Language Matters

Language Matters to Chimamanda Adichie

Chimamanda Adichie was the keynote speaker at the Igbo Conference in London in April. She spoke about culture and language. “Language matters,” she said. “Language is a conduit for culture.”

Igbo bu Igbo, the title of her talk, is her call for Igbo people to be united. She recounts the way different groups of Igbo people, in different regions, call themselves something special, like “Delta Igbo,” or “Rivers Igbo.” These are geographic or political differences, not cultural, she says. Culturally the Igbo people are one and should be united.

Yet “Igbo culture” is often invoked to silence women, she said. Today leaders among the Igbo may criticize women for dressing “inappropriately,” meaning skirts that are too short, and cleavage that is visible. When she explored pre-colonial Igbo culture, she found that women often wore mini-mini-skirts, really no skirts at all, just minimal coverage! And their breasts were exposed.

She learned that Igbo women in pre-colonial times owned property, had robust associations, and held political power. One custom she described from earlier times is “Sitting on a man,” which women did when a man misbehaved. The women would surround his home, dance, sing about his misbehavior, or beat on the walls of his hut with yam pestles. The colonial government outlawed practices, including this, that demonstrated the independence of women, citing culture.

The “culture” that colonial people referenced is the same as what Nigerian male leaders who are threatened by strong women talk about today – a product of Victorian Christianity, and not Igbo at all.

She had harsh words for Igbo parents who do not speak Igbo to their children. They are de-valuing their own culture, she said. She is speaking to her daughter, now age 2 1/2, only in Igbo, knowing that English surrounds her and she will easily pick it up.

Others are surprised when they hear her child speak Igbo. They often say, “a second language may confuse children. Then they promptly enroll their children in French class!”

She spent two years studying African history at Yale after she was already a recognized novelist. The more she learned from the archives about pre-colonial Igbo culture, she said, the more she realized that, “My feminism is in my cultural DNA.”

I hope you watch at least part of her talk! Don’t let the small Igbo phrases she throws in discourage you; you will still understand her.

Other Language Matters 

In a small town in Montana, a Border Patrol Agent stopped and questioned two women who buying milk and eggs. Their offense? Speaking Spanish!

Matthew Haag wrote about the incident in The New York Times a couple of days ago. One of the women pulled out her cellphone to record what happened.

She said they were being racially profiled. ” ‘It had nothing to do with that,’ the officer, who identified himself as Agent O’Neal, responded in the cellphone video. ‘It’s the fact that it has to do with you guys speaking Spanish in the store in a state where it’s predominantly English-speaking.’ ”

The authority of Border Patrol agents extends 100 miles from the borders of the U.S. So it includes the town Havre in Montana. Agents have a right, “to question individuals are based on a variety of factors,” the article said.

“But their reach is limited in one way: They cannot stop people solely because of their race or ethnicity. Jonathan H. Feinberg, a civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia, said that courts have found that a person’s language is prohibited in the same way.”

I guess that Agent didn’t remember his training, admitting freely that language was the reason for the stop. His action was shameful and he should be fired.

He was using language as a tool against people. What does he think? That only English is a real language? After he’s fired, he should be airlifted into the middle of the Amazon jungle!

Language Survival

Another New York Times article called “Madame Pele, Hawaii’s Goddess of Volcanoes,” caught my attention this week.

When I was just entering my teens, my mother’s younger brother, Uncle Herman, lived in Hawaii with his  family. He was an urban planner. For my birthday he sent me a book about Pele. I loved reading the wonderful stories about the goddess.

Simon Romero, author of the article, describes the attitude of most people of Hawaii. Although Pele is being destructive right now, she is respected, even revered. He says, “in a striking display of the resilience and adaptability of Native Hawaiian culture, the exaltation of Pele has not only persisted through the centuries, but seems to be strengthening with every bone-rattling eruption of Hawaii’s volcanoes.”

Our government tried to obliterate the Hawaiian language in the 19th century. Today as a writer in an international conservation blog says, there is renewed interest.

He speaks of the connection between nature, care of the land and sea, and language. Because of the importance of understanding these connections, he says, “I choose to speak only in Hawaiian to my 18-month-old son. When he eventually goes to school, I know he’ll learn all about science and other modern tools; however, teaching him his ancestral language will set a foundation for him that will inform his view of the world.” I wonder if Chimamanda knows about him.

Race and Racism

Though I promised it now, I’ll discuss race and racism next time, after talking to my daughter and her family this weekend.