doable, it really is, that's why I am pushing sooo hard!
I totally agree. I’ll do my part in spreading the word amongst my peers. So many people speak languages that are not of their father’s tribe so it even helps if people like myself even learn to keep the traditions alive. If we’re really deep about it, many tribes have mixed and intermingled over time and it continues today so I’m all for continuing these type of amazing legacies. Keep doing your thing! Love the initiative!
My friend, I greatly appreciate you!
There is an app called Diversio that teaches Ẹ̀dó a bit.
This is exactly what I need and it's crazy that I'm also ibibio but can't speak the language, I can understand to some extent when it's spoken to me but that's it. I've tried to learn but there's no resource what so ever. I'd be nice if I could learn the language cause I want to. I can count how many times I've been to akwa ibom on one hand (spent most of my life in Lagos and abroad).
Ayin-eka mmi, yak ika (My sibling, let's go.) I am new to Reddit (I barely acquainted with this website) and I already made a r/Ibibio but I am thinking of rebranding it to r/AkwaCross or something along that nature. I can speak partially and understand to some extent too as well but for me, that's not good enough. I want to hopefully have Ibibio and Efik content on the rebranded r/AkwaCross and eventually Annang and Oron (mainly because I don't know any Annang and Oron people.) This is insanely ambitious but again, I know there are people out there to make this work!
It'd be insanely ambitious like you said but it's fine. I've already joined the community, if you need help with anything just let me know. I'm excited to learn the language and more. Sosongo (thank you) 🙏🏾
Yes!!! I hope you find more resources and learn how to speak fluently. We can all appreciate each others culture and language without diluting who we are. I am trying to learn Igbo too as my father could not teach me “academic” Igbo, which he never learned, and felt weird about. There isn’t a competition, we all make up the beautiful fabric of Nigeria/ Nigerian diaspora without losing our core languages and cultures. Good luck!!!
You have to understand that standard Igbo (Which I assume you're referring to as "Academic Igbo") is an amalgamation of Igbo dialects from Onitsha and Orlu (Imo State) No one actually speaks it. You learn and use it in school or mass media and that's it.
Considering that your father probably left secondary school decades ago, it's not surprising that he can't teach it to you. He can teach you the dialect he speaks though. Most Igbos speak Central Igbo. But even non-central dialects are mutually intelligible (with a few exceptions like dialects spoken in Ebonyi, parts of the South South and North Central)
Oh to be honest, his issue was he could only and read or write in English. I never cared what type of Igbo he taught me, but he had an insecurity about it when I asked him about some words and phrases when I was a small child. I am grown now so I need to take personal responsibility and learn on my own, which I am trying now.
Goodluck in your journey and if you need help, don't hesitate to reach out to me.
Btw, there was a WhatsApp group created on reddit a while ago to help people who want to learn Igbo. https://chat.whatsapp.com/Dt9QASfSMdU2SGbIfjmrh5
Thank you my Igbo sister. You truly understood what I meant. There are resources for Ibibio online but not as many. It's cool because even in my research for Ibibio language and heritage, it seems we are distantly/somewhat related to Igbo (or certain groups of) people sharing a few similarities in maybe language or culture practice (likely due to proximity.) Good luck on your Igbo learning journey.
I'm(31m) Obibio. I lived and schooled in Cross River for a bit. My mum is Annang.
I've also recently been thinking of a way to document the language. I'm working and learning German now so I kind of understand what having easy access to learning resources can do for the process. Since I'm in IT and with the productivity of AI, I thought of starting an app/website that allows reading and translating the language with human feedback to challenge correctness. Unfortunately my schedule these days are so tight that I can't even commit to anything outside.
If you ever start anything (groups et al) and wanna add someone else as an extra pair of eyes, I'd be up to spare some few hours a week. But definitely not steering the ship.
All the best
This is amazing. I would greatly appreciate it. There is a lot of things I would love to discuss via chat! In the meantime I have r/Ibibio (this might be rebranded to AkwaCross in general and/or be rebranded to AkwaCross with sections for Ibibio, Annang, Efik, Oron, etc.)
Great to hear. I've joined the sub Reddits.
Also forgot to mention that I can fluently Speak and sometimes read Ibibio . My writing is non existent tho.
I also recently moved from Nigeria, 3 years ago, so it'd be nice to have an online community to practice. Feel free to message me and we can connect
Not any of them but I watched videos on the languages and they sound sooo beautiful
Reach out to a linguist online. They may have resources because linguists love saving languages. Source: studied linguistics in college. Also, don’t know how you feel about AI but if you can feed a chatbot with enough language resources, books, etc it can “learn” the language and teach it too. Food for thought.
Thanks!
honestly, non-wazobia Nigerians deserve more recognition!
Yes o. No be competition. Just recognition !
Honestly, as a Yorùbá person, resources were hard to find for Yorùbá and I had to learn through recordings because most resources think that all tonal languages are the same and need to pronounce tones the same way.
Wrong! The fact is that even if resources for Ibibio are avaliable, they will be very poor due to people not caring(I was lucky to find a group that distributed resources for African languages).
An Ibibio wikipedia would help, but I feel like what would help would be to get fluent Ibibio speakers who can subtitle foreign content(or even local content) into Ibibio. Because a lot of people learn better when it is fun and engaging.
Truth is, all Nigerian languages(Apart from Hausa and maybe Fulani) are all in danger, but some are more endangered than others unfortunately, like Ibibio and Ẹ̀dó.
There was someone who posted videos here a while ago subtitling popular anime and shows into Ibibio/Efik, and it was pretty neat.
Thank you. I know which channel you are talking about and it only does Efik subtitle. Efik was selected as the language to be developed during colonial times and serve what is deemed as the Efik-Ibibio language cluster; Efik and Ibibio are like American and British English, similar but distinct.
I have to say, I love what you’re doing here with this subreddit. I always pride myself in being Annag, Efik and Ibibio. It’s sad to see our culture and languages fade, but as long as it’s still being spoken there is hope for its survival!! I understand ibibio and Annang almost perfectly and can speak for the most part, I can’t write for shit lol but I would definitely like to learn.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could find a way to contribute to the subreddit.
How will we ever become a nation like this? I have no hatred against OP and it is perfectly reasonable to want to preserve your ethnic language the issue is though in an ideal world his ethnicity would've been big enough and occupied enough land to have it's own nation or simply it would've been a relic of the past.
Nigeria will never move towards operating under one culture and language within our lifetime even though it's quite literally necessary for economic develolment
Boss, what does that first question have to do with my post? I just want my language to be preserved. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic country and has never operated under one culture or language. Maybe I am missing your point here.
I'm just blabbering but maybe some people will resonate with my message here.
You have complete rights to preserve your language don't think i'm saying the opposite
It's just sneaking suspicion of a insinuation that I want to rewrite Nigerian history (Ex. Big 3 Ethnic Groups of Ibibio, Yoruba, and Hausa instead of Igbo.) We don't need to be the biggest, most flamboyant, and most well-known. We just need to perserve what we have (ex. language and culture) in Nigeria and abroad. The Intenet Age is the way to do so. This message really extends to every ethnic group in Naija. Other than that, thanks for your comment.
You misunderstood my comment
I'm saying Nigeria would've been better of with a single dominant culture and ethnic group like Botswana rather than being diverse
Okay, I now understand. But...colonization had other plans. We have the cards we have been dealt: A bunch of different groups of people tossed into a country and made as one. Again, I feel like I can only speak so much on Nigeria as an outsider looking in but I truly believe its diversity is it's strong point. I understand the potential existing tribalism, colonial past, wars, etc. and I can even accept that maybe the young people of Nigeria who are changing the game may still carry these generational traumas/bias/notions, but I believe Nigeria can still thrive being multicultural. Solutions/Methods to make that work: I don't know. I geniunely want what's best for my entire country and my heritage as well.
This is a terrible analogy at the very least. Botswana has less than 3 million people, of course can’t be as diverse.
China has 1.4 Billion people 90% are Han Chinese.
I only brought up Botswana because it is a homogenous sub-saharan african nation state, but that went over your heard because you're of the same intelligence as the Nigerian leaders you scorn everyday.
You know that's still an option but for several Nigeria not one. South West is Yoruba. North West is Hausa, South East is Igbo, Bornu and Yobe are Kanembu.
The rest can sort themselves how they want, later.
None of these people even meet the cultural threshold of being able to maintain a crimeless non-chaotic society. if they were given their own states it would just resemble all other 50 Failed Subsaharan states.
I don't believe in preserving or upholding traditions or cultures that don't benefit africans today nor did it benefit them 200 years ago.
Eh, 3 out of four of those will have stats better than Nigeria. So we'll move from having states like per capita, infant mortality, unemployment rate, life expentancy at lowest or second lowest in the region to comparable to Ghana.
And this would will be doable without sacrificing economic resilience to shocks for at least the two southern regions.
"comparable to Ghana"
Do I even need to explain the implications of what you said 😭
Separatism or civil war, which one?.
I'd rather Nigeria separate tbh
"One culture and language" is so weird
How so?
Again, when has Nigeria ever been under one culture and one language? I would like to be informed because English is the official language and the three dominant tribes have their languages recognized as the national languages. English is the official language (ofc) and then we have Naija Pidgin.
Anyways, how can we separate after everything the country has been through as one. I am of the belief nobody has Africa's (as a whole) best interest at heart and the idea of fragmentation could have so many bad consequences. I know the common people of Nigeria already has many many issues as a whole so maybe it's a matter of which is better: United as one or the Separated Many?
Support Guosa, then.
Probably not Yoruba but definitely Igbo. While Igbo still has a lot of speakers it's line of transmission is getting cut. How many Igbo children can actually speak Igbo exclusively without sprinkling in English here and there.
That's why it is endangered.
I tend to see the same thing! It’s truly shocking.
building a language community starts small, an online group helps. I suggest Transync AI could make transcription and translation easier.
Only Afrikaans and Swahili are supported
Nice one.
I'm Fulani, but when I was dating my ex wife I started trying to learn Ibibio so we could pass it along to the kids. The lack of learning resources was frankly astounding for how many Ibibio people actually exist.
In any case, even though the marriage ended, we still have a daughter together, and I should still continue trying to learn, if only for her sake
It would be an even bleaker future if we were a small small amount and I have no doubt that languages in Nigeria have and are currently going extinct. There are a significant amount of us…circumstances are unfortunate but I’m still going to try. If it’s all for naught and my language vanishes/assimilates/etc., I would hope I at least tried and made a significant impact.
Please can you explain what you mean by this because I don't understand.
This is a very sensitive topic so I will preface this by saying I don’t have no animosity to Igbo people or even Yoruba and Hausa and I’m stating facts I found out when researching Biafara. This will also be very long
Every time I hear Biafara the only group that is mentioned is Igbo people. I mean rightfully so, they are the minority of the big 3 and endured a lot of discrimination and a lot of unspoken crimes against humanity. This why I’ve seen so much Igbo pride. They carry that pride o. As a kid growing up watching and hearing them to now, I never knew why but I have no doubt it ties back to Biafara.
However, what constituted the Biafara region wasn’t just the IGBO! Ibibio, Efik, Ijaw, Ogoni, and others were involved and unfortunately HURT by both the Biafara and Nigerian army trying to bring to prevent Biafara from being independent. Dawg, when I tell you nobody talks about them I mean nobody…and when I say minority groups were hurt..I mean unspeakable crimes…irreversible damage.
My personal opinion (sure conspiracy don’t hurt me) is there is some sort of heavy revisionism of Naija history, a sort of narrative that better not be tempered with, and/or a blatant disregard for these particular minorities ethnic groups.
I see things like how there hasn’t been a proper census for Nigeria in forever and how important demographics can be and how DANGEROUS it can be if it’s purposely being withhold by those in power to suit themselves and their ethnic groups interest. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. Someone respectfully dispute with me!
I get you now and I agree it's a sensitive topic which I also tend to shy away from.
I actually agree with you and that is my major problem with the new Biafran independence groups - They focus too much on the Igbo part and ignore the rest of the minorities. Tbf, some of it is not their fault for these reasons -
Part of the trigger for the independence of Biafra (other than the Pogrom of 1966) is the creation of South-South region by Gowon which had the effect of painting it as an Igbo project, separating SE from the oil-rich SS and keeping it mostly landlocked. For that reason, the average Nigerian today believes SE is the only Igbo land, a narrative as you noted, the Government isn't interested in challenging because it benefits them.
As Biafra got smaller and smaller, eventually only consisting of just parts of the SE, their propaganda moved away from broad regional sentiments to Igbo nationalistic ones in other to maintain morale. I would say it was understandable at that time but it did long term damage to the cause as Biafran independence groups today still maintain the same rhetoric and the attitude it breeds.
The loss of the SS to Federal forces and the repression that came with it led to many people understandably denying Biafra, accusing them of all the crimes that FG committed and claiming that the whole thing was forced on them by the "Igbos" or worse: "due to Ojukwu's ego" Of course, a study of history (which I'm sure you have done) will reveal that those who committed the pogrom did not distinguish between Igbos and other groups. That the desire for seccession was not just unanimous among all the leaders of the Biafran regions but they essentially forced Ojukwu into it. As I often tell people: Had Ojukwu refused, he would have been removed and a leader that would secede installed.
Most people don't know this but modern Igbo identity as you correctly noted is very much a post-war creation. People bearing Igbo names and speaking obvious Igbo but denying that they're Igbo is just one of the symptoms (Outside of online spaces, most Igbos don't really think about them at all. Those that do just shake their head in confusion and move on.)
Sorry for the long write up but it's something that has been on my mind for a while.
I personally think that the standoff between Igbos and the rest of Nigeria is quite bad for minority groups because not only do they get ignored but they're used as pawns in the cold war. North or South, the story is the same - The ethnic groups that matter are Igbos, Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani. The rest barely merit a conversation.
Thank you. You truly understand. And again, I have no hatred for Hausa (I have never met one 😭), Yoruba (as that is my literal blood cousin) and Igbo (as apart from the sister Efik, Anaang, and Oron, they are the most similar to us) Ex: Onyeka vs Aniekan/Anyekan; Ada vs Adiaha; Ekpe/Ekpo masquerading; and even use of Nsibidi. I say focus now on our cultures, with a greater emphasis on the minority ones before it’s too late. But we can’t disregard the history. I don’t shy away from this conversation because people naturally don’t like to feel uncomfortable but: ITS TIME TO HAVE UNCOMFORTABLE conversations. Let us not debate objective facts. This trauma is generational and can be broken. We must preserve all we can digitally and in real life. Again, standardize our languages, translation services, more media with our mother tongue and dissembling the post-colonial mind/bias that still plagues us Naija people.