We Ibos Are Simply The Best!

by Ngozi
(London, England)

I did not begin to appreciate my igboness until I was about 25yrs old having grown up in Lagos and London respectively and having only Yoruba friends.

My father to his credit made sure we spent chrismas in the East. Whilst I understand and speak the language, I am not fluent enough to crack jokes as I learnt the language at age 5 during the brief period before the war before we were flown out to London.

I am worried that we will lose our rich culture because too many Igbo men are marrying non-igbos especially amongst the elite. This means that currently there are a lot of children who are adopting their mothers cultures - efik, calabar, yoruba and their mums keep them away.

These igbo fathers are negligent and seem powerless to impart their language and culture to their children.

The other category are those who feel that they need to speak to their children in English and that this makes them sophisticated so another generation is growing up unable to the the igbo language despite having two igbo speaking parents to speak the language.

We must make an effort to preserve our culture and language, any suggestions?