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<h3 class="gmail-mvp-post-cat gmail-left gmail-relative"><a class="gmail-mvp-post-cat-link" href="https://newtelegraphonline.com/category/arts/"><span class="gmail-mvp-post-cat gmail-left">Arts & Entertainments</span></a></h3>
<h1 class="gmail-mvp-post-title gmail-left entry-title">Babawale: Promotion of indigenous languages key for development</h1>
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<p>Published</p> <span class="gmail-mvp-post-date">14 hours ago</span> <p>on</p> <span class="gmail-mvp-post-date gmail-updated"><time class="gmail-post-date gmail-updated" datetime="2018-02-14">February 14, 2018</time></span>
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<p>By</p> <span class="gmail-author-name gmail-vcard gmail-fn gmail-author"><a href="https://newtelegraphonline.com/author/newtelegraphonlinegmail-com/" title="Posts by TONY OKUYEME reports" rel="author">TONY OKUYEME reports</a></span> <a href="https://newtelegraphonline.com/2018/02/babawale-promotion-indigenous-languages-key-development/" class="gmail-mvp-twit-but" target="_blank"><span class="gmail-mvp-author-info-twit-but"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-twitter gmail-fa-2"></i></span></a>
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<p><strong><em>The immediate past chief executive/director general of
the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), Prof.
Tunde Babawale, and currently an Electoral Commissioner at the Lagos
State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), in this interview,
explains the essence of cultural policy, indigenous language,
preservation and promotion of our rich cultural heritage among other
issues. TONY OKUYEME reports</em> </strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>There has been sustained discourse and calls for a National Cultural Policy. Why is this policy so important?<br>
There is no question about the fact that a policy is the key to the
development of any sector, be it cultural, social, economic or even
political. So, there is no way any government would succeed in a sector
that is not guided by policy. Policy is the signpost, the roadmap that
you require to be able to navigate through the sector and decide what
your activities would be. So, I am also shocked that for a very long
time we have been battling with this problem of cultural policy for
Nigeria.<br>
Of course, we have the 1988 one, and we also have the revised cultural
policy which I think even up until 2010 was still being revised. A lot
of work had been done on the 1988 document, workshops had been
organized. As I said, a new document has been produced, a copy of which I
have. What is left is for this document to be formally presented to the
public.</p><div class="gmail-1OIrUfHi" style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;margin:0px 0px 20px">
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<p>Why then has successive governments failed to implement it?<br>
Unfortunately, I am still at a loss as to why the Federal Ministry of
Information and Culture has not deemed it necessary to formally launch
the document. It seems as if we are working without a policy guide. And
that could also be partly responsible for the lull that we are
witnessing in the Arts and Culture sector in terms of what government
policy is on it. So, I want to appeal to the Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to as a matter of urgency get his team in
the Ministry to dust this document that is still in the archive of the
Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, and ensure that this
particular document is presented to the public. It is of essence that
this is done as urgently as possible.</p>
<p>As a nation, are we doing enough in terms of documentation, preservation and promotion of our rich cultural heritage?<br>
I am not sure that we are doing enough in terms of preserving and documenting our culture.</p>
<p>Why?<br>
There is a very high concentration on tourism by successive regimes.
That in itself is not, but it becomes bad when it is done at the expense
or at the detriment of the cultural components. You cannot have tourism
without the raw material, and that raw material is provided by culture.
This is where the documentation and the preservation of our cultural
heritage is very important. One of the ways by which this can be done,
in my view, is to have this policy, and also enunciate in it what the
specific agencies need to do in terms of how to preserve our cultural
heritage. For example, we have world heritage site in Adamawa State, we
have in Osun State. How much or what effort have we made as a people and
government to popularise, improve on these world heritage sites to
become a showcase of our own heritage and at the same time earn us
enough money. There is no doubt about it that if we promote our cultural
heritage it will reduce our dependence on oil, because as you know, oil
is exhaustible. Culture is sustainable; it cannot die. And the only way
by which our culture will not die is for us to preserve that culture.
One way by which we can do it is to incorporate elements of our culture
heritage in our school curriculum at the primary, the secondary and at
the tertiary levels of our educational system. Today, in my view, the
curriculum of our schools seems deficient in the area of content that
emphasises the preservation of our heritage. Don’t forget, heritage is
in two parts, the material and the non-material. By material we are
talking about the physical manifestations in terms of those historic
sites and monuments; whereas, the non-material refers to our music,
dance, mode of hair dressing, cuisine, and all of the other things that
make the non-material aspect of our culture. Now, how far have we gone
in teaching our children our languages? Language is the vehicle of
culture; without the promotion and preservation of your languages there
is no way you can preserve your culture. It is important to also stress
that on a daily basis, we promote culture in the way we interact with
people because it is also about your world view, about your custom,
tradition, morals. Your proverbs contain culture, your worldview is
about culture. That is why we talk about the cosmological aspect of
culture; we also talk about the ontological aspect of culture which is
philosophical in essence. And we also talk about the interaction between
people, which is the aetiological aspect of culture. So, my point of
view is that our school curriculum must be enriched or revised in such a
way that these elements of both the material and non-material aspect
will become a central part of that curriculum. Most importantly, the
teaching and learning of our languages at every level of our educational
system must become a norm in our country. That is a starting point.
Two, we must create programmes; and government, for example, must ensure
that specific days of the week are devoted to promoting the use of
indigenous languages, especially in the States Houses of Assembly, like
Lagos has done. We would have started on the road to promoting our
culture; we would also have started on the road to preventing the
extinction of our languages.<br>
So, I am saying that in neglecting our culture and our language we are
depriving our children of certain aspects of our existence that should
come naturally with them. And one of the reasons why many of them are
not performing well in the English language is the absence of that
environment where they can drink from the fountain of philosophy where
they could have vocabularies to express themselves. Every normal person
thinks first in his indigenous language before he translates into a
second language. This is why preserving, promoting our cultural heritage
is of utmost importance.</p>
<p>Stakeholders appear divided on the merger of the National Theatre
with National Troupe of Nigeria. What do you think is the best option
for the sector?<br>
I personally don’t think it is in the interest of the National Troupe to
have a merger with the National Theatre. Managing the National theatre,
in my view, is a technical matter which requires a technical person to
do. For instance, somebody who has a management or engineering
background can conveniently handle matters relating to National Theatre,
because it is just a structure that can be managed by those who have
the technical expertise.<br>
But the National Troupe requires a professional, a competent
professional to handle it. There is a possibility of distraction when
you merge the office of the manager of the National Theatre with that of
the National Troupe because the manager spends a lot of time
concentrating on those issues that have very little to do with the
promotion of culture or the arts. Those who decided to separate it in
the past had very valid reasons for doing so, and I think we need to
revisit it. This is not to say that in the culture sector there is no
need to do some restructuring of some of the agencies and parastatals.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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