THE STUDY OF NIGERIAN PEOPLE AND CULTURE: A FIGHT AGAINST CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

SUBMITTED BY:

ANTEVOSSO DANIEL

MATRIC NO: U14/MCM/2007

THE STUDY OF NIGERIAN PEOPLE AND CULTURE: A FIGHT AGAINST CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

          The Nigerian culture is fading away simply because everybody wants to be white’s equivalent.

          The Nigerian culture is as old as 2000 years and what makes it stand is its diversity. There are more than 250 languages spoken in Nigeria, but English is considered to be official language. However, it is noticeable that more than about 50% of the population are able to speak English. Every tribe has not its own languages which the prefer following as the standard mode for communication among themselves. But the worst part of it is that not everyone can speak their local dialect. Some of these are resulting from poor cultural background from parents or guardians to children. Some parents who think they are civilized dump their culture thereby resulting to a child growing up without knowing anything about his or her culture let alone speaking the dialect. Everybody wants to emulate the whites and be their equivalent by being ignorant of our own culture due to what we watch on televisions, read in books, music etc. in 100% of Nigerian girls, only 10% can portray what is Africa but the rest 90% are always with weave-on, fixing Brazilian hairs and all sort of thing that portrays foreignness.

          Our culture is being dominated and flushed by foreign cultures. If this continue this way, time shall come when nobody will care about traditional culture let alone practicalising it. Let’s learn to give a lot of value to our culture because it carries everything about us. Nigeria embellishes a rich blend of traditionally African carbohydrates such as yam, cassava as well as vegetable soup made from native green leaves praised by our forefather for the strength it gives, bush meats from wild game like antelope and giraffes are well known delicacy also popular fermented farm products are used to make traditional liquor, palm wine. Nigerian foods are spicy but since culture is said to be dynamic, many Nigerians do not like such native food as they prefer to copy foreign food, way of life and dressing. Most Nigerians   music are known to be “folk” and popular music known nationwide but nowadays we don’t emphasize anything cultural as our musicians are also emulating foreign musicians to rap and hip-hop. We are dropping our culture to white men’s culture we know about. Nigerian girls sometimes ago are knows to dressing decently but with modernity girls dress half naked emulating the foreign way of life.

          We are proud to be black because we are Africans, but these days how many ladies and gentlemen maintain their complexion? Everybody live a life like that of the white. Our respective cultures are gradually fading away. A Yoruba boy traditionally is supposed to prostrate for an elderly person as a sign of respect, but this is hardly seen this days because we are taking a white man’s way of life. Let’s live the best for Africa because we are in Africa and Africa is in us. The study of Nigerian people and culture is doing more than good because these are some of the weapons we can use to fight against foreign culture. Cultural display as it is done in respect of the study portrays everything about everybody’s culture, as it is also put students in a traditional and cultural atmosphere that everybody appears in his or people and culture in Nigerian universities is a tool for fighting against cultural imperialism as it keeps teaching students more about Nigerian culture, how it started and how it came to existence, and also the importance of culture from generation to generation.